FORMAT ONLINE PORTFOLIO REVIEW
THURSDAY 24 & FRIDAY 25 MARCH 2022
FORMAT Portfolio Review
The FORMAT Portfolio Review is returning. It will take place on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th March. Due to the ongoing global pandemic, we will host the event online. For up to date information please join our Facebook page. To join our mailing list please visit our website.
The Portfolio Review is aimed at committed photographers with a developed and serious approach to their work. Recent graduates are welcome. Please contact sebahc@derbyquad.co.uk for any queries. We have a bespoke booking system so that reviews can be selected online. This system allows you to choose the reviewers and time slots. It is a first come first served basis. You can view and select the slots you want. Please note, your reviews are not confirmed until you have paid.
We advise you look through the reviewers and make a list of at least 12 that you would like to see, in the order you would like to see them so that you are prepared when you book.
Please read all the information carefully before making a booking. Please keep an eye on the website and the FORMAT Facebook Portfolio Review dedicated page for more info.
Reviewers
Reviewers are doing 12 reviews on either/both days. So when booking, if their reviews appear to be blank, please check the other day.
Alasdair Foster
Working globally, Dr Alasdair Foster is a writer, curator, academic and publisher of the online photography resource Talking Pictures. He was previously founding director of Fotofeis, the international festival of photo-based art in Scotland (1991–1997), director of the Australian Centre for Photography (1998–2011),and president of the Contemporary Art Organisations of Australia.He is currently Professor of Culture in Community Wellbeing in the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Queensland, Brisbane; Adjunct Professor in the School of Art at RMIT University, Melbourne, and Ambassador to the Asia-Pacific PhotoForum, a group of festivals in the Asia-Pacific region.
Alasdair is interested in viewing work with a clear sense of purpose and a strong personal signature that seeks to communicate out into the world rather than simply express purely personal concerns.
Alexa Becker
Alexa is Contributing Editor for photography and art books for Kehrer Verlag, a Germany-based publisher founded in 1995. After earning her Master’s in Art History from the University of Heidelberg, she started her career at Kehrer in 2003, where she is responsible for selecting and acquiring new photography-related projects.
Alexa provides artistic and marketing advice for photographers concerning the content and style of their work at several international portfolio reviews. She enjoys helping photographers and others appreciate the special qualities present in their work, in particular discovering novel, genuine visions of the world.
She offers the point of view of a European art book publisher and is familiar with the overall art and photography market.
Alexa is also a freelance consultant, advising and coaching photographers independently.
Ângela Ferreira
Ângela a.k.a “Berlinde” is an artist and independent curator, with PHD studies in photography from Universidade do Minho, Portugal and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ângela is Co-Founder of the Portuguese PhotoFestival Encontros da Imagem, an International Photography Festival in Braga Portugal. She has commissioned contemporary photography throughout Europe and Latin American countries, particularly in Brazil. Currently she is artistic advisor of the FotoFestival SOLAL and counselor of the Photography Program at the Secretary State of Culture of Ceará, and curator member of Photographic Museum of Fortaleza, Brazil.
She is especially interested in documentary and photo essays as well artists working on the intersection of photography and other media to include in the European and Latin American institutions and festivals.
Anna Dannemann
Anna is a Senior Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery. She has curated the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize for the past three years; an exhibition about still life photography in social networks called Food for Being Looked At (2017); and several solo exhibitions, including Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive (2018), Simon Fujiwara: Joanne (2016), Charlotte Dumas’ Anima & The Widest Prairies (2015) and Viviane Sassen’s Analemma (2014).
She has also worked with a range of photographers and external curators to realise group exhibitions including the Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s (2016), Work Rest and Play – 50 Years of British Photography (exhibited in four venues in China, 2015-16), 4 Saints in 3 Acts: A Snapshot of the American Avant-Garde (2017) and FreshFaced+WildEyed (2013-15). She regularly contributes to catalogues and other publications and received an MA in Art History from the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.
Anna Kućma
** Anna will be reviewing with Stella Nantongo **
Anna is the director of FOTEA Foundation and the Uganda Press Photo Awards, a photography platform and annual competitions for East African photojournalists and photographers. Through their activities both the UPPA and FOTEA offer a broad annual programme of trainings, talks, exhibitions and publications.
With a background in Cultural Policy and Film and Photographic Studies, she has collaborated with prominent galleries and has curated and assisted many exhibitions as well as working as a consultant on innovative visual storytelling initiatives. She is passionate about photography and developing alternative educational models for photographers and visual storytellers, and about developing new networks between visual professionals on the African continent and beyond.
She is a frequent nominator and jury member for initiatives including the Joop Swart Masterclass, The International Prize for Contemporary African Photography (CAP) and FORMAT. She is based in Kampala.
Anna and Stella are open-minded but particularly interested in work originating from or engaging with the African continent. They are also keen on seeing work responding to topics of resistance, authoritarianism, marginalized communities and diverse viewpoints.
Anne Braybon
Anne is a creative director, photo historian and lecturer. As an award-winning editorial art director, she worked in Amsterdam, Paris and London before joining the National Portrait Gallery as an independent consultant invited to commission themed group portraiture. Between 2009-2012 she developed the creative approach and produced the Gallery’s largest ever commission The Road to 2012. This included three annual exhibitions, public realm national touring exhibition, and accompanying social engagement projects.
Her previous major project, the multimedia touring exhibition SIXTEEN, asked ‘what it’s like to be sixteen years old now?’ She curated an exhibition that included over sixty portraits with accompanying interviews, which was shown at FORMAT 2019.
Anne would like to see portraiture and whatever personal projects the photographer is developing with enthusiasm and excitement.
Anne Nwakalor
Anne Nwakalor is the Founding Editor of No! Wahala Magazine, one of Africa’s first-ever contemporary photography magazine dedicated to showcasing authentic visual stories told by African creatives. She is also a Photo Editor and presently works as a Communication Expert within the development space in the UK and Nigeria.
Anne is interested in conceptual work and work that represents ancestral history and representation.
Arianna Rinaldo
Arianna is a freelance professional working with photography at a wide range. Since 2012 she is the artistic director of Cortona On The Move, the international photography festival in Tuscany, Italy. She is also curator of photography for PhEST, a new festival for contemporary photography and art focused on the Mediterranean, in Monopoli, Italy.
Arianna’s relationship with photography started in 1998 in New York, as Archive Director at Magnum Photos. Based in Milan from 2004 to 2011, Arianna has been a freelance curator for exhibits and book projects, and a photo consultant for publications. She was the director of OjodePez magazine, the bilingual documentary photography quarterly published by LaFabrica, Madrid, for 7 years. Based in Barcelona, Arianna continues to develop photography projects at an international level, and teaches workshop, explores photo festivals, and is intrigued by amazing stories told through photography.
Arianna is interested in contemporary storytelling, experimental documentary. Stories of our world and visions of mankind living on this planet, and beyond.
Photo by Piero Martinello.
Baiba Tetere
Baiba Tetere is a researcher of visual culture, lecturer at Riga Stradiņš University and Head of the Latvian Museum of Photography. As a co-founder of the ISSP association, she has regularly organised photography education and art projects since 2006. Her career intersects the history, education and commercial fields of photography – she has worked at the Latvian Museum of Photography (2000 – 2002), the Latvian State Archive of Cinematographic and Photophono Documents (2008) and as photo editor at the international monthly magazine Cosmopolitan (2002 – 2007). Baiba studied History of Photography at De Montfort University, England, and obtained her doctorate from the University of Greifswald, Germany, where she studied early anthropological photography in Latvia in the late 19th century.
Baiba is interested in all kind of production and creative reflections in the field of photography; always looking at the relationships between past and present and contemporary ways of engaging with archival images.
Image credit: Ailsa Bowyer
Ben Harman
Ben is the Director of Stills: Centre for Photography, a gallery with production facilities that was established in 1977 and is based in the heart of Edinburgh. His curated exhibitions for Stills have included presentations of work by Anna Atkins, Kate Davis, Margaret Watkins, kennardphillipps, Lewis Baltz, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman and Jo Spence. Each year, Ben curates exhibitions highlighting new talent in photography from Scotland. He has also developed an annual series of displays showcasing photographic objects from rarely seen public and private archives and collections.
From 2003-13, Ben was Curator of Contemporary Art for Glasgow Museums where he curated numerous temporary exhibitions and collection displays for the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). From 2007-12, he was Lead Curator on Glasgow’s Art Fund International collecting project.
Ben is interested in all work, particularly in: content raising awareness to social and political issues; innovative practice and approaches to content, technique and display; links to Scotland; content that draws upon the history of photography, archives and collections.
Photo by Flannery O’Kafka
Bridget Coaker
Bridget is a senior picture editor based in London, where she has worked for national newspapers and magazines.
In addition to her editorial experience, Bridget has curated a number of exhibitions, including Residual Traces, a photographic response to the 2012 Olympics at Photofusion in Brixton and in 2009 was Director of the Hereford Photography Festival where she presented the photography of European photographers working with the image of the child in “Seen But Not Heard” and curated the retrospective show of photojournalist and filmmaker John Bulmer.
Bridget has been a guest reviewer at international photography festivals including, Photoespania, Spain; Daegu Photography Biennale, South Korea; Contact International Photography Festival, Canada; Fotofest, US and Format International Photography Festival, UK. In 2015 Bridget was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Photography, UK.
Bridget would prefer to see projects that are either nearly finished or completed. Could be on any subject or genre.
Christiane Monarchi
Christiane is the founding editor of the online photography magazine Photomonitor which has published more than 1,300 features online in the past decade. In 2020 she co-founded Hapax Magazine, a print publication commissioning new photographic ideas, currently working on its second issue. Christiane is also a freelance curator, lecturer, artist mentor, and serves on the steering committee of Fast Forward, Women in Photography, and as a trustee of The Hyman Foundation.
She is interested in seeing bodies of work that would be suitable for presentation online, in a gallery or in a publication. At the reviews she would most enjoy discussing work that is in-progress, unresolved or otherwise benefitting from conversations on different strategies and outcomes.
Cindy Sissokho
Cindy is a Curator, Cultural Producer and Writer currently based in Nottingham, UK.
She studied Communication, Media & Cultural Mediation at University Paris 8, France (2014), including a fully funded year Erasmus studying at Panteion University in Athens, Greece. She also did a Master’s in Cultural Events Management (2015) at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.
She is the Curator and Special Projects Producer at the New Art Exchange, the largest contemporary art space in the UK focusing on underrepresented practices in the arts.
Cindy previously worked at Nottingham Contemporary in the Exhibitions and Public Programmes departments (2017-2018). She is also part of a Nottingham-based collective, SheAfriq, a group of creative Black women that programme a diverse range of events in and out of institutions to reclaim their space within the city.
Photo Credit: Richard Chung
Claire Wearn
Claire is Festival Director at Photo Fringe, co-director of Corridor and an independent curator, working freelance with a variety of commissioning organisations, artists and visual arts festivals. She is committed to supporting lens-based artists and curators, amplifying voices from the fringe, and to finding new ways for audiences to encounter work. Motivated by art’s power to provoke, Claire is particularly excited by public installations and presenting work in unexpected spaces.
Past and present projects: @fleshandblood___ (ongoing); Days of Wonder (2022); Art Boxes (2021); Altered (2021); Photo Fringe (2020); In Focus with Anna Farley (2019); Peckham 24 (Photoworks, 2019); Brighton Photo Biennial (2018); two editions of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards (Photoworks, 2017-19); Brighton Photo Fringe (2016); HOUSE Biennial (2014 – 2017); Ex-offenders with David Goldblatt (Multistory, 2012-2013); Pictures from America: Rochester (Magnum, 2012); Open for Business (Multistory and Magnum Photos, 2011-2012); Black Country Stories (Multistory, 2010-2014).
Photo by Zoltan Borovics.
Clare Gormley
Clare Gormley is Head of Programmes and Partnerships at Belfast Photo Festival. Prior to this, Clare held curatorial and research positions at institutions including The MAC Belfast; TATE Britain; Pangolin London; Catalyst Arts; and Islington Exhibits, and has worked as an independent curator for organisations such as PS2 and Outburst Queer Arts Festival, Belfast. Clare is the current Writer in Residence at PS2 Belfast and is also the founder and co-convener of the Northern Irish Art Research Network, which is supported by TATE and the Paul Mellon Foundation.
Clare is particularly interested in work which pushes the limits of the photographic medium, presents new viewpoints, and gives voice to underrepresented narratives.
*TO BOOK WITH CLARE, SELECT A REVIEW WITH BELFAST PHOTO FESTIVAL. CLARE WILL BE REVIEWING ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON ONLY*
Dagmar Seeland
Dagmar is the UK Photo Editor of the German weekly stern magazine. She proposes story and feature ideas, commissions and buys work for stern and writes features about culture and photography for this renowned publication. Dagmar also contributes to the magazine’s associated titles such as the monthly VIEW, the bi-monthly stern CRIME and others, and runs K&R Media, a photo agency and correspondents’ service for various German and Swiss media clients such as Die Zeit, Brigitte, the Swiss broadsheet NZZ and the broadcaster ARD. She is passionate about discovering and developing new talent and has held workshops and talks about editorial photography and its role in storytelling in the UK and abroad. Dagmar is also Director of K&R Media, a photo agency for German and Swiss media.
Dagmar would like to see work from a wide range of photographic genres, especially if it has a strong narrative which may appeal to a more mainstream international readership. Photojournalism, documentary, street photography and portraiture are her main focus. She is interested in conceptual and fashion photography too, though generally not in architecture.
David Drake
David Drake is an independent curator and producer with four decades of experience in the visual arts and media field. For the last 13 years he has been the Director of Ffotogallery, the national development agency for photography and lens-based media in Wales, during which time he curated 200+ exhibitions and led two Creative Europe projects: European Prospects and A Woman’s Work.
David was also Director of five biennial editions of Diffusion – Wales International Festival of Photography between 2013 and 2021, and Project Director for Wales’ national pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015. Between 2018 and 2020, David was Curator of The Place I Call Home, a major UK-Gulf exhibition commissioned by the British Council which toured to eleven venues in seven countries. He has also curated several international projects with artists and partners in South Korea, India, North America and Africa.
Elda Harrington
Elda Harrington is an independent curator and educator and she has been involved in the Photographic Cultural Management for more than 30 years.
Mrs Harrington has been the Director of the Argentine Photofestival “Encuentros Abiertos ” since it was founded in1989. It was the first festival in Latin America. She is the President of “Luz Austral Foundation” that organizes exhibitions in Argentina and abroad and publishes books and catalogues. She has curated and coordinated numerous exhibitions and projects in Chili, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, France, Spain, Morocco, Syria and China, and gives lectures about Argentinean Contemporary Photography in many countries.
In Argentina she curated exhibitions for Fine Art National Museum and most of the Art museums and cultural centers of the country. Elda is also the Director of “Escuela Argentina de Fotografía” the Argentine School of Photography since 1987.
She worked as a consultant for the Buenos Aires City Culture Ministry and for the Argentinean Foreign Office Culture Department. She was the main curator of the French Alliance in Argentina and the San Martin Cultural Centre.
Due to her expertise in photography, she is consulted by Institutions such as Photographic Resource Center of Boston University, Guggenheim Award, FOA Paul Huf Award, Mois de la Photo of Paris, Bamako Encounters, Mali, Aperture Foundation, NYC and many international magazines.
She has reviewed portfolios at many National and International Portfolio’s Review meetings and has been on the Jury of some international contests.
Elda will be reviewing with Silvia and they are interested in reviewing artistic work (not commercial) and more specifically, they work on every issues of being a woman.
Erik Vroons
Erik Vroons (1976, The Netherlands) is Editor-at-large for GUP, the international platform for creative contemporary photography, and as Chief editor for the print edition of GUP Magazine. Furthermore, since 2012, he is closely involved with the production of, and the selection procedure for, the annual catalog GUP New (previously titled New Dutch Photography Talent) and its European version, Fresh Eyes since 2019. In recent years, he also initiates exhibitions with emerging artists based in The Netherlands, in the form of group shows at festivals and galleries around the world (e.g. Artsalon Taipei/2017; BredaPhoto/ 2018 and Paraty em Foco, Brazil/2018).
As a freelance writer/critic Erik has also contributed texts to several other international print magazines (e.g. British Journal of Photography, 1000Words, Archivo) and blogs (e.g, World Press Photo’s ‘Witness’). He is closely involved in the editing of various photobooks and contributes essays to several monographies. His collaborations within projects by award-winning photographers also include elements of research and curatorial conceptualization.
As a freelancer, Erik is furthermore active for World Press Photo (leading a fact-checking team for the annual awards) and several Dutch organizations concerned with the stimulation of photography. He is also a mentor in the field of creative authorship and the development of (documentary) projects, in the form of workshops. He is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and holds an MA in Photographic Studies (University Leiden) and an MA in Media Studies (University of Amsterdam).
Erik is looking forward to seeing the kind of photography which demonstrates smart and original approached to art- and documentary related subjects, by means of creative and convincing artistic authorship.
Photo Credit: Diane van der Marel
Federica Chiocchetti
Based between Paris and Tuscany, Federica is a writer, curator, lecturer and editor specialising in photography and literature. She has just completed her PhD on the history and theory of photo-texts at the University of Westminster, under the supervision of Professor and artist David Bate.
She explores the relation between photography, fictions & words through her platform Photocaptionist, collaborating with institutions such as Jeu de Paume, Aperture and Fotomuseum Winterthur. She recently contributed to the 10×10 book ‘How We See: Photobooks by Women’ (2018) and to ‘The Routledge Companion of Photography and Visual Culture’ (2018). Previously, she co-curated the festival Jaipur Photo (2017) and the exhibition ‘Invisible Stratum’ at T3 Tokyo Photo Festival (2017) and was the Art Fund Curatorial Fellow of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she curated the exhibition and symposium ‘P.H. Emerson: Presented by the Author, at Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery’ (2015-2016). Her book ‘Amore e Piombo’ (with Roger Hargreaves; AMC Books, 2014) won the Kraszna-Krausz 2015 Best Photography Book Award. Her writings have appeared in Foam, IMA magazine, The Eyes, and Photoworks, among others. She holds an MA in Comparative Literature from the University College of London and a MSc in Book Publishing & Literature from the University of Milan. She gives lectures on Photo-Text Intersections at various international universities such as Paris College of Art, ECAL, and Image-Text-Ithaca (NY).
Federica is interested in seeing research-based artistic projects that ideally mingle fictional and documentary strategies.
Photo by Oliver Eglin.
Gemma Padley
Gemma Padley is a writer and editor on photography. She has written for British Journal of Photography, the RPS Journal, AnOthermag.com, Elephant magazine, Photomonitor, Foam, The Telegraph, Time LightBox, the BBC, Port and 1000 Words, among others. Gemma has also written and contributed to several books on photography, among them, Look At This If You Love Great Photography (Ivy Press, 2021), Into The Wild (Laurence King, 2021), Joel Meyerowitz: How I Make Photographs (Laurence King, 2020) and 1001 Photographs You Must See Before You Die (Cassell, 2017). She is currently working on a book with Hoxton Mini Press due for release in spring 2022.
Gemma also works directly with photographers, artists, curators, gallerists and agencies on texts of all kinds, including forewords, wall texts, image captions, website copy, project statements, biographies and essays. She is particularly interested in innovative approaches to documentary and fashion photography, as well as work that exists at the intersection between these genres. Projects on environmental issues and sustainability are also of interest. In addition, Gemma enjoys discussing how images and text can be used in imaginative, immersive ways, whether on a digital platform, in book form or in a physical exhibition space.
Helen Starr
Helen Starr (TTO) is a world-building producer and curator of Afro-Carib descent. Carib people are indigenous to Trinidad, WI. She has worked as a cultural activist for over 25 years. Central to Starr’s practice are the writings of the Jamaican philosopher Sylvia Wynter – which form the cornerstone of Daad Futurism. Daad Futurism is an ever developing concept developed with artist Salma Noor and curator Amrita Dhallu to crystallize the trans-altern beliefs, fluid futurisms and de-colonial theories of the Global South .
Helen founded The Mechatronic Library in 2010, to give artists with protected characteristics access to cutting edge technologies such as Game Engines, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR). Helen has worked with several public institutions such as Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge, FACT, Liverpool QUAD in Derby and more recently with Ars Electronica in Linz.
Helen sits on the board of QUAD, Derby. She was part of the winning team for the Wolfson Economic Prize 2021 and a Jury Member for Ars Electronica Computer Animation Prize 2021/2022.
Helen prefers portfolios which are personal political and futuristic. Helen can advise on Story-telling, project development and how to integrate new media into your practice.
Holly Roussell
Holly Roussell is a curator, museologist, and art historian specialising in photography and contemporary art from East Asia based between Switzerland and China. Since 2021, she is a curator with the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. Roussell previously served as coordinator of both the worldwide travelling exhibitions program for the Musée de l’Elysée and the photography prize, the Prix Elysée, from 2013-2017.
Since 2013, Roussell has worked as an independent curator organizing more than 20 group and solo exhibitions for festivals, biennale, and museums around the world such as: Folkwang Museum, DE; MUCEM, Marseille, FR; Les Rencontres d’Arles, FR; Somerset House, London, UK; NGV Melbourne, AUS; Lianzhou Photography Festival, CN; Shanghai Centre of Photography, CN; Auckland Art Gallery, NZ; Fotografiska, USA/SE; MMCA: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, SK and other venues. Recently in China, Roussell notably co-curated the major group travelling exhibition, “Civilization: The Way We Live Now”, exhibited at UCCA in 2018, Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale (OCT-Loft Shenzhen, 2018), as well as “Stars 1979” with Dr. Wu Hung (OCAT Research Institute, 2020). She has contributed as author to a number of exhibition catalogues, artist books and international publications on photography. Presently, she is collaborating with Pixy Liao on the artist’s first museum solo exhibition tour with Fotografiska. In 2022, Roussell will join the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea as International Curatorial Researcher in residence.
A note to artists: As a curator and museum professional, I consider portfolio reviews a crucial moment to meet photographers and connect with individuals beyond one’s own network. I am excited to meet with artists at all career stages. Please feel free to approach our review as a first meeting and virtual studio visit, or, as an opportunity to bounce around ideas together in a concrete manner about a series edit, potential installation or publication.
Photo by Eugene Hyland.
Izabela Radwanska Zhang
Izabela Radwanska Zhang is the Editor of British Journal of Photography, and Editorial Director of 1854 Media. Based in London and of Chinese-Polish heritage, her words have appeared in Disegno and Press Association among others. She is also a guest lecturer on photography and publishing in various UK-based universities. Prior to this, she completed a MA in Magazine Journalism at City University, London, and most recently acquired a Postgraduate Certificate in Graphic Design at London College of Communication.
Jae-hyun Seok
Jae-hyun was born in Daegu, Korea. He completed his graduate studies at Ohio University majoring in Visual Communication. His career can be summarised as a photographer, educator and curator. His experience from working as a photographer—for New York Times, International Herald Tribune and Korean GEO—in the past has brought him where he is now.
Jay-hyun has curated many international exhibitions including Imaging Asia in Documents (2006) and Women in War (2014) for Daegu Photo Biennale and has been involving several Photo Festivals such as Dali International Photo Festival, Jimei x Arles Photo Festival in China and Foto Istanbul as a foreign curator. He received the Best Curator Award twice from DIPE in China, 2015 & 2017.
After profiling 30 established photographers from other countries on VON photography magazine, he is working as an associate editor for Photo Dot magazine in Korea. He has also participated in many international photo festivals as a portfolio reviewer such as FotoFest in Houston, Format Photo Festival in Derby, England, Koytography in Japan, Singapore Photo Festival, Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires and etc.
He is interested in seeing bodies of works on documentary and fine art photography with concept.
Jean-Christophe Godet
Created in 2010, the Guernsey Photography Festival brings together major names in international photography with a host of emerging talent, for a packed month of exhibitions, projections, talks, educational workshops and community events on the island. The festival is now firmly established as one of the most important and successful cultural events in Guernsey and has positioned itself amongst the best festivals of photography in Europe.
The festival concentrates mainly on contemporary photography including documentary and conceptual work. Jean-Christophe can offer various platforms for photographers through the festivals range of exhibitions, talks series and artist in residence programmes. The festival has developed close relationships with other major international festivals, galleries, agencies and publishers so JC can recommend people when appropriate.
For JC, a strong portfolio has to be coherent, innovative with a strong sense of artistic integrity. He is particularly interested in individuals who keep developing and maturing their work and strive to keep producing high quality projects over time. Reviewing a portfolio is above all about opening a dialogue with the artist. It is about creating an environment of attentive listening in order to deliver clear guidance and advice.
Photo by Peter Franklin/Guernsey Press
Jeong Eun Kim
Jeong is editor-in-chief of IANN, the contemporary art magazine in Asia and founder of IANNBOOKS launched in 2007. In order to exchange contemporary arts and to activate a networking community among the countries of Asia, she opened a publishing-new media platform called THE REFERENCE ASIA in 2018 and co-founded UNIT CIRCLE, a non-profit international group centered around editors to enhance the Asian art-book network. Serving as the chief coordinator of DAEGU PHOTO BIENNALE 2012 and curator of SEOUL PHOTO FESTIVAL 2010, she has been widely involved in curatorial activities within the field of photography. In an effort to introduce the contemporary photography scene of Asia, she continues to publish numerous art and photo books. Meanwhile, Jeong has been engaging in collaborative art projects commissioned by commercial corporations such as Leica Korea, LG electronics, HDC I-Park Mall and so on.
Her major interest is to look for young talented, emerging artists who try to push at the boundaries of contemporary art and new technologies.
Jodi Kwok
Jodi Kwok is a curator based in Derby and Hong Kong. She is currently the assistant curator at QUAD. She has been working on the Future Focus Exhibition, exhibiting 7 graduates’ work in different artistic disciplines from UK based BA Degree courses who graduated in 2020 and 2021 and De’Anne Crooks solo exhibition Seeking in the QUAD Extra Gallery Spaces. She did a placement at Open Eye Gallery, working on the ‘A Portrait Of…” exhibition, the Look Photo Biennial 2019 and the Visual Right exhibition. Prior to this, she completed a MA in Art Museum and Gallery Studies at the University of Leicester and a BA in Media and Communication at the University of Sussex.
Jodi is mainly responsible for the Extra Gallery Spaces at QUAD, and is interested in exploring early-career artists to exhibit their works in the space. Since graduating, she has taken an interest in analysing and researching blockbuster exhibitions, interested in the sociopolitical related exhibition and the mixture of cultural and digital artworks because of her background.
John Duncan
John is one of the editors of Source magazine. He studied Documentary Photography at Newport and Fine Art Photography at Glasgow School of Art and still makes his own work. In each issue Source publishes three personal projects by photographers on its ‘portfolio pages’. His role is to be on the look out for new work for this section of the magazine. This includes work by photographers in the early stages of their careers, recent graduates as well as more established photographers.
To give us editorial focus work needs to made by photographers from or based in the UK or Ireland. Source has quite a broad remit in terms of what they publish. In general its personal projects resolved over an extended series of images. The archive section of their website gives you a sense of what they do. He is happy to look at longer edits of work in progress or completed work.
Karen Harvey
Karen is the Creative Director of Shutter Hub, the UK based photography organisation providing opportunities, support and networking for creative photographers worldwide. She founded the organisation to create a supportive community for photographers and to provide a platform for the development of ideas and careers.
She is dedicated to creating fair access to photography and opening up opportunities for everyone. She’d love to see work by creative photographers who are looking for support and direction, who want to exhibit their work, develop their networks, and connect with others.
Karen has spoken at industry events and locations such as FOAM Museum, London Art Fair, FORMAT Festival, and the Festival of Creative Industries; curated exhibitions at London Photomonth, Cambridge University, and St Bride Foundation, to name just a few in the UK, and taken shows to Belgium, Denmark, France, Israel, Portugal, Romania and The Netherlands. She’s reviewed portfolios in the UK, Europe, Canada, the US and Israel; at Unseen Amsterdam, FORMAT International Photography Festival, Belfast Photo Festival, London Photomonth, The Photographers’ Gallery, Getty Images Gallery, Exposure Photo Festival, Griffin Museum of Photography and the Photographic Resource Center, and more.
Karen is a consultant, curator and collaborator who works to bring innovative ideas and fundamental kindness to every project. She has won awards for photography, writing and community development. In 2019 she was named the Digital Influencer of the Year at the Holland Press Awards. Karen is experienced in working with museums and galleries, developing exhibition spaces, and collaborating with organisations such as The National Archive, English Heritage and Cambridge University. She also founded and co-directs the charitable organisation Toiletries Amnesty.
Krzysztof Candrowicz
Interdisciplinary curator, art director, and project facilitator. Co-founder and member of Foundation of Visual Education and Lodz Fotofestiwal in Poland. In 2013 he became artistic director of the Triennial of Photography in Hamburg, Germany and since 2018 he works as curator of CICLO Biennial in Porto, Portugal.
Krzysztof works internationally as a guest curator and visiting lecturer in numerous organizations, museums, schools and festivals in Europe and around the world. He has been a member of the jury of various projects and art prizes, including the Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award (Arles, France), the Hasselblad Award, the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, (London, UK), the Historical Book Award and the Author Book Award (Arles, France), the Syngenta Photography Award (Basel, Switzerland), the Prix Pictet (London, UK) and the Robert Capa Award (Hungary).
Lee Elkins
Lee Elkins is the founder and Creative Director of The Lost Light Recordings. Established in 2018, Lost Light Recordings is an independent publisher that works with photographers to realise projects through the medium of the photobook. The books he has created under the imprint since 2018, including Cian Oba-Smith’s Andover & Six Acres, Sadie Catt’s Woodstock and the forthcoming Harrowdown Hill by John Spinks, explore the political landscape and its effect on people and place.
Passionate about creating authentic expressions of photographers’ work, Elkins collaborates creatively with both established photographic artists and new talent to create distinctive photobooks. Elkins manages the whole process of creating a book with intense detail: from the editing down and sequencing of photographs with the artist, the graphic design, materiality, personally overseeing the printing, to hand binding the books. This attention to detail calls on Elkins conviction that a photobook is more than a book of photographs, which in the right hands can become a complex intellectual dialogue between photographer and reader and his experience as a master bookbinder in the printing industry. Elkins worked as a bookbinder for twenty years in Frome, Somerset, for one of the UK’s most significant printers before gaining a first class BA (Hons) in Photography from the University of the West of England and an MA in Photography and the Book from Plymouth University.
Lee Elkins is Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of the West of England, Bristol.
Lee has an interest in any project that plays with narrative, any book work, images and text and documentary.
Malcolm Dickson
Malcolm is a curator, writer and organiser. He is the Director of Street Level Photoworks, a leading photography arts organisation in Scotland that provides artists and the public with a range of opportunities to make and engage with photography. He co-ordinates a programme which embraces different genres of photography and is extended through a network of local and community venues, regional art galleries, and through national and international partners. Recent exchange residencies have included cities such as Quebec City, Berlin, and Marseille. He runs the Photography Networks in Scotland platform which profiles exhibitions and events in photography across Scotland. Street Level is a lead partner in Scotland’s Season of Photography.
A former Senior Research Fellow at Dundee University, recent writings include the chapter ‘Slender Margins and Delicate Tensions: Projects by European Video Pioneers Stansfield/Hooykaas’ in the book ‘European Women’s Video Art’ (John Libbey Publications 2019).
Interested in viewing bodies of work in their early stages which impartial advice may help AND substantially developed bodies of work from artists and photographers, which blend experimental approaches, conceptual or issue based themes; social landscape work and new documentary; work that tells a compelling story; lyrical and narrative or abstract and non-narrative; photography based work that intersects with other media. Advice will be given on the basis of the work seen. No fashion, commercial or classical modes of documentary. No students (please seek advice from experienced tutors, your peers and from existing resources available online).
Markéta Kinterová
Markéta is the Creative Director of Fotograf Gallery, Festival and Magazine based in Prague. Fotograf Magazine is a twice-yearly periodical, special-themed issues dedicated to photography, visual culture and contemporary art. Fotograf Gallery is a space dedicated to solo exhibition projects of contemporary photography. Fotograf Festival is an annual occasion to meet special-themed and curated photographic exhibitions in Prague as well as professionals, theoreticians and artists passionate about the medium.
Markéta is doctoral candidate in a fine art program at Fine Arts at Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague. She has studied at the Department of Photography, Faculty of Art and Design, Ústí nad Labem.
Markéta is most interested in reviewing conceptual art projects, experimental projects, public art projects, documentary photography crossing borders of its classical attitude. She is also interested in independent publishing, artists books and zines. As a magazine editor and festival co-founder she is interested in a wide range of approaches in sense of depicting the world around us in a distinctive way.
Michael Itkoff
Michael Itkoff is a Cofounder of Daylight Books, a non-profit organisation dedicated to publishing art and photography books. For over a decade, Daylight has been dedicated to publishing art and photography via its print and digital publishing programs. By exploring the documentary mode along with the more conceptual concerns of fine-art, Daylight’s uniquely collectible publications work to revitalise th relationship between art, photography, and the world-at-large.
Michael has been deeply involved in the publishing industry in both print and digital media and has written for the NYTimes Lens blog, Art Asia Pacific, Nueva Luz, Conscientious blog and the Forward. Before starting Daylight, Michael spent time at the Annie Leibovitz Studio, Aperture Foundation and Rizzoli International Publications. His monograph, ‘Street Portraits’, was published by Charta Editions in 2009.
Michael Sargeant
Michael Sargeant is a creative producer living and working in London, UK. He is interested in seeing photographic projects that are in-development and whose authors are seeking advice or guidance.
Since 2018, he has spearheaded Magnum Photos’ video-on-demand education programme, Magnum Learn, and works to produce a variety of video content for the agency. Projects include courses led by Alec Soth, Gregory Halpern, Bieke Depoorter, Matt Black and Jonas Bendiksen, as well as a group course focused on street photography with contributions from Martin Parr, Bruce Gilden, Susan Meiselas, Mark Power, amongst others.
Outside of Magnum, Michael regularly works and mentors emerging creative talent through workshops, portfolio reviews and lectures, as well as curating exhibitions and commissioning projects for a variety of institutions.
Image Credit: The Sebah Chaudhry
Michael Weir
Michael has been CEO of the Belfast Photo Festival for thirteen years, and initiated as well as curated numerous commissions on exhibitions of contemporary art with a particular focus on photography. He curates a varied programme of artist talks, symposiums, residencies, workshops, films and exhibitions per year, which has previously included artists such as Ai Wei Wei, Alec Soth, Roger Ballen and Robert Mapplethorpe. He nominates and judges for a number of international awards, including the ICP Infinity Awards (New York) and SIFEST (Bologna), as well as reviews internationally.
*TO BOOK WITH MICHAEL, SELECT A REVIEW WITH BELFAST PHOTO FESTIVAL. MICHAEL WILL BE REVIEWING ON THURSDAY MORNING ONLY*
Monica Allende
Monica Allende is an independent curator, consultant and educator. She is the Artistic Director of LandskronaFoto Festival, and was GetxoPhoto International Image Festival Artistic Director from 2017 to 2019. She has also collaborated with WeTransfer as a Consultant and Creative Producer, as well as the director of FORMAT17 International Photography Festival.
She has worked with Screen Projects and produced and curated Blue Skies Project, a multidisciplinary project with artist Anton Kusters and Ruben Samama exhibited during PhotoLondon 2019 and currently showing at USHMM. It was also recently shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.
Monica was the Photo Editor at the Sunday Times Magazine, where she launched Spectrum, the award-winning photography section. She is a visiting lecturer at the London College of Communication, London & EFTI in Madrid.
She has also produced and taught creatives labs including for FIFV in Chile, ScreenLab in London and WPP JOOP Masterclass in Saudi Arabia. Along with the University of Sunderland’s Mentorship Business Programme, Festival Internazionale a Ferrara, WPP workshop Angola, Magnum Professional Practice Workshops, among many others.
She is dedicated to nurturing new and established talent and nominates photographers for prizes including the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, the Prix Pictet andThe Joop Swart Masterclass/ WPP.
She has served on juries across the world including the Center Awards in Santa Fe, Perth Center for Photography, Vogue Festival, Bar Tur Photobook Award, La Fabrica/Photo London dummy award and LandskronaFoto.
She has also been the recipient of the Amnesty International Media Photojournalism Award, the Picture Editor’s Award, the Online Press Award and Magazine Design Award for Best Use of Photography.
Photo by Carlos Alba.
Nicola Shipley
Nicola works as a Producer, Curator, Project Manager, Mentor and Consultant, specialising in photography, and is co-founder and Director of GRAIN Projects. She trained as an art historian, has an MA in History of Art, and a background in the visual arts, including in commissioning, exhibitions, collections, public art, artists education and professional development.
As Director of GRAIN Projects she leads on commissioning new work, curating exhibitions, developing artist’s and photographer’s training, development and networking opportunities and producing events and symposia. She is interested in working with emerging and established artists and photographers.
Recent projects include collaborations with Photoworks, Creative People & Places – Appetite, New Art Gallery Walsall, Herbert Art Gallery, FORMAT International Photography Festival, Redeye Photography Network, Brighton Photo Fringe, Library of Birmingham and The Hive Arts Centre. She has worked with artists and photographers including Anthony Luvera, Edgar Martins, Indre Serpytyte, Tom Hunter, Mark Power, Helen Marshall, Sam Laughlin, Kate Peters, Arpita Shah and Maryam Wahid.
Nicola is interested in seeing fine art photography and bodies of work that have a clear subject or story to tell, which the photographer explores in an original way. This could be within documentary, portraiture, still life or fine art. She is interested in a wide range of photographic genres including emerging practices. She is not interested in seeing fashion photography, photojournalism or architectural photography.
Nuno Ricou Salgado
Since 1990, Nuno has worked as a creative producer and project manager for several institutions in the cultural industries. He has developed projects related with visual arts (photography), festivals, performing arts (theatre), multimedia (cinema, video and television), music, creative markets, international cultural networks and conferences.
PARALLEL is a platform that brings together creative European organisations committed to promoting cross-cultural exchanges and mentorships in order to set new standards in contemporary photography. The platform consists of 18 partners from 16 countries ensuring a wide geographical spread. With its large and diverse network, PARALLEL aims to establish a wide and effective platform for the exhibition of European emerging artists and curators and to promote a more fluid and functional link between them and the exhibitors (museums, galleries and festivals).
Nuno is also Artistic Director of Procur.arte, a Lisbon based organisation that specialises and produces International photography projects.
Nuno is interested in working with a good story, and always looking for new photographers to work with.
Peter Bonnell
Peter Bonnell is a Senior Curator based at QUAD in Derby and has been a member of the curatorial team for FORMAT International Photography Festival since 2013, also working on festival iterations in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 – producing many projects across various sites, including exhibitions by artists such as Lottie Davies, Kensuke Koike and Brian Griffin, and curators Hester Keijser, Lars Willumeit and Marina Paulenka. He has been a professional Curator for more than 17 years and has curated, managed and produced close to 200 exhibitions across wide-ranging media including numerous commissions, residencies, publications and touring projects.
Peter is newly diagnosed as neurodivergent, with a specific focus on Autistic creatives, and prior to embarking on a career as a curator he was a practising visual artist exhibiting work in the UK, across Europe and in the US. Peter has been based at QUAD since early 2012 where he has led on a range of projects, including the mass participation film work Derby Soap Opera with the artist and filmmaker Marinella Senatore involving almost 15,000 Derby Residents; group exhibitions Illuminated; The Pride and the Passion: Contemporary Art, Football and The Derby County Collection and the AI/ robot themed exhibition Our Friends Electric. Solo shows he has curated/ organised at QUAD include significant projects by Lindsay Seers; Benedict Drew; susan pui san lok; Susan MacWilliam, and Joey Holder. He has also managed and curated a number of digitally focused projects at QUAD – including the immersive AR gallery-based game-experience Glitched: Quest for the Lost MacGuffin; the interactive installation What a Loving and Beautiful World by Japanese digital art collective teamLab; the digital installation Line Segment Space by Korean based Kimchi and Chips, a new VR commission by the American artist and digital art pioneer Rebecca Allen, and most recently the video-game interactive exhibition Haunting Alongside Our Shadows by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.
Before this, Peter was Curator at ArtSway, in the New Forest, where he was responsible for the exhibitions, residency and commissioning programmes and the education programme, working on significant exhibitions. In addition, Peter co-curated along with ArtSway Director Mark Segal the New Forest Pavilion at the 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011 Venice Biennales.
Raquel Villar-Pérez
Raquel Villar-Pérez is a researcher, writer, and curator whose practice focuses on de- and anti- colonial discourses within contemporary art and literature from the ‘Global South’. She is interested in the work of image-makers who address notions of transnational feminisms, social and environmental justice, and do so in original, expansive ways.
Currently, she is the Curator at Photoworks, where she is instrumental to the development of Photoworks Festival and she leads on the Annual, the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, the Ampersand Fellowship, and others. Prior to Photoworks, Raquel worked for Tate Modern as an Exhibitions Assistant.
As a freelancer, Raquel has curated exhibitions of contemporary art and public programmes in London, Cambridge, Bogotá, Stockholm, Seoul, Málaga, and Valencia. Her exhibition project Poetics of Resistance from the Archive in Two Acts won the 2021 Peckham24 Open Call. She regularly contributes to publications such as British Journal of Photography, C&, C& América Latina, and Africanah.
Having graduated in Cultural Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 2017, she is now a PhD candidate at Birkbeck’s School of Art. She has been recently appointed co-coordinator of the CILAVS Early Career Researchers Network and is a member of the research group Art and Identity Politics at the University of Murcia in Spain.
Photo by Almudena Romero.
*TO BOOK WITH RAQUEL, SELECT A REVIEW WITH PHOTOWORKS. RAQUEL WILL BE REVIEWING ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON ONLY*
Ricardo Reverón Blanco
Ricardo is a Spanish writer, curator, and arts researcher. He is the co-founder of UnderExposed, a photography platform and collective dedicated to encouraging artistic collaboration.
Having graduated from The University of Sussex with a First-Class degree in English Literature and a Distinction in Art History & Museum Curating, Ricardo now works for Photoworks as Assistant Curator. Previous work includes positions at Fabrica Gallery, The Tower of London, Diep-Haven, The De La Warr Pavilion, the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts and being the Deputy Director of Socially Engaged Art Salon where he curated The Force of Fantasy in 2019. His writing has been featured in Photomonitor, Typical Girls, the Photoworks Annual and he is an ongoing contributor for Photography+. During Peckham 24 (2021) he was contracted as production manager for Light where under the guidance of Monica Allende, supported the delivery of the exhibition and its catalogue; designed by Sarah Boris and printed by Mörel.
Ricardo is particularly interested in conceptual photography, experimental photographic processes, queer photography and portraiture.
*TO BOOK WITH RICARDO, SELECT A REVIEW WITH PHOTOWORKS. RICARDO WILL BE REVIEWING ON FRIDAY MORNING ONLY*
Rui Prata
Rui Prata began his professional career as a history teacher (1980-1998) and has been the Director of Braga Image Museum since its opening in 1999. He was the founder (1987) and artistic Director of Encontros da Imagem Photo Festival – until 2013. Since 1990 he has lectured on contemporary photography throughout Europe and in Brazil, and acted as a curator for both national and international exhibitions. In 2008 he became a member of the Committee Acquisitions of Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris.
Prata is a portfolio reviewer for several international festivals, including the Mois de la Photo festivals in Paris and Montreal; PhotoEspanha, Madrid, Spain; Lodz, Poland; Month of Photography, Bratislava; Fotobienal de Bienne, Switzerland; Landskrona, Sweden; Fotonoviembre de Tenerife, Spain and Rencontres d’Arles, France. He has also done several conferences all over the world in themes related to photography. In 2019 he creates a new photo festival – IMAGO LISBOA – of which he is artistic director.
Rui is not interested in fashion or advertising images. He is very flexible and always try to find a moment for a good narrative. At the moment, he is very focussed on the themes for next editions of the festival:
2022 – Disturbances
2023 – Rethinking Identity (quite open-since an approach of human identity, a community, a territory …)
2024 – Times of passion: facing and behavior of youth on this millennium
Sarah Gilbert
Sarah Gilbert is a photo editor at the Guardian with specific responsibility for features. She spent the previous three years based in NYC as the US picture editor, and is highly experienced in commissioning and producing all types of photo shoots including portraits, news, reportage, fashion and lifestyle across print and digital platforms.
Previously she was a freelance editor working with various publications and a stint as picture editor for Conde Nast.
Sarah’s specific areas of interest are reportage and projects based around reportage, social issues, and above all, human stories.
She is NOT interested in fashion or fine art photography.
Sean Burns
Sean is an artist, writer and editor based in London, UK. He is the assistant editor of frieze magazine and sits on a board at Tate. In addition, he co-runs Queer Street Press, a small publishing house celebrating LGBT+ artists and writers working in print.
His work and research interests focus on regional/social/LGBT+/nightlife histories. He is currently editing a new book by Sam Moore and producing a film in his home city, Birmingham, UK.
‘I believe in the transformative potential of art. And I want to support artists to find confidence in their work. I like it when people are unapologetically pursuing their vision, guided more by feeling than convention or status.’
Sian Bonnell
Sian is a UK based artist, independent curator and publisher. In 1999 she established TRACE, the curation and publishing project which she runs from her studio in Yorkshire. She has curated shows for TRACE all over the UK, as well as Europe and China most recently since 2014 showcasing UK graduate photography at Pingyao International Festival of Photography.
Sian worked for many years as a research academic in Photography at Falmouth University and more recently at Manchester Metropolitan University and she continues to mentor artists and photographers providing guidance on conceptual and project development along with professional development and production.
She is interested in looking at and discussing all forms of still and moving-imagery both as resolved bodies of work, or at more exploratory stages.
Silvia Mangialardi
Silvia has been the Artistic Director of Argentine Photofestival Encuentros Abiertos for 10 years. She is a member of Luz Austral Foundation. She was founder and director of Ediciones Fotográficas Argentina, and until 2012, the director of Fotomundo, Argentine Photography magazine founded in 1966. She publishes books and curates national and international exhibitions.
As a journalist she interviewed many of the most important figures in contemporary photography: Jack Delano, Joel Peter Witkin, Ralph Gibson, George Rousse, Larry Fink, Chema Madoz, Rafael Navarro, Martin Parr, Agnes de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Willy Ronis, Marcos
López, Sara Facio to name just a few. These interviews have been published in Argentina and abroad.
Silvia is usually part of the jury of important international competitions and coordinates various cultural events. She is regularly invited to review portfolios in numerous festivals of
Photography. She has lectured on contemporary photography in places such as
Houston Center for Photography (Houston, Texas), Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History (Corpus Christi, Texas), The Americas Society of New York (New York, New York), etc.
Silvia will be reviewing with Elda and they are interested in reviewing artistic work (not commercial) and more specifically, they work on every issues of being a woman.
Stella Nantongo
** Stella will be reviewing with Anna Kućma **
Stella is the programme coordinator at the Uganda Press Photo Award, where she manages the Awards and oversees a busy calendar of talks, workshops and discussions.
As part of this role she also collaborates with the FOTEA Foundation, which is the organiser of the UPPA, and oversees the Award’s integration with FOTEA’s broader educational programme and its strategic aims.
As well as her role with UPPA, Stella has assisted in the production of independent photography exhibitions as well as grants and other activities. She also occasionally serves as a reviewer for photography competitions such as Market Photo Workshop’s JUSTPHOTO contest.
A former magazine employee, Stella is passionate about helping emerging photographers in Uganda and the broader region to expand their technical skills and broaden their understanding of the medium in order to tell better stories.She believes that continued learning and conversations around photography is key to giving diverse voices a role in shaping the region’s socio-economic and political discourse.
Stella and Anna are open-minded but particularly interested in work originating from or engaging with the African continent. They are also keen on seeing work responding to topics of resistance, authoritarianism, marginalized communities and diverse viewpoints.
Steven Evans
Steven is a curator, writer, artist and executive director of the award-winning arts organisation FotoFest International, which created the first and longest running international Biennial of Photography and New Media Art in the U.S. Appointed in 2014, he is responsible for exhibitions, art programs, administration and FotoFest Biennial directorship.
Steven co-curated the FotoFest 2018 Biennial central exhibition INDIA: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art and the 2016 Biennial central exhibition CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES: Looking at the Future of the Planet. He co-edited the related hardcover books INDIA and CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES. He represents FotoFest at photography events around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Great Britain, India, Latvia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea.
Prior to FotoFest, Evans worked with a wide range of artists and collaborators as managing director of the Dia:Beacon Museum in New York State and as director of the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio, Texas.
Steven is looking for bodies of work with well-defined purpose, fully formed or near completion, either in still photographs, video or new media.
Tanvi Mishra
Tanvi Mishra works with images as a photo editor, curator, and writer, based in New Delhi, India. Among her interests are South Asian visual histories, peoples’ movements as well as the notion of fiction in photography, particularly in the current political landscape.
Until recently, she was the Creative Director of The Caravan, a journal of politics and culture published out of Delhi. She is part of the photo-editorial team of PIX, a South Asian publication and display practice.
Tanvi works as an independent curator and has been part of the curatorial teams of Photo Kathmandu, Delhi Photo Festival as well as the upcoming BredaPhoto Biennial in 2022. Her writing on photography has been published in various platforms including Aperture, FOAM and The Caravan. She has served on multiple juries, including World Press Photo, Hindu Photojournalism Awards and the Catchlight grant. She has also been a mentor for the Women Photograph program and is part of the first international advisory board of World Press Photo.
Tanvi is interested in seeing projects with relevance to politics, society and culture. Medium can be anywhere from traditional documentary to visual research to contemporary/experimental practice, as long as there is a comment on society as well as imagined futures. Not interested in pure aesthetic experiments, fashion or fine art photography.
Photo Credit: Aditya Kapoor
Tiina Rauhala
The Finnish Museum of Photography is one of the leading and oldest photography museum’s in Europe. Through exhibitions, collection management and research, the museum strives to promote and foster photographic art and culture in Finland. Tiina started at the museum as a curator in 2008.
The museum’s exhibitions cover Finnish and international contemporary photography, as well as the diverse history of the craft. Along with the museum’s main exhibitions Rauhala has been responsible for the museum gallery’s program for the emerging photographers.
Tiina is also co-founder of The Festival of Political Photography, which examines ways of influencing with photographs and seeks to define what the word ‘political’ means in contemporary photographic practices.
Wang Baoguo
Wang is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Photographers magazine, part of China National Academy of Arts based-in Beijing. He has worked as a Photographer, Picture Editor and Commissioning Editor for magazines across Asia, he is often invited to be a speaker at international conferences including- China and Spain, 1936-39: Robert Capa and the Global Popular Front, organised by Columbia University (USA) and International Center of Photography, NY.
A member of several international juries including of Visa pour l’Image (France), Dali International Photography Festival, Yunnan (China), FORMAT Festival Open Call (UK) and International Photo Awards (China region, Lucie Foundation). Wang has published A Journey to East: China through Lens of Important Western Photographers since 1840s (SDX Joint Publishing Company 2015) and Essays on Photography (Beijing Time Publishing House 2016).
Wang is looking for work to feature in his magazine and is interested in seeing emerging and established photographers.
Yining He
Yining graduated from LCC, University of the Arts London and is a curator and writer of photography. Her work is principally focused on the way in which photography is able to freely straddle the boundaries of art, responding to and raising questions about contemporary and historical social issues through effective, diverse, and interdisciplinary means. Yining’s exhibitions have been held in museums, art spaces, and photography festivals in China and Europe including: the 3rd Beijing Photo Biennale (2018, CAFA Art Museum, Beizhen Cultural Industries Center), The Port and The Image: Documenting China’s Harbor Cities” (2017, China Port Museum), A Fictional Narrative Turn (2016, Jimei Arles International Photo Festival) and 50 Contemporary Photobooks from China 2009-2014 (2015, FORMAT15 Festival, UK).
Her publications include Photography in the British Classroom, and The Port and the Image.
In the last five years, Yining has been looking into the effectiveness, diversity and interdisciplinary of practitioners’ use of photography as a medium when responding to and proposing social issues related to history and the present. As a reviewer, she is good at discussing the works with practitioners who encounter problems in the project progress and helping them push the project forward. As a curator, Yining is happy to find photographers from all over the world to expand her research framework and hopes to provide opportunities for photographers to show in China. She is looking forward to seeing artists from all disciplines, both emerging and established. She is not interested in seeing fashion and commercial work.
COSTS
There are three booking options, and they are as follows:
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- 4 reviews – £100
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- 6 reviews – £150
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- 8 reviews – £200
We recommend you only book 8 reviews if you have had your work reviewed before as it can be quite an intense experience
BOOK NOW
BOOKINGS FOR 2022 ARE NOW CLOSED.
FORMAT International Portfolio Review Bursary
We are conscious of the inequalities that exist within society, therefore the FORMAT International Portfolio Review Bursaries aim to encourage and support participation from people worldwide who are from a lower socio-economic background or an underrepresented identity. We have bursaries available for 10 artists from underrepresented backgrounds.
To apply and for more information send an email titled ‘FORMAT Bursary’ to Seb at sebahc@derbyquad.co.uk
Deadline: 6th February 2022
Scottish Artists Portfolio Review Bursary
Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow and Stills, Edinburgh have teamed up to support Scottish photographers and are offering 10 bursaries to support artists living in Scotland.
FORMAT 22 Awards Night
The Portfolio Awards will take place ONLINE between 4.30pm - 5pm, after the review. Winners are chosen throughout the days and by special invited guests.





FORMAT Festival
FORMAT is the UK’s leading international contemporary festival of photography and related media. It organises a year round programme of international commissions, open calls, residencies, conferences and collaborations in the UK and internationally and welcomes over 100,000+ visitors from all over the world to its biennale.
The biennial festival and off year programmes both celebrate the wealth of contemporary photographic practice and feature everything from major conceptual works, participative projects, documentary photography, mobile phone imagery to the archive and all that falls in between. We are concerned with what is happening now in the scene and beyond, whilst sharing and contributing to it.
FORMAT21: Control will take place virtually and in Derby 12th March – 11th April 2021.
ADVICE
In preparation for the review here are a few useful links from our friends online:
FORMAT Director Louise Fedotov-Clements talks to Lens Culture about her top tips
Photo Shelter Blog – 7 Myths About Portfolio Reviews Debunked
Online review guidance from Camilla Brown: Photo Forum