Wrapping up a fabulous year: Latest News from Photo-Festivals

The busy bees at Photo-Festivals have been working hard this
year developing new programmes and working with international organisations
on great projects and events..

***2nd Collectives Encounters at the 5th FORMAT International Photography
Festival (Derby, UK, March-April 2011)

Following the success of the first Collectives Encounter in 2009,
Photo-Festivals partnered again with Format International Photo Festival
for this second edition of the first event dedicated to photo collectives in
the UK. The Collectives Encounter brought together some of the most
talented and active collectives of photographers, to celebrate and promote
the emerging culture in the UK.

(photo: Christian Rodriguez/Vea Collective)

Curator Yasmina Reggad commissioned new works to ASA, Wideyed, Vea

Collective, The Photography Collectives and Rawiya collectives, and selected
existing works by Human Endeavour and Ten.8 for the collective show ‘The
Flâneur. The dwelling place of the collective’.

The Collectives Encounter was also a great platform for our special guest
Rawiya to launch the first collectives of female photographers from the
Greater Middle East.

***Foto Colectania at the 9th Bamako Encounters, The African Biennial of
Photography (Bamako, Mali, November 2011)

(photo: Margaret Guerra)

Our director Yasmina Reggad has been invited by Foto Colectania
Foundation to programme and co-ordinate a trip for collectors and gallerists
to the Bamako Encounters. Participants could get a great insight into
African Photography through guided tours of exhibitions, meetings with
artists and curators and know more about the fascinated and rich Malian
history and culture.

We are planing other trips to international events next year and will update
you soon on these, keep an eye on our website.

***Successful partnership with nofound_photofair (Paris, France, November 2011)

We were thrilled to be one of the partners of nofound_photofair, the new
art fair dedicated to photography which took place during the week of
photography in Paris this Autumn. Photo-Festivals launched
nofound_photoreviews, the fair’s first portfolio reviews for emerging and
mid-career artists and photographers.
Sharing the philosophy and mission of the fair, nofound_photoreviews
gathered international experts in contemporary photography and related media
such as curators, publishers, critics, festival art directors, and gallery
owners.
We celebrated the very dynamic British photography scene and introduced some
of its key figures.

Over 50 artists-photographers travelled far, coming from Spain, Russia,
France, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium and even Japan to
attend no found_photoreviews!

Read more about our successful first edition of nofound_photoreviews
here.

(photo: Bruno Mazodier)

Yasmina Reggad curated nofound_phototalks with a projection by
Dorade magazine, a carte blanche to Anne Bourgeois-Vignon from
INSTITUTE and a discussion about ‘Printing images/exhibiting images’
with a prestigious panel of gallerists, publishers and curators co-chaired
with photo consultant and curator Marc Prüst.

Coming up..

2012 will be an even busier year for Photo-Festivals, we have some new and
exciting partnerships and events in progress..

***Photo-Festivals partners again with the Blachère Foundation for Contemporary
Art in Africa (July 2012)

6 winning artists of the Foundation’s Awards at the Bamako Encounters 2011
will undertake a residency within the framework of our Crossing Point
Residency programme during the Rencontres d’Arles 2012.

The following Crossing Point residents will be in Arles in July 2012: Arturo
Bibang (Equatorial Guinea, works and lives in Madrid), Fatoumata Dianate
(Mali, works and lives in Bamako), Kiripi Katembo (Democratic Republic of
Congo, lives and works in Kinshasa), Mario Macilau (Mozambique, lives and
works in Maputo), Nyaba Léon Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso, lives and works in
Paris), Khaled Hafez (Egypt, lives and works in Cairo).

Special thanks to..

We would like to thanks a lot of special people and institutions who
supported us, helped us growing up and made all these events successful:

Louise Clements and Alfredo Cramerotti (Format) and QUAD‘s team,
Mike Brown (Derby City Council), volunteers Anne and Rosie, all the
artists of the Collectives Encounters, Derek Bishton (Ten.8), Renee
Musai (Autograph ABP); North East Photography Network‘s team; Emeric
Glayse and [22]nofound_photofair‘s team, nofound_photoreviews participants
and reviewers, nofound_phototalks speakers; Irene Mendoza, Pepe Font de
Mora, Mireia Alcón (Foto Colectania); Claude Agnel, Pierre Jaccaud and
their team (Blachère Foundation); and last but not least, our valuable
collaborators Victoria Edmonson, Émilie Hallard and Sarah Anne Smith.

And we won’t forget the funding organisations which still give their support
during a very difficult time for the arts: Arts Council England, Derby
CC, European Cultural Foundation.

We wish you all a great Christmas and New Year and we hope to see you soon!

Photo-Festivals’ team