The Bristol Photo Festival, a biennial festival with a year-round programme of commissions and collaborations, has been announced. It culminates in a series of exhibitions by both local and international artists in spring 2021. The theme of the inaugural festival is A Sense of Place and parts of the exhibition programme have been selected in partnership with Martin Parr (who is also a festival committee member).

Relating to the theme of A Sense of Place, there will be year-round collaborative programmes, including projects on natural, domestic and industrial spaces across the city through the construction of visual archives, alongside the production of new photographic works and text. The full programme will be announced in winter 2020.

Image credit Chris Hoare

Highlights include: Collaborations: Growing Spaces, in which local photographer Chris Hoare focusses on the city’s allotments, accompanied by a collection of written narratives. The Unwanted, meanwhile, is a visual account of homelessness in America, taken over a period of four years by Danish photographer, Thilde Jensen.

Image credit Thilde Jensen

Bristol Photo Festival will also include a unique educational programme involving students from primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities around the city and beyond. Full details here.