Now in its seventh edition, Photo North Festival has become a festival defined less by scale than by care. Rooted in storytelling, collaboration and social engagement, it offers a space where photography and visitors can meet on equal terms. Co-founder Peter Dench explains…
Authenticity and community
I often hear photography festivals talk about community. Co-founder Sharon Price and I have tried to make it feel like one the moment you walk through the door. The first person you’ll meet is Amanda Lay, our front desk guru and unofficial mascot. Amanda exemplifies what we’re about, character and authenticity. Her laugh alone is worth the ticket price. We’ve staked our reputation on putting people first from exhibitors, volunteers, visitors, students and the stories being told.
For the first Photo North Festival in 2018, we didn’t have a polished manifesto. It’s been more organic and endlessly tweaked from our lived experiences of running a gallery, hosting events, learning what works and listening to feedback.
Finding home
In 2015, when we ended our partnership with White Cloth Gallery in Leeds, a space that had gained momentum but diverted from our founding principles. Wondering what to do next, the idea of a festival emerged. It was the definition of a slow burn. The early editions moved from venues in Harrogate (too corporate) to Manchester (too urban) before settling in the proud but grounded city of Leeds. Yorkshire feels familiar, collaborative and collectively supportive.
The Carriageworks Theatre will host our 7th festival and third in a row. It’s in the centre of Leeds and opposite The Cuthbert Brodrick Wetherspoon pub. Win, win. The Carriageworks is familiar but flexible enough to change things around. Many of the staff have become friends and we hope, fans of photography.
What we think defines Photo North is a festival rooted in storytelling and social engagement. Our preference is for photography that takes responsibility seriously, showing work that asks questions, resists easy narratives and maybe even, affects change.
Equality is key
Naturally, my own background as a photojournalist feeds into this. The festival’s broader shape owes just as much to Sharon’s belief in photography as social practice. Emerging photographers aren’t shoved away into side rooms. World renowned photographers aren’t idolised on a plinth. Our intention is to spark conversations in an environment where everyone feels equal.
That ethos runs through our 2026 programme of around 18 exhibitions and events ranging from intimate local projects to heavyweight international documentary work. The connective tissue is empathy and intent. Jaywick Sands Happy Club by David J Shaw (our 2024 student completion winner) offers a counter-narrative to one of Britain’s most derided communities, made closely with the people it represents. Carolyn Mendelsohn’s, This is Also Motherhood, created in collaboration with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, combines portraiture, still life and audio revealing often hidden realities. Smoke and Mirrors by Seamus Murphy revisits the Palestinian city of Nablus over several decades, reflecting on endurance, memory and the mechanics of representation.
The art of looking
Joanne Coates’ Greenvoe and the Anti-Idyll explores tensions between progress and preservation in Orkney. Mike Goldwater’s ISLAND documents the shifting identity of the Isle of Thanet. Guest curators, Leeds International African Arts Festival (LIAAF), bring Earthwise, a vibrant and expansive exhibition amplifying west African voices. Soulla Petrou’s REWIND revisits fifteen years of UK music culture with affection and grit – think a pre Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell firing a bubble-gun! The curation is designed to contrast but have a collective rhythm. Visitors are encouraged to slow down, reset and keep looking. Or just chill out in our buzzy Live Lounge, a thriving market and social space where you can find independent book, zine, and print traders.
Activities and events
Alongside exhibitions, is a programme of talks, screenings and events to encourage informal encounters. These are integral rather than add-ons. Channel 4 return with their youthful team of portfolio review experts. We’ve invested in a soundproof blackout studio for the talks and added a dedicated film screening room. There’s a licensed bar and menu serving up west African street food. What warms us most is when we overhear visitors remarking on the atmosphere having a sense of approachability and being able to strike up a conversation without feeling awkward.
That’s part accident, part design. Our collaborations are often instinctive rather than strategic. We try to choose partners, speakers and contributors who understand the spirit of what we’re trying to build. Over time, we like to think this has created a loose but committed ‘merry band’ who don’t feel obliged to return but want to out of affection.
Looking ahead
Students are crucial to the Photo North ecosystem. We’ve worked hard to build strong links with universities and colleges across the UK through our free student competition. Our Student Roadshows have helped explain how Photo North can assist as they prepare for the working world.
Running Photo North remains precarious. Funding is a relentless treadmill of applications. We manage to sustain the festival through a mix of partnerships, goodwill and sheer persistence. That feeling ‘it could all end tomorrow’ informs rather than weakens the festival’s character. There’s no sense of entitlement, only gratitude, for sponsors like Alumno, for collaborators who give generously and of course you, the visitor, for willing to pay for a ticket. Perhaps that’s why the festival feels contemporary, we are anchored in the fear of the now rather than chasing future validation.
Having said that, we of course do try to look ahead and think expansively without losing focus. Leeds remains our ‘showroom’ but pop-ups in other cities and deeper collaborations are part of our long view.
Photography matters
So why should you visit Photo North Festival #7? Sharon and I hope the appeal is simple: a chance to spend time with photography that matters, in a unique space that values listening as much as looking. We try not to clamour for attention but to earn it through care, consistency, quality and overall, a belief that photography still works best when we can all gather around it together.
Photo North Festival runs 13–15 March 2026 at The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds. Tickets give access to all exhibitions, talks, screenings and events, with advance booking and pay-on-the-door options available. Find out more at https:/www.photonorthfestival.co.uk/festival and on Instagram @photonorthfest
