COMMISSIONS
Bristol Photo Festival is committed to develop an ongoing commissioning programme for international and local artists to produce new work about relevant topics for the city of Bristol and beyond . These commission will result in publications, exhibitions and public installations. For this inaugural edition the projects commissioned are:

Growing Spaces by Chris Hoare
‘Growing Spaces’ is a study of urban land cultivation in Bristol, seen through the experiences of the cities’ diverse inhabitants. It is an on-going work, unfolding at a time when land is in demand and there is an almost unquenchable thirst for people to have a green space to call their own. Allotments have been around since the 1800’s, but are currently going through a renaissance, particularly in Bristol where many allotments have twice as many people on the waiting lists as they do plots. With such a demand and accessibility becoming a problem, many are commandeering and rejuvenating dead urban space for the benefit of themselves and the surrounding community, for the value it’ often only fully realised through the process of growing.
Working in a slow and methodical way during the coming seasonal changes, Bristol born photographer, Chris Hoare, aims to represent these themes to show the nuances and inherent beauty that draws people in to these routines of growing.
The work will be published this Spring by our partners RRB Photobooks.

BLUEPRINT : Housing & Wellbeing by Jessie Edwards-Thomas
In collaboration with the Arnolfini and supported by Golden Key, Bristol Photo Festival offered a commission opportunity for a Bristol-based artist, or artist collective, to work together on a short project that uses photography to explore ideas around housing and wellbeing.
Jessie uses her relationship between the photographer and the sitter to investigate the individual’s need for belonging within the construct of society. Her practice utilises the what-ifs of fiction and imagination to explore said themes of power, symbols, societal structures and connection through storytelling.

We Are Still Here
“We Are Still Here: Stories from the HIV and AIDs Community” seeks to explore how visual representations of living spaces offer an insight into the lived experiences and mental wellbeing of people in the HIV/Aids community in the UK.
The project is a collaboration between Dr Adrian Flint (University of Bristol, SPAIS), Mareike Günsche (Photographer at Aspectus and State University of Arts in Ulan Bator, Mongolia) and Martin Burns (Writer, HIV/AIDS activist and equality advocate).
This commission has been produced in collaboration with the Brigstow Institute (University of Bristol).

Bringing the War Home II
“Bringing the War Home II” will seek to expand the current understandings of war, and what makes war possible through a perspective from home. Bringing the War Home II involves, Dr Elspeth Van Veeren (University of Bristol, SPAIS), Dr Miriam Snellgrove (Stirling University), Edmund Clark (Photographer, University of Arts London), and Olu Osinoiki (Photographer at Olumedia).
This commission has been produced in collaboration with the Brigstow Institute (University of Bristol).