Photography festival returns to Ilkley for expanded second edition
Last summer, a new photography festival was launched in Ilkley, with exhibitions on display in various venues around the town over one weekend in July, and it returns next month for an expanded second edition.
The brainchild of photographer, curator and creative producer Andreea Chitan who moved to the UK from her native Romania six years ago and is now based in Ilkley, PhotoIlkley, featuring the work of eight photographers, proved to be a hit with local audiences. There was obviously an appetite for the event, with good attendance figures at the various locations and exhibitions. “We received some amazing feedback,” says Chitan. “It was all very positive. People said that they really wanted us to do it again; they wanted more venues involved and more projects, which we are trying to do. This time we have also got some funding from Ilkley Town Council which is a great vote of confidence. That has been so encouraging.”
The inaugural festival featured a Young Photographer Competition – winning entries were displayed in their own exhibition at Ilkley Manor House – and it returns this year too. Alongside the exhibitions there will also be a series of workshops and talks.
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The festival is run by Chitan and a small team, all volunteers, and the hope is to secure further funding in order to keep the festival growing. It has already developed in terms of the number of participating artists as well as in its duration – this year, it will be running for nearly three weeks, with some of the venues hosting exhibitions for longer. “We definitely want to expand the festival more and more each year,” says Chitan. “We will continue to apply for funding for next year and hopefully we will be successful.”
The theme for last year’s festival was Ilkley: Best Place to Live, inspired by the town’s frequent mention in polls about desirable locations; this time round it is Human: Nature. “We deliberately wanted a theme that was broad in scope and could be interpreted in a variety of ways,” says Chitan. “It gives the photographers a bit more artistic freedom. And it is interesting to see the different ways in which the projects in the festival reflect that theme.”
There are 12 exhibiting artists this time. Projects include Portraits of Our Time by Bradford-based photographer Louise Rayner which began as a personal project in her mother’s care home. The images, which feature people living in a care setting, photographed holding an object that is significant to them, movingly explore memory, identity and the stories that shape a life. Another series of portraits, Portraits of Creativity by Charlie Swinbourne, captures the energy, humanity and imaginative drive of creative people, while Zoe Boswell’s project White Passing explores the landscapes that shape identity combining found photographs of her father’s homeland of Afghanistan with images of Manchester, exploring place, memory, migration and belonging. Glasgow-based Nigerian-born photographer Oluwakemi Oluwunmi’s project Home is Where You Are reflects on human journeys, migration, belonging and the emotional landscapes we carry within us, while Sujata Setia’s A Thousand Cuts is a photographic project that emerged through conversations with South Asian women who have experienced domestic abuse.
Other projects featured in the festival include Xanthe Hutchinson’s Boys Don’t Cry in which she photographs the transition of her teenage son; Sarah-Lee Evans’ Calculated Glitter, featuring portraits of young freestyle disco dancers, looks beyond the glitter to reveal their resilience and ambition, while Tracy McIlhatton’s Where Life Begins is a documentary exploration of pregnancy and birth.
“There are some projects where the artists chose to look at the relationship between humans and nature,” says Chitan. “They include Ben Statham’s ongoing The Good River which explores the River Wharfe but also charts his personal journey. For my own project This Land of Mine, which I started when I first arrived in England, I print photographs from my family album on different natural surfaces such as tree bark or leaves, then take them out into the English landscape and photograph them against that backdrop.”
Chitan hopes that the festival will once again showcase the range, power and storytelling capacity of the photographic image. “I would like people to stop and think twice about things and take a closer look at the world around us,” she says. “And maybe the photographs will start conversations; that is really important.”
PhotoIlkley runs July 3-19. The Young Photographer Competition is open to anyone aged up to 19; the deadline is June 3. For details of the competition and all exhibitions and venues visit photoilkley.com