The Hereford Photography Festival is set in motion
The 21st annual Hereford Photography Festival launches today, Friday 28 October, and runs through till Saturday 26 November.
The theme of this year’s programme is Movement:political, geographical, or physical. The festival itself moves across borders from its base in the city of Hereford, with exhibitions and events in Wales, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Birmingham. Furthermore this year sees the first international partnership, with Krakow Photomonth, who present the Transit exhibitions and a seminar at the University of Wales, Newport.
The Time & Motion Studies exhibition at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery is curated by Simon Bainbridge, editor of the British Journal of Photography, with an impressive selection of international photographers including Vanessa Winship, recent recipient of the Henri Cartier Bresson award and her partner George Georgiou, currently exhibiting at the Musuem of Modern Art in New York.
The festival also premiers the first solo exhibition by parkour photographer Andy Day, which goes on to tour the UK following the festival. The Courtyard in Hereford is screening two parkour films to coincide with the exhibition Concrete Circus (12A) and District 13 (15) both on 2 November and on 10 November, the devastatingly direct war documaentary Restrepo (15), co-directed by the photographer Tim Hetherington who was killed in Libya earlier this year.
Photograph Alfred Watkins. Courtesy of Herefordshire Heritage Services, Herefordshire Council, collection at the Museum Resource & Learning Centre
Of particular local interest is the exhibition of photographs by archaeologogist and photographic pioneer Alfred Watkins (1855-1935) whose rare early 20th cine-films featuring the Hereford May Fair and soldiers marching off to fight in World War 2 have been shown at Borderlines. The exhibiton at the Discovery Centre in King Street is co-curated by photographer Simon Roberts who gave a talk on The Election Project at the Film Festival last year. There's also the opportunity to view the completed film which he previewed back in April, The Election Project - Landscapes of Innocence and Experience which is showing as a three-screen installation for the duration of the festival at The Courtyard.
The festival also presents new work by British photographer Jason Larkin who has been working across Herefordshire over the last year to document the changing economy through the change in use of our rural buildings.
There is plenty more going on, work by John Bulmer and photography students at Hereford College of Arts, Open Submissions, and this weekend sees a series of talks and panel discussions with photographers and curators from the festival programme.