Creative Committee Announcement

The aim of this Creative Committee is to work collaboratively with the festival team, city venues and community partners towards the second edition which will take place between 2022/2023. Bristol Photo Festival is committed to new and collaborative long-term approaches to curation, production and engagement, and we believe that each of the selected members will be a great contribution to make a festival programme that is relevant for the Bristol and international audiences. 

It is our desire to have a diverse and innovative committee with a wide breadth of experience, age and representation. We have taken time as a team to go over each applicant individually but now we are very excited to introduce the selected new committee members.

Sarah Allen is Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern where she curates exhibitions & displays and researches acquisitions for the collection. She has recently co-curated the major touring survey Zanele Muholi (2020) as well as curating exhibitions and displays from the permanent collection including Nan Goldin (2019), Irving Penn (2019) and David Goldblatt (2019). Further exhibitions include The Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art (2018); Sophie Taeuber-Arp (forthcoming, 2021) & The Turbine Hall Commission (forthcoming, 2022).
Born in the north and raised in the south of england, mikael techane is an ethiopian-jamaican filmmaker and photographer based in Bristol. Inspired by the crossroads of identity, environment, heritage and culture, mikael works to champion the untold stories of those around him. Embodying a holistic approach to conveying the energy of a subject, empowerment and authenticity are driving forces within his process.
Marina Paulenka is an artist, curator, art consultant, and educator in photography. She was Artistic Director of UNSEEN Foundation and UNSEEN, an Amsterdam based platform for contemporary photography that presents the latest developments in the field of photography and amplifies the careers of boundary-pushing artists.  Prior to her role at Unseen, she worked as a curator and Artistic Director of the Organ Vida International Photography Festival and the non-for- profit Organ Vida Photography Organization, the leading institution for contemporary photography in Croatia. Currently she is involved in FUTURES, an international photography platform and she is the guest curator for FORMAT21 International Photography Festival. Paulenka is the recipient of the Lucie Awards 2018 for best curator/exhibition of the year for the exhibition “Engaged, Active, Aware: Women Perspectives Now”. © Denis Butorac
Natasha Christia is an unaffiliated curator, writer and educator based in Barcelona. She holds a BA in Archaeology and History of Art from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, an MA in Modern Art and Film from the University of Essex, and a Postgraduate Diploma on Publishing from the University of Barcelona. Her research focuses on the exploration and reinvention of dominant narratives through a novel reading of archival collections, the intersection of photography, film and the photobook, and the dialogue between 20th century avant-garde photography and contemporary forms of expression often labelled as post-photography. Christia was the artistic director of the fourth edition of DocField Documentary Photography Festival 2016, which was launched under the theme “Europe: Lost in Translation”. She regularly contributes essays on photography criticism for international publications and for artists. In 2019 she coedited with Lukas Birk (Fraglich Publishing) Gülistan (winner of the PHotoEspaña Best Photobook Award 2019, International Category).
Amak’s work questions notions of identity and home, bridging a space between personal and political. Her practice explores the effects of exile and distance on identity, memory, dreams and daily life. Amak completed her PhD at the University of South Wales. She is a senior lecturer at the University of West of England. Working with images, poems and archives, Amak looks for the lyrical realities in the photographs. She exhibits her work internationally and has won numerous awards.
Alejandro Acin is an artist, designer and educator based in the United Kingdom. After working for more than four years in an archival institution, he uses his personal practice to investigate contemporary uses of visual archives. His work has been exhibited in the UK, Italy, Spain and Colombia. Acín is also founder director of IC Visual Lab, an artist-led organization based in Bristol (UK) that produces and supports contemporary photography across audiences. He is currently associated lecturer in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales and Engagement & Education Director at Bristol Photo Festival.
Tracy Marshall is an Arts Director & Producer specialising in the production of photography exhibitions, festivals, education projects and workshops. She is Director of Northern Narratives- the non-venue-based photography production company- and previously was Development Director at Open Eye Gallery and directed their biannual LOOK Photo festival and Belfast Exposed Gallery. Tracy has previously been Director of Development for a number of international Arts organisations covering the development of work for classical music, visual arts and literature. Prior to this she had also been a Director of Campaigns for health, social welfare and education charities across UK & Ireland.
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