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Job Opportunity: Venue Coordinator

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Bristol Photo Festival is offering 4 paid positions to help us run some of the exhibition venues across the city. Please find the application with all the details below.

Application Pack: Venue Coordinator

Bristol Photo Festival is an international biennial of contemporary photography, shaped by the movements of the city. The second edition, entitled The World a Wave, will open in Autumn 2024:

–          Opening week: Wednesday 16th October – Sunday 20th October. The opening week will include late openings, talks and other events.

–          Full exhibition programme: Wednesday 16th October – Sunday 17th November. While venue opening days and times vary, all exhibitions will be open for one month, Thursday – Sunday, 12-5pm. Some exhibitions at major venues will stay open across the week, while also continuing until the new year.

The festival programme focuses upon a world in constant motion; where the social, political and environmental conditions of shared life are always changing and becoming otherwise. Exhibiting artists include: Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, Ariella Azoulay, Ritual Inhabitual, Andrew Jackson, Rinko Kawauchi, Billy H.C Kwok, Jay Lau, Kirsty Mackay, Amak Mahmoodian, Trent Parke, Nigel Poor, Sarker Protick, Bandia Ribeira, Hashem Shakeri, Herbert Shergold and Inuuteq Storch.

Venues include: Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Georgian House Museum, M Shed, Martin Parr Foundation, Royal Photographic Society, IC Visual Lab, 17 Midland Road, Bricks St. Anne’s House, The Laundrette, Centrespace & St Paul’s Crypt, with others still to be confirmed.

About the Role

We are looking to appoint 4 x Venue Coordinators. As a Venue Coordinator you will play an essential role, supporting the daily operations of our festival venues. A typical day could include the following:

  • Opening a festival venue in the morning, including unlocking the doors, turning on the lights and making sure the exhibition is ready for the public.
  • Welcoming volunteers who will be supporting the invigilation of the exhibition.
  • Welcoming members of the public to the exhibition, providing them with information on the artist.
  • Creating social media posts about the exhibition, to be shared by the festival team.
  • Taking donations using the festival’s digital payment system.
  • Recording visitor numbers to be sent to the wider festival team.
  • Supporting visitors to complete evaluation and feedback forms.

About You

We’re looking for enthusiastic, well-organised and sociable individuals to join our team. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t worked for a festival before, we’re interested in hearing how your experience will help you to fulfil the role. We are particularly looking for the following skills and experience:

  • Reliable and well-organised, including an ability to work independently.
  • Excellent communication skills and an ability to talk to any member of the public.
  • An ability to problem-solve and find solutions to everyday work problems.
  • A keen interest in photography, visual culture and contemporary social issues.

If you believe that you are the right person for this role, we want to hear from you.

Job Details

The job is a fixed-term contract for the duration of the festival which is from Wednesday 16th October – Sunday 17th November. You will be scheduled to work 4 x days a week (Thursday-Sunday), from 11.45am – 17.15pm. You will be paid £11.44 an hour, with an estimated 26 hours a week.

  • Salary: £11.44 per hour
  • Contract: fixed term (16th October – 17th November)
  • Location: venues across Bristol

How to Apply

Please send a cover letter and CV to info@bristolphotofestival.org Subject: VENUE COORDINATOR 

Please use the cover letter to outline how your experience to date enables you to meet the 4 bullet points listed under ‘About You’ above. The cover letter should be no more than one side of A4 in length  and the CV should be no more than 2 sides (both at size 12 font).

The deadline for applications is Tuesday 17th September at 5pm.

Interview Process

Interviews will take place on Wednesday 25th September. Each interview will be approximately 30 minutes in length. Further details will be sent to all interviewees beforehand. 

Volunteer with Us

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Volunteer with Bristol Photo Festival 2024 – The World A Wave

Get ready for the second edition of Bristol Photo Festival, taking place across the city this autumn. The festival will take place from 16th October  – 17th November, including a wide array of exhibitions and live events. 

We’re looking for enthusiastic and sociable volunteers to join our team. As a volunteer you’ll play an essential role, invigilating exhibitions, welcoming visitors and sharing your knowledge of the programme. You will be right in the middle of the action, helping to make the festival an unforgettable experience.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never volunteered at a cultural festival before – we welcome everyone with a willingness to get involved. Each shift will be 4-6 hours in length. The minimum volunteering commitment will be 4 shifts across the festival.

In return for your time and support, we’ll offer you discounts on festival activities as well as an invitation to participate in the volunteer meet-up and some of our social events.

We understand you might have questions before you commit. Feel free to email us at engagement@bristolphotofestival.org with any inquiries. Otherwise, please fill out this form to register your interest and availability. Once you do, we’ll get in touch to arrange a volunteering schedule and discuss further details about your role.

APPLY HERE

Education

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We will deliver a programme of creative and career development workshops, led by artists from across the festival period.
Full details will be announced in mid August 2026. 

2024 programme

A workshop with Magnum Photographer, Trent Parke

Our partners, the Martin Parr Foundation are holding a two day practical workshop of shooting, editing and sequencing with Magnum photographer Trent Parke, who will share how he uses photography as a tool for communicating stories and narratives. The workshop will also include a short portfolio review, and Trent will be assisted by Martin Parr, who will help deliver the workshop across the two days.

MORE INFORMATION HERE

Bristol Photo Festival Announces its 2024 Autumn Programme 

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‘The World A Wave’ is the theme for the second edition of Bristol Photo Festival, the international biennial of contemporary photography, which will open in autumn 2024 (the opening week is 16 – 20 October 2024). The Festival programme focuses upon a world in constant motion; where the social, political and environmental conditions of shared life are always changing and becoming otherwise. Drawing on the success of its first edition in 2021 which drew over 200,000 visitors, the dynamic festival, internationally focused but locally grounded, delivers long-term engagement and education programmes engaging with culturally underserved communities and places. Exhibitions are held in the city’s major visual arts institutions alongside independent and unconventional spaces, all accompanied by a wide events programme engaging with multiple aspects of the city of Bristol. All exhibitions are free with donations welcome.

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For 2024, Bristol Photo Festival will exhibit works by photographers including Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah (German-Ghanaian, based in Switzerland); Ariella Azoulay (Israel); Andrew Jackson (British- Canadian); Rinko Kawauchi (Japan); Billy H.C Kwok (Hong Kong); Jay Lau (Hong Kong); Kirsty Mackay (Scotland, based in Bristol); Amak Mahmoodian (Iran, based in Bristol); Trent Parke (Australia); Nigel Poor (USA); Sarker Protick (Bangladesh); Bandia Ribeira (Spain); Hashem Shakeri (Iran); Herbert Shergold (Bristol); Inuuteq Storch (Greenland); Lau Wai (Hong Kong); the shared artistic practice Ritual Inhabitual (comprising Tito Gonzalez Garcia (France) and Florencia Grisanti (Chile)) and the group exhibition Dreamlines: Picturing Bristol’s High Streets.

Bristol Photo Festival also produces a long term education and engagement programme alongside the exhibitions. For this year the Festival is developing a project with local residents and port workers from Avonmouth to create a community archive, alongside a programme of creative activities, including talks, walks, screenings and an exhibition. With Prison Education, the festival will present The Prison Mobile Library, an educational photography project across three sites in the South West of England. The opening week of the festival (16-20 October 2024) includes artists’ talks, a book fair, tours, and parties.  Additionally, the festival collaborates with the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England to co-produce two symposiums exploring ideas related to this year’s theme, ‘The World A Wave’.

“Photography is a unique creative medium to experience the world anew. In a time of multiple crises, we need to think of images more than ever. I want the festival to be a space full of nuanced and unexpected stories that foster greater understanding of our shared world. Bristol Photo Festival’s quality and ambition is possible thanks to the great collaboration we have established with the main cultural institutions in the city and the support of funders and sponsors.” Alejandro Acin, Bristol Photo Festival director. 

The second edition of Bristol Photo Festival —The World A Wave—will open in autumn 2024. Exhibitions will be held in the city’s major visual arts institutions alongside independent and unconventional spaces accompanied by a wide events programme.

The exhibition programme focuses on the personal stories of those confronting societal changes whilst navigating daily life. Confirmed artists include Akosua Viktoria Adu Sanyah, Kirsty Mackay, Amak Mahmoodian, Trent Parke, Sarker Protick and Hashem Shakeri. Each artist addresses a world in constant motion where social, political and environmental conditions are ever-evolving.

Describing the programme, festival director Alejandro Acin added: “I believe in photography as a tool to experience the world anew. In a time of multiple crises, we need photography more than ever. I want the festival to be a space full of nuanced and unexpected stories that foster greater understanding of our shared world.”

The festival has an international focus but is grounded in the city of Bristol. For this edition, alongside the exhibition programme, the festival is collaborating with local residents and port workers from Avonmouth to create a community archive, accompanied by a programme of creative activities. The festival, in collaboration with Prison Education, will present The Prison Mobile Library, an educational photography project across three sites in the South West of England.

The festival opening week will take place between Wednesday 16th – Sunday 20th October. The opening week will include reception events and artist talks across the city. Following this, all exhibitions will remain open for a duration of 1-3 months. The full lineup of exhibiting artists will be released in July 2024. 

Participating artists

Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah

Georgian House Museum residency

Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanya— known for her work examining the relationship between photography and memory, particularly in relation to her own family history— will be in residence at the Georgian House Museum, creating a new body of work relating to the building’s colonial history.

Kirsty Mackay

The Magic Money Tree

Bristol-based photographer Kirsty Mackay has worked collaboratively with groups and individuals from across England to explore the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and what poverty looks like in the world’s 6th richest economy.

Amak Mahmoodian

120 minutes

17 Midland Road

Premiering as part of the festival — in collaboration with Multistory — Bristol-based artist Amak Mahmoodian’s new project uses images, poems, archives and video to explore the dreams experienced by those in exile. The work was produced collaboratively with communities of refugees and asylum seekers across the UK.

Trent Parke

Monument

Martin Parr Foundation

This dystopian project, to be exhibited outside Australia for the first time, extends the metaphor of the moth drawn to a flame to city life and beyond. Photographs taken throughout Parke’s career are edited to create a vision of humanity engrossed by and drawn to an inescapable light.

Sarker Protick

Bangladeshi artist Sarkar Protick has been commissioned by the festival to produce his first solo exhibition in the UK. Bringing together multiple bodies of his work incorporating photography, video and sound, the exhibition will draw upon the history of and contemplate the ever-evolving story of Bangladesh.

Hashem Shakeri

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Iranian visual artist Shakeri has been documenting daily life in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of British and American military forces and the consequent arrival to power of the Taliban. This work will be shown in the UK for the first time as part of the festival and accompanied by an engagement programme in collaboration with the Afghan community in Bristol.

Notes for Editors

Bristol Photo Festival is an international biennial of contemporary photography. The first edition in 2021 drew 200,000 visitors, with 18 exhibitions staged across the city’s museums, galleries and independent spaces.

As an organisation, we believe in the power of photography as a tool to experience the world anew. Our mission is to present nuanced and unexpected stories that foster greater understanding of shared pasts, presents and futures. Our work is internationally-focussed yet locally grounded, built from the urgencies of our city and its inhabitants. As a platform, we support artists to experiment, creating work that breaks with convention, exploring the  possibilities of photography as a political tool today.

Second Edition Announcement

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Bristol Photo Festival 2nd edition – The World A Wave – first press release

The second edition of Bristol Photo Festival —The World A Wave—will open in autumn 2024. Exhibitions will be held in the city’s major visual arts institutions alongside independent and unconventional spaces accompanied by a wide events programme.

The exhibition programme focuses on the personal stories of those confronting societal changes whilst navigating daily life. Confirmed artists include Akosua Viktoria Adu Sanyah, Kirsty Mackay, Amak Mahmoodian, Trent Parke, Sarker Protick and Hashem Shakeri. Each artist addresses a world in constant motion where social, political and environmental conditions are ever-evolving.

Describing the programme, festival director Alejandro Acin added: “I believe in photography as a tool to experience the world anew. In a time of multiple crises, we need photography more than ever. I want the festival to be a space full of nuanced and unexpected stories that foster greater understanding of our shared world.”

The festival has an international focus but is grounded in the city of Bristol. For this edition, alongside the exhibition programme, the festival is collaborating with local residents and port workers from Avonmouth to create a community archive, accompanied by a programme of creative activities. The festival, in collaboration with Prison Education, will present The Prison Mobile Library, an educational photography project across three sites in the South West of England.

The festival opening week will take place between Wednesday 16th – Sunday 20th October. The opening week will include reception events and artist talks across the city. Following this, all exhibitions will remain open for a duration of 1-3 months. The full lineup of exhibiting artists will be released in July 2024. 

Participating artists

Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah

Georgian House Museum residency

Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanya— known for her work examining the relationship between photography and memory, particularly in relation to her own family history— will be in residence at the Georgian House Museum, creating a new body of work relating to the building’s colonial history.

Kirsty Mackay

The Magic Money Tree

Bristol-based photographer Kirsty Mackay has worked collaboratively with groups and individuals from across England to explore the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and what poverty looks like in the world’s 6th richest economy.

Amak Mahmoodian

120 minutes

17 Midland Road

Premiering as part of the festival — in collaboration with Multistory — Bristol-based artist Amak Mahmoodian’s new project uses images, poems, archives and video to explore the dreams experienced by those in exile. The work was produced collaboratively with communities of refugees and asylum seekers across the UK.

Trent Parke

Monument

Martin Parr Foundation

This dystopian project, to be exhibited outside Australia for the first time, extends the metaphor of the moth drawn to a flame to city life and beyond. Photographs taken throughout Parke’s career are edited to create a vision of humanity engrossed by and drawn to an inescapable light.

Sarker Protick

Bangladeshi artist Sarkar Protick has been commissioned by the festival to produce his first solo exhibition in the UK. Bringing together multiple bodies of his work incorporating photography, video and sound, the exhibition will draw upon the history of and contemplate the ever-evolving story of Bangladesh.

Hashem Shakeri

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Iranian visual artist Shakeri has been documenting daily life in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of British and American military forces and the consequent arrival to power of the Taliban. This work will be shown in the UK for the first time as part of the festival and accompanied by an engagement programme in collaboration with the Afghan community in Bristol.

Notes for Editors

Bristol Photo Festival is an international biennial of contemporary photography. The first edition in 2021 drew 200,000 visitors, with 18 exhibitions staged across the city’s museums, galleries and independent spaces.

As an organisation, we believe in the power of photography as a tool to experience the world anew. Our mission is to present nuanced and unexpected stories that foster greater understanding of shared pasts, presents and futures. Our work is internationally-focussed yet locally grounded, built from the urgencies of our city and its inhabitants. As a platform, we support artists to experiment, creating work that breaks with convention, exploring the  possibilities of photography as a political tool today.

BOP Bookfair

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BOP – Books on Photography – is the annual photobook festival from Martin Parr Foundation, this year in collaboration with Bristol Photo Festival. The festival brings together a wide-ranging group of photobook publishers, artist talks, exhibitions, book signings, events, street food, coffee and beer.

Entry to the festival is FREE, artist talks will be ticketed at £6 each or £4 for members and students. Booking for the BOP 26 programme of artist talks is now live.

And link to tickets here – https://bopbristol.org/talks

The bookfair is produced in collaboration with:

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The Prison Mobile Library

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Supporting incarcerated people to develop and publish first-person stories, using photography and creative writing. 

While every prison contains a library, how many of the books have been written by authors with direct experience of incarceration? What would it mean to create a library of books created by those imprisoned, speaking directly to those facing the same challenges? 

The Prison Mobile Library is a collaboration between IC Visual Lab, Bristol Photo Festival and Weston College. Through a series of workshops, we are inviting imprisoned individuals across three prisons (HMP Bristol, Dartmoor & Exeter) to create new stories, using photography and creative writing. The results will be published, available from participating prison libraries, and displayed as part of the festival (details to be announced Summer 2024).

This project is supported by:

All That Flows Comes To Rest

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Exploring the past, present and future of Avonmouth, Bristol’s industrial port community. 

The village of Avonmouth lies where the river Avon meets the Severn Estuary. It has thus served as a historic entrance to the city of Bristol, a place through which all ships passed on their way to the centre of the city. The port of Avonmouth grew rapidly in the early 20th century, a place where larger ships could unload, avoiding the sometimes treacherous journey up the river Avon to central Bristol. At its height, the port of Avonmouth supported approximately 5000 jobs, however the invention of container ships led to a rapid decline in the number of dockworkers required. 

Today, the port is a successful operation, receiving goods from across the world. However, few residents of Bristol travel to Avonmouth, seeing it solely as a site of industrial work. This belies the fact that Avonmouth is a place that many call home; an intergenerational and multicultural community that contains myriad stories that speak to the changing nature of place, labour and globalisation. 

In collaboration with Avonmouth Community Centre and the Bristol Port Company, we are building a resident-led community archive, collecting materials that speak to the contemporary history of Avonmouth. We will also be organising a series of micro-commissions, supporting artists to work with local residents, telling the story of Avonmouth today. 

For the festival, we will organise a weekend of events, sharing the outcomes of our work in Avonmouth. Details will be announced Summer 2024. 

The title All That Flows Comes To Rest is inspired by the work of artist Allan Sekula, creator of The Dockers’ Museum, a vast collection of artefacts that form an image of the world from the perspective of maritime labourer; the one who is always standing on the threshold between land and sea.

This project is supported by:

Project in collaboration with:

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Project supported by:

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School of Movements

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Collaborative storytelling with newly arrived communities. 

The School of Movements is a pilot project led by Bristol Photo Festival & IC Visual Lab in collaboration with Bridges for Communities, a local organisation connecting people of different cultures and faiths, with a focus on those who are newly arrived in the city. Together we will establish a participatory photography programme that explores themes of movement, place and belonging. This will include workshops led by both artists and festival staff, alongside trips across the city. This programme will take place throughout the festival, with outcomes made visible as and when it feels right to begin sharing the work.

Project in collaboration with:

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Project supported by:

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