„The New York Times Magazine: Photographs Tearsheets” is the festival programme’s highlight. The exhibition is curated by long-time photo editor of the magazine Kathy Ryan. The collection includes more than 400 photographs showing the most important events in world history and famous and influential personalities as well as the portfolios of the greatest photographers such as Nan Goldin, Roger Ballen, Lee Friedlander, Malic Sadibé, Gregory Crewdson, Simon Norfolk, Paolo Pellegrin, Andres Serrano, Sebastião Salgado, Gilles Peress, Annie Leibovitz, Philip Lorca di Corcia, or Mary Ellen Mark. The exhibition format is out of the ordinary, comprising of modules used to display photos and articles in a way that reflects the original newspaper layout. This is not a mere photo exhibition. It provides an opportunity for discussion about the role of media in photography development and about the feedback loop resulting from such interference.
The photographs were first shown at Europe’s most important photography festival Les Recontres Arles Photographie in France. They will be exhibited in Poland for the first time.
The next festival’s atraction will be The Grand Prix Fotofestiwal 2013 exhibition featuring works by eight competition finalists including Anja Bohnhof, Karl Burke, Jan Brykczyński, Frank Herfort, Lucia Herrero, Nadav Kander, Emilio Pemjean, and Ilona Szwarc. More than 500 artists entered their works into the competition and only one can win the main prize of PLN 10,000.
British photography legend Nadav Kander will show a series of portraits titled Bodies. 6 Woman. 1 Man. Unusual projects will be showcased such as The Harvest of Death by Karl Burke, being a photo experiment using computer games pictures, or Palimpsest by Emilio Pemjean, aiming to reconstruct architectural objects and spaces shown in the world’s most famous paintings. Ilona Szwarc will present her World Press Photo Award-winning project American Girls. Furthermore, we will catch a glimpse of a Ukrainian village inhabited by the Boykos photographed by Jan Brykczyński and we will see nature and wildlife photography reinterpreted by Lucia Herrero.
The winners will be announced during the festival opening and the works by all finalists will be exhibited as part of the event.
The “I ARTIST. Transcendent Amateur” exhibition curated by Joan Fontcuberta is also worth to visit. Joan Fontcuberta is one of the most significant contemporary visual artists, a curator, and this year’s winner of the Hasselblad Award granted to the most influential creators. This part of the festival programme will have a focus on amateur and anonymous photography, and its evolving artistic and social status including transformations in media and visual communications. Among many approaches to the topic, it will feature arts and community involvement projects, humorous reinterpretations of popular culture images by Joachim Schmid and a series of hilarious photos found online by Philip Schuette.
The second part of the I ARTIST exhibition programme has a focus on so-called vernacular photography. Collections of family photographs showing the citizens of the People’s Republic of Poland engaged in active pastimes or a series of photographs taken in one of Łódź’ first photo booths by Schloem Rottenberg, a very creative soul and traveller, found in the attic of a town house in Moldova will be showcased.
The accompanying exhibitions held at art galleries in Łódź will feature portraits by Jacek Poremba, the project ‘Yes, I come from Poland’ by Wojtek Wieteska bringing together works created by this acclaimed artist to date, and the project ‘Black Sea of Concrete’ by Rafał Milach taking a closer look at the Black Sea coast in between two worlds. Open-air slide shows will give the festival a special flair. Contemporary Dutch and Portugese photography will be on show.
OFF Piotrkowska will not only host the most important Fotofestiwal exhibitions. It will also become the venue for arts education including a series of family workshops and courses.
The 12th edition of Fotofestiwal will be held between 6 and 16 June 2013.
The International Festival of Photography in Łódź is one of Europe’s greatest photography events. It features more than 30 exhibitions and accompanying events such as portfolio reviews, photo walking, slide shows, family workshops, a reading room and a library attracting over 20,000 attendees.
The main festival organiser is the Foundation of Visual Education that has worked with Łódź Art Center, the Arts Factory and the City of Łódź Office for years. The Fotofestiwal organisers have also founded Photo Festival Union, the association of European photography festivals, and the festival itself is a member of a similar global organization called Festival of Light.
More information: The International Festival of Photography in Łódź
Source: Festival’s press release