FORMAT PORTFOLIO REVIEW

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.

Anne is the Director of Impressions Gallery, a charity that helps people understand the world through photography, and act as an agent for change. She is the 2022 recipient of the Royal Photographic Society Curatorship Award, which recognises excellence over a period of time in the field of photographic curatorship, through exhibitions and associated events and publications. Anne’s current research includes environmental responsibility and sustainable practices within photography.

Anne is interested in seeing work across all genres (documentary, portraiture, landscape, to name just a few) that explores considered issues such as identity, race, gender, politics, and sustainable practices

Photo by Carolyn Mendelsohn

Arianna Catania is an independent curator, photo editor and journalist. After graduating in Political Science, she attended the Higher Institute of Photography and Integrated Communication in Rome, Italy. She began working as a photographer. Since 2007 she has worked as a photo editor in several newspapers and magazines and written about art and photography, including the Huffington Post. She is the creator and co-director of Gibellina Photoroad/ Open Air & Site-specific Festival (Sicily, Italy), in which photography and visual arts dialogue with architecture in innovative urban installations. She is Director/Curator of the Permanent Collection “Photography” of the Orestiadi Foundation, which guards one the most important contemporary art collection of Southern Italy. She was the artistic director of Emerging Talents festival at Mattatoio (Rome, Italy), dedicated to the emerging artists of the contemporary scene. She has curated several works and installations by established and emerging authors including Joan Fontcuberta, Olivo Barbieri, Tobias Zielony, Vale?rie Jouve, Anouk Kruithof, Mimmo Jodice, Mario Cresci, Monica Alcazar-Duarte, Moira Ricci, Peter Puklus, Manon Wertenbroek and others. She is often internationally invited in portfolio reviews, jury, talks, workshop focused on editing and strategies in contemporary photography and visual arts.

In every language of photography you could find something interesting. In general, Arianna does not like to read “naturalistic photography”.

Arianna is a freelance professional working with photography at a wide range. From 2012 to 2021 she was the artistic director of Cortona On The Move, international festival of visual narrative. Since 2016, she is the photography curator at PhEST, a festival on contemporary photography and arts in Puglia.   

Arianna’s relationship with photography started in 1998 as Archive Director at Magnum Photos, NY; and then, back in Italy, as photo editor for Colors magazine. From 2004 to 2011, in Milan, she worked as editorial consultant and curator for exhibitions and special projects. For 4 years she was photo consultant at D, the weekend supplement of La Repubblica. For almost 10 years she was the director of OjodePez, a bilingual documentary photo quarterly published by La Fabrica in Madrid.  

Based in Barcelona since 2012, Arianna is active as consultant, teacher, curator and editor. She participates in photo events and festivals around the world as speaker and portfolio reviewer; and she is regularly invited on jury panels and selections committees for international institutions and organizations. Arianna is intrigued by the amazing stories told through images. She is interested in contemporary documentary and original storytelling: visions on the current world and stories of humankind living on this planet, and beyond.  

Arianna is interested in contemporary storytelling, experimental documentary. Stories of our world and visions of mankind living on this planet, and beyond.

Photo by Paolo Verzone.

Asha Iman is Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. She focuses on interdisciplinary projects that advocate cross-cultural solidarity across geographic or political distance. Veal’s recent curatorial projects and exhibitions include: Beautiful Diaspora/You Are Not the Lesser Part at MoCP (2022); Martine Gutierrez at MoCP (2021); RAISIN as a partner program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2021); Dream at Hyde Park Art Center (2021); and more. Her previous work includes curatorial, publication, and research projects in Chicago, New York, Edinburgh, Vietnam, Juárez, Havana, and Tokyo; as well as serving as Associate Festival Producer for playwright Eve Ensler’s V-Day global movement to end violence against women and girls (New York). She has been a juror and nominator for contemporary arts organizations and residencies including Arts + Public Life at University of Chicago Arts, Center for the Study of Race Politics Culture at University of Chicago, and more; and was recently on the boards of Experimental Sound Studio and Heaven Gallery. Her projects have been featured and supported by international organizations such as Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago, Alfred Landecker Foundation/Humanity in Action, BMW Foundation, and more. Asha Iman is faculty for Arts Administration & Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

She is most interested in seeing: narrative projects, portraiture, documentary photography, and performance. 

Phoo by Benita Nnenna Nnachortam

Baiba Tetere is a researcher of visual culture, lecturer at Riga Stradi?š 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 19^th 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 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, Margaret Watkins, Robbie Lawrence, Ishiuchi Miyako, Lewis Baltz, Markéta Luska?ová, 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. Ben has produced the Stills podcast, ‘Photography Down The Line, since 2020.

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 seeing work at any stage of development. Particularly interested 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

Curator, producer and writer. Curator at the Wellcome Collection in London and Co-Curator of the French Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2024.

Claire is festival director at Photo Fringe and co-director of Corridor and currently based in Brighton. Committed to supporting lens-based artists and curators, Claire is particularly excited by co-producing festivals and exhibitions in unexpected spaces for artists and audiences to connect.

Starting her career in community arts in Birmingham and Sandwell, Claire began working as a creative producer with Multistory across long form social documentary photography projects including Black Country Stories, Open For Business and Ex-offenders with David Goldblatt. She worked as field producer with Magnum Photos on Pictures from America: Rochester, before relocating to Brighton to produce visual arts commissions for festivals including HOUSE Biennial & Brighton Festival featuring Gillian Wearing, Laura Ford, Yinka Shonibare and Nathan Coley among many others. Her freelance portfolio has also included Peckham 24 with Jamila Prowse, two editions of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards and Brighton Photo Biennial for Photoworks, Real Utopias for Photo Fringe. Currently with Corridor she co-directs socially engaged projects and commissioning.

Photo © Jim Kirby

@clairewearn @photofringe @corridorproj @fleshandblood___

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.

Emma Bowkett is Director of Photography at the FT Weekend Magazine and a curator focussed on lens-based arts and contemporary visual culture. She is Associate Lecturer at UAL: University of the Arts London, and regularly participates at international workshops, portfolio reviews, festivals and awards. Emma is a visiting speaker for various photography programmes across the UK and abroad.

Emma is the curator of a Financial Times special supplement and talks programme at the annual Photo London photography fair and is on the advisory board for Peckham 24, the annual festival that celebrates established and early career artists working with an expanded photographic practice. Emma is based in London, UK.

Before taking on the role of Senior Photo Editor at Vogue Italia, Francesca was Visual Editor of Global PhotoVogue and curator of PhotoVogue Festival, the first conscious fashion photography festival dedicated to the common ground between ethics and aesthetics, from 2016 to 2023.

Francesca regularly collaborates with various festivals and photography schools as a portfolio reviewer and lecturer. As an art director she has curated campaigns for Benetton, Huawei, Yuzen and special projects for Off-White, Audi, Crivelli, Diesel, Dyson, Engine, Mazda, Martini, Natuzzi, Regione Puglia, Sensai, Xerjoff, Xiaomi.
IG: @maranif

In 2020 she was a juror of the PHmuseum 2020 Mobile Photo Prize, Photoville FENCE and did portfolio reviews for Eddie Adams Portfolio Review, Perimetro Collective Review and Italy Photo Award. In 2021 she was a member of the jury of LensCulture Portrait Awards and did portfolio reviews for Fotografia Europea – Reggio Emilia, SI Fest – Savignano sul Rubicone, Eddie Adams Workshop and PhMuseum Days.

Francesca regularly collaborates with several photography festivals and schools as portfolio reviewer and lecturer.

As art director she has curated advertising campaigns for Benetton, Huawei, Yuzen and special projects for Off-White, Audi, Diesel, Dyson, Mazda, Martini, Natuzzi, Regione Puglia, Sensai, Xiaomi.

Francesca would like to see reportage work.

Before joining Fotofestiwal, Franek co-founded TIFF International Photography Festival. He devoted a large part of his work to bringing up aspects related to the photobooks and popularizing them in Poland. This interest resulted in several exhibitions, lectures and cooperation with prominent figures from the world of photography and the publishing scene of photobooks. In the Fotofestiwal collective he is responsible for the festival program, coordination of exhibitions, events and publications.

I’m interested in wide range of fine art, documentary photography and mixed-media work. I would be happy to review unpublished photobooks and give advices on editing, sequence and design. I am always looking for young or emerging photographic talents for possible future collaborations. Please no commercial portfolios, architecture or nude-photography.

Hana Kaluznick is Assistant Curator of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). She was Assistant Curator of the expansion of the V&A Photography Centre (2023) and has contributed to other V&A displays including Known and Strange (2021) and Valérie Belin / Reflection (2019). She is a PhD student at the University of Liverpool studying the industrial history of early colour photography.

Harry is the founder and senior agent at Darwin Studio. A next generation photo agency representing under represented and marginalised photographers in the creative industry. Past roles have seen Harry as the Head and founder of Studio 1854, British Journal of Photography’s content agency and working freelance for multiple creative agencies and production houses. From working across global productions for brands and clients, Harry’s career has taken him around the world and led to multiple campaigns being shortlisted for awards.

Harry is interested in seeing personal, documentary and commercial portoflios.

Jean-Christophe Godet is an international curator and founder of the Guernsey Photography Festival. He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of a new major festival in France: GLAZ Festival (Rencontres Internationales de Photographie de Rennes).

Both festivals 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.

Both 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. Both festivals have 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.

“I am interested in Contemporary Photography, Conceptual, Fine Art, Documentary, New Technologies, Performances, Videos”

Photo by Peter Franklin/Guernsey Press

Joeleen, holds a postgraduate Masters in Contemporary Curatorial Practice from Falmouth University and History of Art from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Joeleen is a contemporary visual art curator and cultural producer with over 10 years experience working within the arts and cultural sector, across a range of private, public and not-for-profit arts organisations in the UK, and Ireland. Notably, she has held curatorial and project management roles with the Contemporary Art Programme for National Trust (Bristol), The Eden Project (Cornwall), Business to Arts (Dublin), and Sligo County Council Arts Office. Where she managed the draft process of a 3 Year Public Art Commissions Plan for Sligo County Council, now at delivery stage. Joeleen has acquired a vast amount of contemporary art commissioning, exhibition making and event organisation through the programming and management of international exhibitions, public engagement programmes, symposiums and artist talks. Joeleen curates and delivers the festival programmes whilst leading the creative partnerships for the delivery of Belfast Photo Festival, ensuring it meets its strategic and business goals.

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.

Josh is the Deputy Picture Editor at the FT Weekend Magazine. He is a regular participant at festivals and workshops, and has been a visiting lecturer at several universities including, London College of Communication, University of Syracuse, NY, USA and the School of Media and Journalism, Aarhus, Denmark.

In 2013 Josh co-founded the book-publishing wing of Tartaruga, an independent record label and print studio. Up until May 2014 when he joined the FT, Josh was the Assignments Editor at Panos Pictures.

Josh is interested in seeing Fashion and Commercial Portfolios

Julia Bunnemann is a writer, researcher and Curator at Photoworks, a UK-based photographic platform. She is responsible for the curatorial programmes such as the Photoworks Festival, the Ampersand Fellowship, the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, and wider curatorial partnerships. Julia previously worked as Assistant Curator of the Triennial of Photography and as the curatorial assistant at Deichtorhallen House of Photography, one of Germany’s largest exhibition spaces for photography. In her current role at Photoworks, Julia is interested in work that engages with timely social, political and postcolonial issues through documentary and conceptual approaches.

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.

Apart from his own artistic pursuit as a photographer, Lau Ching Ping has played multiple roles in Hong Kong photography. As a mentor, he has guided countless new practitioners and helped take their work and career to the next level. As the artistic director and curator of the Hong Kong International Photo Festival from 2018 to 2022, he initiated the emerging artists nurturing platforms Satellite Exhibitions and Photographer Incubator, and bridged the photography organisations of the SEA region together through curatorial collaboration such as the Photography Cinema project. In the 1990s, together with Lee Ka-sing, Holly Lee, Patrick Lee and Blues Wong, they published the photography journal NuNaHeDuo (Dislocation) that set the scene for contemporary photography of Hong Kong. He is the recipient of The WYNG Air Commission (2013-14).

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.

Lexi Parra is a Venezuelan-American photographer and community educator based between Caracas and New York. Her work focuses on youth culture, migration, the personal effects of inequality and violence, and themes of resilience. Parra has worked with The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker and others.

She is the community manager at Women Photograph, as well as a member of both WP and Diversify Photo databases. Parra has received a Diversify x Getty Inclusion Grant (2022) and is a Pulitzer Center Reporting Grantee (2021). Her degree is in Photography and Human Rights, from Bard College.

Parra is the founder of Project MiRA , an arts education initiative that fosters visual literacy and critical analysis with youth in the barrios of Caracas.

“I am open to seeing any work”

Louise Fedotov-Clements is the Director of Photoworks, a leading international contemporary photography and related media organisation established in 1995. Photoworks is a charity that produces exhibitions, residencies, commissions, learning programmes, awards, publications and a biennial festival www.photoworks.org.uk
CoFounder, and former Director FORMAT Festival 2004-2022 and previously the Artistic Director QUAD,, a centre for contemporary art and film 2002-2022. As a creative director, since 1998 she has led commissions, publications, mass participation art, film and photography programmes and exhibitions around the world. Currently she is also acting National Curator of Contemporary Art Forestry England and Co-Director of Earth Photo www.earthphoto.world Advisory Board Member for Archivo and Vice Chair of Inspirate
Louise writes about photography for catalogues and magazines in both print and online including Next Level, South Korean Photography, 1000words, co-editor of Hijacked III UK/AUS, PHOTOCINEMA. She is an international photography juror, advisor and nominator, a regular portfolio reviewer at festivals and galleries throughout Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

“I am interested in seeing all projects at any stage of development”

Maja Dyrehauge Gregersen (DK), has been Managing Director of Copenhagen Photo Festival (CPF) since 2016 and responsible for re-branding the festival with a distinct emphasis on experimentation and sustainability, as well as a strong international focus and long term collaborations across Europe.

She has worked with a large number of art and photography institutions, festivals and photographers and has been in charge of numerous photography-based projects with partners across the culture field.

She holds a MA from the University of Copenhagen and has worked in the culture industry for more than 15 years.

She has been a portfolio reviewer for Les Rencontres de la Photograhie, Arles, FUTURES, Photoszene Köln, and been in jurys for Fotofestiwal Lodz, Robert Capa Contemporary Photography, Center, Photo Is:rael and tutor sessions for FOAM and FUTURES (CPF has been a member since 2021) – among others.

“I am not interested in fashion photography.”

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 exhibitions include Forever Changes – Contemporary Nordic Photography and Climate Change and forthcoming solo exhibitions by Colin Gray, Margaret Mitchell, Moira McIver and Simon Murphy. Exchange residencies include those with the Northern Photographic Centre (Finland), Kaunas Gallery (Lithuania), and Artlink (Ireland). Street Level manage the Photography Networks in Scotland platform which profiles exhibitions and events happening across the country and is a member of Scotland’s Workshops, a network of artists production centres in Scotland.  

Interested in viewing bodies of work in their early stages as well as substantially developed bodies of work from artists and photographers which blend experimental approaches, conceptual or issue based themes; photography as social practice; work that tells a compelling story; lyrical and narrative or abstract and non-narrative. Almost everything except fashion, commercial or classical modes of documentary. Prefer not to give advice to students as they should seek advice from their experienced tutors, peers and from existing resources available online. 

Markéta is a director of Fotograf Gallery, Festival and editor-in-chief of Fotograf Magazine based in Prague. She has ongoing experience as a portfolio reviewer or jury member for different competitions. She is also an independent artist working with photography as a tool of conceptual art. Her author’s book What You See Is What You Think was published as the artistic part of the doctoral thesis under the title Oppositional Reading of Public Space, which she defended at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in 2019. She studied photography at the Faculty of Art and Design at the Jan Evangelista Purkyne? University in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic. She is the head of the Documentary Photography Studio at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) since 2016. She attended several artists residencies as in Centro de la Imagen – FONCA, Mexico city, Mexico and Artist in residence, Rotor – Association for Contemporary Art, Graz, Austria.

Fotograf Magazine is a periodical mapping the world of contemporary photography. Every four months comes out special-themed issue dedicated to photography, visual culture and contemporary art. Fotograf Gallery is space dedicated to solo exhibition projects of contemporary art artists using medium of photography as well as artist with photographic background. Fotograf Festival is 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 the most interested in reviewing conceptual art projects, experimental projects, public art projects, documentary photography crossing boarder of its classical attitude. She is also interested in independent publishing, artists books and zines. As an magazine editor and festival co-founder she is interested in wide range of approaches in sense of depiction world around us in a distinctive way.

Michael Itkoff is a Cofounder of Daylight Books, a non-profit organisation dedicated to publishing art and photography books. For two decades, 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 the 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. 

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.

Pelumi Odubanjo is a curator, writer, and researcher based between London and Glasgow. Her interests in contemporary art are cross-disciplinary, with specific interests in the field of contemporary photography. Pelumi works with artists, photographic archives, and cultural artefacts to create and explore dialogues across global Black diasporas. Her research and curatorial practice build on theories of racial, gendered and diasporic studies, Black feminism, and critical photo theory, amongst others.

Pelumi currently works as the Assistant Curator for Glasgow International, previously worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Serpentine Galleries, and has curated at festivals and institutions such as Photo50 at the London Art Fair, Photo Oxford, Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, Brighton Photo Fringe, and the Black Cultural Archives, amongst others. Her writing on contemporary photography, art, and culture has appeared in Magnum Photos, New Contemporaries, Artillery Magazine, Photoworks, and Photo Fringe amongst others. She has also been a panel selector for Photography Festivals and Organisations including Photo|Frome (2023) and Source Photography (2022).

Pelumi is very open to seeing a range of Portfolios but ideally work that touches on wider social issues i.e race, gender, environment

Päiviö Maurice Omwami works as a Curator of Exhibitions at the Finnish Museum of Photography. In his curatorial practice, Omwami researches the ways photographic art intersects with activism, subjectivity, representation and agency. He is highly interested in photographic materialism and Afrofuturism, as well as in how the symbolic order, produced by the relationship between images and technology, constructs and shapes the reality we live in. Omwami has a background in photography and master’s in social science from the University of Helsinki.

Päiviö is interested in seeing any works revolving around the concepts of race, Blackness or Whiteness. Works dealing with photographic materialism and/or its history. Works that explore AI and the internet and their use of images. Any works that deal with the relationship between images and reality, and especially the way in which images are used to enhance or affirm a specific ideology. Works that investigate the utilization and perhaps even weaponization of representation in photography.

Raquel Villar-Pérez is curator and researcher with a special interest in de- and anti- colonial art practices of artists from the Global Majority. She focuses on the work of women-identified and non-binary image-makers who address notions of migration and mobility, transnational feminisms, social and environmental justice, and do so in original, expansive ways.

She is currently the Curator at Impressions Gallery in Bradford, UK, where she is responsible for the exhibitions programme of the gallery, commissions, and public events. Previously, Raquel was a curator at Photoworks, where she was instrumental in the development of the Photoworks Festival and led on the Annual, the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards, and the Ampersand Fellowship. 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 mentors artists, sits in jury panels and contributes to publications such as British Journal of Photography, Photomonitor, Intervenxions at NYU, A-Desk*, and C& América Latina.

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.

Sebah is a Freelance Creative Producer and Curator. She is experienced in working at international world class festivals, projects and events. She is Co-Founder and Co-Director of ReFramed, a photographic based visual arts network based in the Midlands, supporting the community and artists who are Black, Asian, or from other ethnic minorities. She is also a Director at BCVA, where she has just started a heritage project with Derby Museums working with the South Asian community. She is currently Producer & Curator of Picturing High Streets, a Historic England funded project managed by Photoworks. In Oct 2022, she started teaching on the BA Photography course at Manchester School of Art, MMU.

She was previously Creative Producer & Assistant Curator on an international British Council funded project with Ffotogallery, The Place I Call Home, connecting the UK to the Gulf region, culminating in 10 exhibitions from September 2019 — March 2020 in 9 countries. From 2013 — 2017, Sebah was Coordinator & Curator at FORMAT Festival.

Sebah reviews portfolios internationally and mentor’s artists. She has also curated a number of exhibitions as a freelancer, and with organisations across the UK. With TRACE, she launched a year-long mentorship programme for women over the age of 35. She is on the selection panel for BJP Portrait of Britain 2023, Source Graduate Photography Online 2023 and NAE Open 2023. She has been on the Jury for UNSTUCK, The Ian Parry Scholarship, RPS IPE 163 Open Call and BJP Portrait of Britain 2021 & 2023. She is the Curator for AIS Open 2023. Currently UK editor for thephotoexhibitionarchive.com, Berlin, Steering Group member for FORMAT Festival, Derby and a Trustee at Royal Photographic Society and COMMUN.

Sebah is interested in seeing all kinds of narrative works. She is not interested in seeing any kind of nude photography.

Headshot By MK Hussain

As Photography Editor at Wallpaper*, Sophie Gladstone commissions across fashion, interiors, architecture, travel, art, entertaining, beauty & grooming, watches & jewellery, transport and technology. Gladstone also writes about and researches contemporary photography. Alongside her creative commissioning process, she continues her art practice as a photographer, for which she was recently nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award. And in recognition of her work to date, listed by the British Journal of Photography as ‘One to Watch’.

I’m interested in conversations around contemporary photography; it’s purpose, it’s influences, it’s strengths and limitations. This is an incredibly complex industry, so it’s interesting to see work that addresses that, while remaining curious about of the trends that shape our aesthetic taste.

Stephen Burke is a photographer, artist and creative producer living and working in Birmingham, UK.   

He is the Project Producer for GRAIN Projects, and is experienced in commissioning new work, artist development, exhibitions, publications, public art and socially engaged projects. He has worked with a broad range of artists & photographers including; Julian Germain, Anthony Luvera, Arpita Shah, Nilupa Yasmin, Maryam Wahid, Murray Ballard, Emily Graham, Polly Braden, Lydia Goldblatt, Sam Laughlin, Kate Peters, Stuart Whipps, Marco Kesseler and Chris Hoare.  

Stephen studied BA Photography at Falmouth University graduating in 2012 and completed an MA in Documentary Photography & Photojournalism at Westminster University in 2017. He is a Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham City University.

He is interested in all work, particularly in: Documentary Photography, Socially Engaged Practice, Collaborative Practices, Community Engagement, Portraiture, Editorial. Stephen is keen to support emerging artists & photographers. 

Tanvi works with images as a photo editor, curator, and writer based in New Delhi, India. Among her interests are South Asian visual histories, research methodologies in image-making as well as the notion of fiction in photography, particularly in the current political landscape. 

She has served as 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. She works as an independent curator and has been part of the curatorial teams of Photo Kathmandu, Delhi Photo Festival and BredaPhoto.  

Her writing on photography has been published in various platforms including Aperture, FOAM and The Caravan. Tanvi has served on multiple juries, including World Press Photo, Chennai Photo Biennale Photo Awards and the Catchlight Global Fellowship. She is currently part of the first international advisory committee of World Press Photo. She has recently been appointed as curator for the Louis Roederer Discovery award for the 2023 edition of Recontres d’Arles.  

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

Taous R. Dahmani is a London-based French, British and Algerian art historian, writer and curator specialising in photography. Her projects mainly involve the links between photography and politics. She is an Associate Lecturer at London College of Communication.
Her words can be found in photobooks published by Loose Joints and Chose Commune but also in magazines such as The British Journal of Photography, FOAM, GQ & 1000 Words Magazine. She is a frequent speaker and has appeared at Tate, the Getty Research Institute, the Barbican, Le Bal and La MEP. She recently curated the 2022 Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles. Dahmani has been the editor of The Eyes jounal since 2019.

Taous is interested in seeing photojournalism, fashion, editorial

Vincent is an anthropologist and curator working on and around photography and archival practices. His work often explores themes of time, memory, and the political imagination. He is based between London, Dhaka, and Berlin.

He is currently a curatorial associate for the 2024 Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie (Mannheim, Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen).

Recent projects include curating exhibitions at Peckham 24 (2022, 2021), Permanent/Temporary (London Design Festival 2022), Photobook Cafe (2022), Polycopies (2022), and Format International Festival of Photography (2021) amongst others; and convening the talks and public programmes for the 2021 and 2022 editions of Peckham 24, together with Iona Fergusson. He has taught workshops and delivered guest lectures for organisations such as The Photographers’ Gallery and GRAIN Projects; and regularly conducts portfolio reviews.

His AHRC-funded PhD research focuses on the everyday lives of photographic archives and the images they house, and considers their relations to collective memory and narrations of history.

Vincent interested in discussing narrative-driven work, across a range of genres. He is just as interested in ongoing projects as finished ones. Given his dual research/curatorial practice, he is also happy to discuss image/text, research practice in photography, and project development more broadly. Further areas of interest are book projects and independent publishing.

Photo Credit: Munem Wasif

Vivienne is Founder and Director of Seen Fifteen and Peckham 24 – two organisations at the forefront of contemporary photography in Peckham, South London.

Seen Fifteen hosts a dynamic programme of exhibitions dedicated to the work of contemporary photographers, with a specialist focus on photography’s “Expanded Field” and artists who push the boundaries of the medium.  Artists working with Seen Fifteen include Maya Rochat, Laura El-Tantawy, Alexander Mourant and Martin Seeds.  Originally from Northern Ireland, Vivienne has recently initiated a curatorial project, The Troubles Generation, examining the legacy of The Troubles through the work of artists brought up during or in the aftermath of the conflict.   The series has so far included solo exhibitions of work by Martin Seeds, Gareth McConnell and Audrey Blue.

Vivienne is also Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Peckham 24 festival.  Launched in 2016, Peckham 24 has been firmly established as a must-see part of the programme of events that celebrate photography city-wide during Photo London.  With a focus on supporting new talent and experimental artists working with photography, the festival creates a vibrant takeover of a number of warehouse and gallery spaces across Copeland Park and Bussey Building in the heart of Peckham’s artistic scene.

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.

Wang is the Director and Curator of Lishui Photography Festival. Lishui Photography Festival is an international photography celebration co-hosted by Lishui Municipal People’s Government and China Photographers Association (CPA). As China’s only photographic celebration named as “photography festival” by the State Council, it has been held for ten consecutive sessions since the year of 2004. The goal of the festival is “to create a well-known city of photography, to expand international exchanges, and to show the charm of Lishui”.

Wang is also the Director of China Photographers Association, a Member of Curator Committee of China Photographers Association.

Lishui have partnered with FORMAT for a number of years and often showcase FORMAT photographers’ work at their festival. Wang will be reviewing with Isabella Xueke Wang who is the Head of the International Department. They will also be joined by a translator.

Yining HE is a photographic and visual arts curator based in the UK and China. In curatorial practices, she specializes in uncovering contemporary visual arts practices and weaving them within a dual vision of politics and visual culture.

She has curated more than 50 theme exhibitions for museums, art institutions, and photography festivals across Eurasia, including the 8th Singapore Photography Festival: Future Known as Unpredicted (Emerald Hill, Singapore, 2022), BredaPhoto 2020: China Imagined (Grote Kerk, Breda, the Netherlands, 2020), The Port and the Image (China Port Museum, Ningbo, China, 2022/2019/2017), The Abode of Anamnesis (OCAT Institute, Beijing, 2019), and the 3rd Beijing Photo Biennale: Troubled Intention Ahead (CAFAM, Beijing, China, 2018). She won the OCAT Institute’s inaugural “Research-based Curatorial Project” and the “Curator of the Year Award” Nomination Award of the 14th Award of Art China (AAC), among others.

Yining HE is also a writer and researcher in contemporary Chinese visual arts. Her paper has been published or forthcoming in the New Art Museum Studies (Vol.2, 2023), Photography and Culture (Vol 15, issue 3, 2022), Journal of Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Vol.42, 2021), Photographies (Vol.14-Issue 1, 2021), and OVER Journal (Vol.1, 2020). She has been published widely in Chinese and English, including peer review journals, book chapters, sole-edited books, and exhibition publications as in Routledge Companion to Photography, Representation, and Social Justice (Routledge, 2022), a series of exhibition publications of The Port and the Image (2022/2019/2017), The Abode of Anamnesis (China Nationality Culture Press, 2021), A World Histories of Women Photographers (Thames and Hudson, 2022 /Editions Textual, 2021), Routledge Companion to Photography and Visual Culture (Routledge, 2018) and Photography in the British Classroom (China Nationality Culture Press, 2015), among others. Yining is the editor of Floating Island: Journal of Photography and Visual Culture (Est. 2016) and a member of the peer review panel of OVER Journal and Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.

Yining has published hundreds of articles in art, photography, and visual culture magazines in China and Internationally, including FOAM Magazine, Aperture Photobook Review, IMA, ArtForum, Art World, and China Photography Magazine. Apart from writing, she also devoted herself to translating the history and theory of art and photography books into Chinese. It includes Art and Photography (David Campany ed.), Artists Who Make Books (Andrew Roth, Philip E.Aarons and Claire Lehmann ed.), Photography and Travel (by Graham Smith), Perspectives on Place (by J.A.P. Alexander), The Photobook: A History Volume II and III (Martin Parr and Gerry Badger ed.), among others.

Yining is a London College of Communication, University of the Arts London graduate. She is a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA), Faculty of Arts, Design, and Media at Birmingham City University. Her doctoral research is centered on the decolonial turn of Chinese contemporary art in the post-2008s period, examining the links between decolonial art practices, the impacts of the Colonial Matrix of Power on Chinese histories, and current decolonial discourses. She is an associate lecturer in “MA Photography” at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London. And she has been a guest lecturer across art universities in China and the UK, including SOAS University of London, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Xiamen University, Nanjing University, and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts over the years, to name a few.She

Yining has also worked as a jury member for domestic/international photography and art awards, including the World Press Photo Contest 2023 (NL), OCAT “2022 Research-Based Curatorial Project” (China), 2022/2021 Jimei Arles Curatorial Award of Photography and Moving Image (China), 2021/2020 Photo Vague (Italy), 2019 A New Gaze (Switzerland), 2019 Reference Asia Awards (Korea), 2019 Youth Art 100 (China), Top 20 China Contemporary Photography (China), 2016 New Talent Award (China), FORMAT International Photography Festival Open Award (UK), and Three Shadows Photography Award (China).

Yumi is an independent photography curator, editor, researcher, consultant, educator, and publisher who focuses on the development of cultural exchanges that transcend borders. 
 
She collaborates with local and international artists who live and work in areas affected by conflict, natural disasters, current social problems, human rights abuses, and women’s issues. She often works with human rights advocates, international and local NGOs, humanitarian organizations and as well as being involved as a nominator and juror for the international photographic organizations, festivals, and events. 
 
She is now based in Tokyo and also a co-founder and curator for the Reminders Photography Stronghold which is a curated membership gallery space in Tokyo enabling a wide range of photographic activities. In addition to the RPS in Tokyo, in November of 2020, she established a new RPS offshoot “PAPEROLES” in Kyoto and will lead a full-fledged activity. 

Yumi is more interested in visual story-telling, the work created with good research, with multiple layers to visualise the subject matter. She is interested in looking at images and talking about how they could develop the work, new approaches or alternative ideas for doing more, so all are welcome if the artists are open for the input. Some might be interested in photobook making, that Yumi could only talk about from her experience but not from the photobook industry in general.