Format Festival, Derby

Attending the Format photography festival in Derby was just such a joyous celebration of the genre for me. A pilgrimage of sorts, requiring some map reading and hastily paced perambulations of the city to visit all of the eclectic and exciting array of works from a similarly exhaustive list of interesting venues and public spaces. I enjoy photographs, and remain enthused by the many ways in which we engage with them and think about them, and so visits such as this one have enlivened my desire to remain involved and active among them - as much as a motivating factor as any I believe.

Of particular interest, and first up on the photographic tour of Derby on the day, a small exhibition of sustainably sourced and produced photobooks at Derby City Lab. The re:think | re:use | re.work exhibit followed from a workshop event in approaches to sustainable book making facilitated by Ed Sykes, Sayako Sugawara and Tamsin Green. On show, several beautifully crafted works by a a range of photographers, often the content of which too dealing with issues of ecology, sustainability and climate.

One exhibition that I was especially keen to visit was the Paper Geographies exhibition featuring Yan Preston, David Penny, Alan Jones, Polly Palmerini and Ryan Moule, curated by Richard Page, at Derbion; a unit in the city’s shopping centre that seemed tricky to locate. One I had, mind, the works presenting different interpretations dealing with archeologies of place, including re-located trees, a ruined column from Ancient Greece, the post-industrial landscape of Wales and the mythical imaginations of folklore. Place, materiality and photography converge to present an ephemeral and morphing relationship of time and history - themes present in my own work and therefore an inspiring collection of images.

Over the course of the rest of the day Clean Hong Kong Action and Raudan Jalgea’s Spott Enter Jern impressed. The zoned exhibitions at Deda also included an exhibition of archival images and mementos, We Danced in Derby, celebrating the history of dance in the city.

At the University of Derby, many interesting projects were scatted all around the corridors and rooms of an extensive campus, with Bank Mill Studios also hosting University graduate work. At Dubrek, I enjoyed a well earned beverage and appreciated the FORMAT23 Open Call Genesis Imaging Award winner’s exhibition Bed Checks by Pratya Jankong and Olga Fedorova, before heading to the Museum of Making where I drift through facets and relics of industrial heritage before locating A Perfect Sentence, Oliver Frank Chanarin’s first UK solo exhibition where chance encounters lead to a selection of documentary photographs that capture a nation in transition through the unstable recent years in the UK.