Bristol Photo Festival has announced the theme of this year’s festival programme, ‘The World A Wave’. In its second edition, the international biennial will open 16th October 2024. The programme features a range of exhibitions across the city’s major art institutions, plus talks, screenings and more.

Exhibitions are free to enter and include works by international photographers and artists including, Andrew Jackson, Jay Lau, Kirsty Mackay, Trent Parke, Bania Ribeira and many more.

From Bristol Photo Festival: ‘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.

Kirsty Mackay, from the series 'The Magic Money Tree'. © Kirsty Mackay
Kirsty Mackay, from the series ‘The Magic Money Tree’. © Kirsty Mackay

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 collective practice Ritual Inhabitual; 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 full programme for Bristol Photo Festival can be found here.

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Featured image: Trent Parke, from the series ‘Monument’. © Trent Parke

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