Now in its ninth edition, Photo Fringe presents a month of selected and self-curated photography exhibitions (staged within Covid-19 guidelines) in cafés, shops, galleries and outdoor venues across and beyond the city of Brighton & Hove. Much of the 2020 festival will be accessed online at photofringe.org with an open platform for over 150 digital exhibitions, plus work selected from international open calls.
Photo Fringe describe the ninth biennial photography festival, this year titled TAKE/MAKE, as a call to action, inviting artists and audiences to take photos and to make a difference; to make art and communicate our place in the world through it; to use photography to make change; to develop new ways of seeing together.
Colonnade House hosts Photo Fringe for the second time and this year we’re delighted to extend our partnership beyond our gallery walls.
Colonnade House
MAP6: Finland: The Happiness Project
At this critical time, with issues of global health and environmental impact at the forefront, MAP6’s Finland: The Happiness Project explores themes around the United Nations’ World Happiness Report, which in 2020 ranked Finland as the most content nation for the third year running. The exhibition will take on an experimental form, incorporating a variety of ways of presenting photography.
29 September – 25 October // 10.00 17.00 (Closed Monday)
West Buildings Seafront Shelter
Local photographer Barry Falk and MAP6 member will be taking over the West Buildings Seafront Shelter with his latest photographic project.
In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic Barry decided, like many photographers, to try to capture some of the atmosphere of these strange times. The project rationale was to photograph as many of his friends and neighbours as possible within walking distance of where he lives. Barry was restricted by Government Guidelines around public safety; going out was itself a risk, so he was limited to one or two photoshoots per daily walk.
This required careful planning, setting up a system of appointments, maintaining a safe distance, using a long lens for the close-up shots.
Messages were sent out with a simple request: Barry wanted to photograph people on their front doorsteps, informal pose (messy hair and embarrassing slippers would be fine). The response was overwhelmingly affirmative: people wanted to be a part of a collective project, to be noticed in this time of social distancing. As the project developed it begun to link people together, forming a collective sense of self during this socially isolated period.
Undiagnosed refers to the many, at time of project, who were without a diagnosis yet still socially distanced. More to the point, these were friends and neighbours whose homes were now off limits, making the situation even more disconcerting: the familiar was now very unfamiliar.
The exhibition will consist of 30 portraits. In addition, working within the continued lockdown conditions, Barry will be presenting a series of pre-arranged artist’s talks/meetings (for small, safe, social bubbles) throughout the weekends of October.
These will be listed as appointments on the Photo Fringe website.
A show of work shortlisted the Photo Fringe OPEN20 SOLO award –
an international call to emerging photographers, inviting responses to the question: “How can photography make a difference?” An impressive panel of creatives and curators shortlisted twenty artists, The winning entry will also be presented as an interactive digital exhibition from 3 October at photofringe.org
Photography from up to twenty shortlisted 14-18 year olds will be selected by the Photo Fringe team to be exhibited at the festival website alongside other digital exhibitions, and at the Pavilion Atrium on Worthing Pier.
This exhibition will be viewable from 10 October.
