Various venues

16 to
20 October 2024

The opening week is packed with preview nights, artist talks and one-time-only music collaborations. All are welcome and most events are free.

Use our suggested routes and the Festival Map to navigate the festival easily. Print versions of the map are available at participating venues.

The majority of exhibitions will open on Wednesday 16th October. However some are staggered, opening later in the week. These include: Martin Parr Foundation, Royal Photographic Society, Arnolfini, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and The Georgian House Museum. Check each venue to avoid disappointment.

7pm – 9pm
Old Market Opening Night: Amak Mahmoodian and Ariella Aïsha Azoulay

Venues:
IC Visual Lab – 6 West Street, Bristol, BS2 0BH
17 Midland Road – Bristol, BS2 0JT

Free entry, donations welcome. 

Join us to celebrate the opening of two exhibitions: One Hundred and Twenty Minutes by Amak Mahmoodian (17 Midland Road), which examines the experience of dreaming for those living in exile. And Unshowable Photographs by Ariella Azoulay (IC Visual Lab), which explores how official archives have shaped history by limiting visibility of the Palestinian nakba (1947-1950). 

The two exhibition venues are situated a one-minute walk apart and we encourage you to attend both. Following the openings, please join us for an afterparty at Old Market Assembly (9pm-11pm).

9pm – 11pm
Old Market Opening Night: Music afterparty with Noods Radio and Radio Alhara

Venue: Old Market Assembly (25 West St, Bristol BS2 0DF).
Free entry, donations welcome. 

After the exhibition openings, join us at Old Market Assembly for a musical line-up organised in collaboration with Noods Radio (Bristol) and Radio Alhara (Bethlehem), featuring DJ sets by i-sha and Nahda. 

i-sha is a Bristol-based DJ, resident at Noods Radio and one of the organisers behind the party and imprint Accidental Meetings. In recent years she has honed a unique style that combines brooding dub soundscapes with moments of frenetic energy.

Nahda is a Bristol-based DJ and resident at Noods Radio who draws together sounds from across the MENA region.

Join us to celebrate the opening of exhibitions in the South East of the city. These will include: 

5pm – 7pm
Bricks St. Anne’s House Opening Night: Kirsty Mackay and Bandia Ribeira

Venue: Bricks St. Anne’s House – St Anne’s Rd, Brislington, Bristol, BS4 4AB

There will be two exhibitions on display at Bricks St. Anne’s House. Firstly, The Magic Money Tree by Kirsty Mackay, a project that traverses the UK documenting the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the realities of poverty in the world’s sixth largest economy. Secondly, Not a Home Without Fire by Bandia Ribeira, which documents the lives of agricultural workers in the ‘Sea of Plastic’, a vast network of greenhouses in Almeria, Spain, that produce out-of-season vegetables to be exported across Northern Europe. 

6.30pm – 8.30pm
Paintworks Opening Night: Trent Parke and Realms of Memory

Venues:
Martin Parr Foundation, Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR
Royal Photographic Society, Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR

Join us for two exhibition openings. Firstly, Monument by Trent Parke (Martin Parr Foundation) – an elegy to time, to the late light of Sydney streets, the movement of people and the circling of moths as night falls. And secondly, Realms of Memory by Billy H.C. Kwok, Jay Lau & Lau Wai (Royal Photographic Society), which examines the stories of Hong Kong that are often found in photographic archives, while uncovering the gaps that exist.

Thursday Shuttle Bus Information

We will be running a free bus service from Bricks St. Anne’s House to Paintworks, enabling you to attend both openings. Buses will leave Bricks St. Anne’s House at 6.45pm & 7.15pm. Spaces for the bus can be booked here.

10am – 5pm
The World a Wave: Festival Symposium

Venue: Watershed. 1 Canon’s Rd, Bristol BS1 5TX
Tickets: £25 (concessions available). 

The festival symposium will bring together many of the artists exhibiting across the festival for a day of lively discussion. Each artist will appear in-conversation with an invited guest, unpacking the ideas behind their exhibition. The symposium is a unique opportunity to hear leading voices from across the photographic world, all together in the same room for the first time. Throughout the day there will be opportunities for audience questions and informal conversation. 

5.30pm – 7.30pm
St. Paul’s Crypt Opening Night: Sarker Protick

Venue:
The Crypt, St. Paul’s Church, 2 Southville Rd, Bristol BS3 1AS
Free entry, donations welcome. 

Join us to celebrate the opening of Spaces of Separation by Sarker Protick – a long term study of the colonial architectural remains found across Bangladesh and West Bengal.

The two exhibition venues are situated a ten-minute walk apart and we encourage you to attend both. While you can visit the exhibitions in any order, we encourage you to begin at St Paul’s Crypt, before finishing at Arnolfini where events will continue into the evening. 

6pm8pm
Arnolfini Gallery Opening Night: Rinko Kawauchi

Venue:
Arnolfini Gallery, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA
Free entry, donations welcome. 

Join us to celebrate the opening of At the edge of the everyday world by Rinko Kawauchi (Arnolfini), a meditation of the fragility of our life on this planet we collectively call home. 

The two exhibition venues are situated a ten-minute walk apart and we encourage you to attend both. While you can visit the exhibitions in any order, we encourage you to begin at St Paul’s Crypt, before finishing at Arnolfini where events will continue into the evening.. 

8pm – 11pm
Rinko Kawauchi Live Soundtrack, featuring Time is Away, Tara Clerkin Trio & Memotone

Venue: Arnolfini Gallery. Arnolfini Gallery, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA
Tickets £12 (concessions available). 

Following the opening of Rinko Kawauchi’s At the edge of the everyday world, please join us in Arnolfini’s auditorium where a selected group of musicians and sound artists will be performing live responses to her moving image works.

10am – 5pm
BOP Bookfair

Venues:
Paintworks Event Space. The Airstream Main Courtyards, Paintworks, Bristol BS4 3EH
Martin Parr Foundation, Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR
Royal Photographic Society, Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR

BOP – Books on Photography – is the annual photobook festival from Martin Parr Foundation and The Royal Photographic Society, 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.

4pm – 6pm
The Laundrette Opening Event: Herbert Shergold

Venue: The Laundrette, 145 Cheltenham Road, Bristol, BS6 5RR
Free entry, donations welcome. 

Join us to celebrate the opening of two exhibitions: Now Keep Quite Still by Herbert Shergold (The Laundrette, curated by Hedy van Erp). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Shergold operated a commercial photography studio in Bristol, often portraying local residents as Hollywood stars.

6pm – 8pm
Centrespace Gallery Opening Event: Inuuteq Storch

Venue: Centrespace Gallery, 6 Leonard Ln, Bristol BS1 1EA
Free entry, donations welcome. 

Porcelain Souls & Keepers of the Ocean by Inuuteq Storch, which presents a living, breathing portrait of his community and family in Greenland.

The two exhibition venues are situated a twenty minute walk apart from one another (4 minutes by bike, 12 minutes by bus). We encourage you to attend both openings and will be leading a walking group between the venues (leaving The Laundrette at 17.45pm). 

10am – 5pm
BOP Bookfair

Venues:
Paintworks Event Space. The Airstream Main Courtyards, Paintworks, Bristol BS4 3EH
Martin Parr Foundation, Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR
Royal Photographic Society, Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR

BOP – Books on Photography – is the annual photobook festival from Martin Parr Foundation and The Royal Photographic Society, 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.

10am – 12pm
Albion Dockside Exhibition Opening & Sunday Breakfast: Ritual Inhabitual & Andrew Jackson

Venue: 15 Albion Dockside.
Free entry, donations welcome. 

Join us to celebrate the opening of two exhibitions: Oro Verde by Ritual Inhabitual, which examines the relationship between drug cartels and avocado farming in rural Mexico; alongside the story of a local Purépechan community who rose up to reclaim their community from the cartels. And Across the Sea is a Shore by Andrew Jackson; a reflection on the intergenerational experience of Britain’s Caribbean diaspora. The opening will also include breakfast and coffee for all who attend. 

1pm – 2.30pm
Bristol Museum Opening Afternoon: Hashem Shakeri

Venue: Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Queens Rd, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1RL

Join us to celebrate the opening of Staring into the Abyss by Hashem Shakeri (Bristol Museum & Art Gallery), which documents daily life in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power. The opening will include a tour led by the festival team.

2.30pm – 4pm
The Georgian House Museum Opening Afternoon: Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah

Venue: The Georgian House Museum, 7 Great George St, Bristol BS1 5RR
Free entry, donations welcome.

After the museum, please walk over to Georgian House Museum for a tour of The House is a Body by Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, a newly commissioned body of work that responds to the histories of the house.

The two venues are a 5 minute walk apart. We encourage you to attend both openings.