LOOK/15: Liverpool International Photography Festival

lookphotofestival.com
15th May - 31st June 2015

By Pippa Jane Wielgos

LOOK/15, Liverpool’s third edition bi-annual International Photography Festival focuses its 2015 theme on EXCHANGE exploring interchanges through a series of exhibitions and events that look at MIGRATION, WOMEN & PHOTOGRAPHY and MEMORY.

Delivered in partnership with Liverpool City Council, TATE Liverpool, FACT, Victoria Gallery & Museum, the Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery and the Walker, it will present emerging, mid-career and established local and international artists, including new commissions by Xavier Ribas of the University of Brighton, shown in Nitrates at the Bluecoat; Ignacio Acosta (Chile) who takes a critical look at the mining of copper, particularly in the Atacama Desert, examining the relationship between nature and human intervention; Jona Frank (USA) who presents The Modern Kids (multiple locations), a unique insight into male youth culture, as evoked in community boxing clubs around the city of Liverpool, from an external eye in the first of a number of transatlantic exchanges, and the Liverpool photographer Tony Mallon, (FACT and public realm), a powerful series If Only it Could Speak that looks at homeless shelters and the idea of institutional spaces which shows domesticity in counterpoint to societal expectation, whilst highlighting the global plight of homelessness, transitory states and community drift, amongst many other established world class and emerging artists.

Coinciding with The Liverpool founded Cunard company’s Cunard’s 175th anniversary, it will be followed by a separate event between 24-26 May, when the Queen Mary 2, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria liners will meet on the River Mersey for the first time reinforcing the trans-Atlantic status and Liverpool as a major historical port of exploration and exchange.

Speaking to 'Nerve' magazine Emma Smith - Executive Director, LOOK/15 said:

"LOOK/15:Exchange has the largest critical mass of photographic exhibitions and events to date and the programme is still growing.

The key difference this year is the approach we have taken to drawing the exhibitions together using the events programme, which is curated to investigate the conversations that arise between the exhibitions.

As a result, exhibits find friendships and exchanges with other exhibitions within the festival and visitors are given reasons to visit other work, based on shared themes, common approaches and/or alternative viewpoints.

This has guided us to programme in-conversation events between artists, events looking at codes of conducts and others that help audiences understand the project arch of creating the perfect image.

LOOK has tried to approach all of the festival curation with a sense of generosity, using the festival as a platform for discourse and allowing the venues to take risk; thus international venues look at local concerns, whilst independents host international artists. In terms of surprises: it's worth keeping your eyes out for some art poster campaigns, our public realm work for Women and the City and Jona Frank's billboard along with the first ever UK showing of 2014 Kassel International Fotobook Awards, showcasing some incredible contemporary talent, echoed again in the first combined college student show.

With such a lot on offer, it's a great time to visit the north...and starting with the Liverpool International Photography Festival gives you a lot of opportunities to see incredible photography, in world-class cultural venues, independent spaces and the public realm@.

LOOK/15 www.lookphotofestival.com which hopes to attract in excess of 350,00, will run alongside György Kepes Tate Liverpool (6 March - 31 May 2015), Martin Parr and Tony Ray- Jones “Only in England’ Walker Gallery (13 February - 30 June 2015), Helen Sear, representing Wales at the Venice Biennale 2015, Victoria Gallery & Museum. Sheila Rock Tough and Tender (the Gallery, Stanhope Street).

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