Scott, Grant

Name not available

This is a peer-reviewed, final published version of the following document, All images © Grant Scott 2016 
and is licensed under All Rights Reserved license:
Scott, Grant (2014) Photography Festivals: An Opportunity Repeatedly 
Missed? United Nations of Photography. 
Official URL: https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2014/10/28/photography-festivals-an-opportunity-
repeatedly-missed/
EPrint URI: http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3702
Disclaimer 
The University of Gloucestershire has obtained warranties from all depositors as to their title in the material 
deposited and as to their right to deposit such material.  
The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation or warranties of commercial utility, title, or fitness 
for a particular purpose or any other warranty, express or implied in respect of any material deposited.  
The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation that the use of the materials will not infringe any 
patent, copyright, trademark or other property or proprietary rights.  
The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any 
material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an 
allegation of any such infringement. 
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT.
 Photography Festivals: An Opportunity Repeatedly Missed? 
 
 
I have never looked ‘down’ upon the commissioned image or venerated the ‘art’ image 
purely because of the status placed upon it by others. I am not interested in the ‘Is 
photography an art form?’ discussion or debate. My love is for all areas of photography 
and I respect and admire successful images wherever they come from, whoever created 
them and whatever there provenance. 
It is from that perspective that I write this post. Over the last few years I have attended a large 
number of photography festivals created by passionate and hard working individuals 
dedicated to the photographic image across the United Kingdom. Their has been no shortage 
of festivals to visit, as the photography festival has become as essential to a town or cities 
cultural offering in recent years as an out of town retail park was in the Nineties.  Yet despite 
their proliferation and independence, varied geographic locations, different themes, curating 
agendas and exhibiting programmes a dark cloud has hung over each of those I have visited. 
I once wrote for a magazine I edited of my belief that the influence of the Dusseldorf School 
practitioners had killed photography. An oversimplified comment if taken purely at face 
value but if you read the piece I think you will see where I was coming from with such a 
contentious stance (just Google ‘Did The Dusseldorf School Kill Photography?’ and it is 
easily found). I now feel that it is time to adapt that stance and add another accessory to the 
crime and the word ‘Festival’ to the name of the deceased. 
The idea of a photography festival should surely be to celebrate all areas of photographic 
practice. To show work that is informative, challenging, engaging and inspirational to both an 
engaged and a non-engaged audience. Unfortunately, too many of the festivals I have visited 
have failed to achieve that final requirement to reach out and engage with the non-engaged 
through the images exhibited. 
I blame this on the dominance of work exhibited at these festivals created with the heavy 
hand of both the ‘Duselldorfer’s’ and the ‘New Topographer’s’ on the shoulders of 
photographers desperate to be taken seriously by a self-appointed establishment of ‘taste 
makers’ closed to the broader world of photography and only open to the introspection of the 
personal and ‘serious’. 
Discussions of post-photography and deconstructed photography leave me cold and confused 
so how must they appear to the disengaged? Those who have not read devoured and 
memorized the hallowed writings of those photographic theorists we are expected to venerate 
and never question. I have long believed that in this world of photographic pretension that the 
emperor is only barely dressed; that clothing is to my mind looking even more depleted with 
every festival I see that places that emperor on an ever higher pedestal. 
I know that I am not alone in these beliefs. I have had many conversations with people 
involved with festivals bemoaning the insular nature of such events and the reality of the 
same small but dedicated audience appearing at each and every one. Of course I am using a 
broad brush here and every festival has highlights that contradict my stance here but which of 
the UK based photographic festivals that have been staged over the last few years have 
offered a platform for sports, music, food, fashion, editorial or advertising based images? 
Which of those festivals have put a smile on your face through images that accurately reflect 
most people’s everyday touch-points with photography? 
Can a photographer only be judged to be serious about their work if in turn the images they 
create are serious in nature, tone and creation? Funded and not commissioned? And in turn 
can a festival of photography only be perceived as serious if it includes these images? If you 
answer yes to these questions you are disrespecting and ignoring the photographers creating 
work that is shaping our world by informing the decisions we make on what we eat, what we 
watch, how we live, what we buy and how we dress. 
Commissioned photography is largely ignored by these festivals and yet the festival curators 
seem happy to turn a blind eye to Martin Parr helping to sell Birds Eye frozen products, the 
popular success of show’s by Avedon, Bailey, Penn and Testino at the National Portrait 
Gallery and the critical and commercial success of the Horst P. Horst show currently at the 
Victoria and Albert Museum. 
Photography is commercial across all genres, all of which require a client to support the 
creation of future work. That client may buy a print, a book, supply a bursary or funding 
or present a commission. The client is the enabler so why the dismissive attitude by some 
many of the festival organizers and curators to commissioned work? 
The UK interpretation of the photographic festival has I believe become narrow focused, 
insular and obsessed with how they are perceived by a small but powerful cabal who are then 
asked to speak and present workshops at those same festivals. This may be influenced by the 
need to secure funding from arts based organizations or through academic research funding, 
if so the impact this is having on the perception of photography by the populace is achieving 
the opposite result to what these organizations claim to be their goals. 
Glastonbury is a great festival because of its eclectic, open-armed, open-minded approach to 
all genres of musical performance. It attracts a similarly diverse audience eager to experience 
what they know and what they stumble upon from Beyonce to Royal Blood. This for me is 
the essence of a festival, an event that is inclusive not exclusive, that shares but never 
preaches, that promotes but does not judge. 
It is such a shame that the UK photography festival cannot adopt a similar approach to attract 
a similar audience. That would be a true photographic festival that would truly reflect 
photography as the global visual language it is today. 
 


Photography Festivals: An Opportunity Repeatedly Missed?

University of Gloucestershire Research Repository 

This is a peer-reviewed, final published version of the following document, All images © Grant Scott 2016 and is licensed under All Rights Reserved license:Scott, Grant (2014) Photography Festivals: An Opportunity Repeatedly Missed? United Nations of Photography. Official URL: https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2014/10/28/photography-festivals-an-opportunity-repeatedly-missed/EPrint URI: http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3702Disclaimer The University of Gloucestershire has obtained warranties from all depositors as to their title in the material deposited and as to their right to deposit such material.  The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation or warranties of commercial utility, title, or fitness for a particular purpose or any other warranty, express or implied in respect of any material deposited.  The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation that the use of the materials will not infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other property or proprietary rights.  The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an allegation of any such infringement. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT. Photography Festivals: An Opportunity Repeatedly Missed?   I have never looked ‘down’ upon the commissioned image or venerated the ‘art’ image purely because of the status placed upon it by others. I am not interested in the ‘Is photography an art form?’ discussion or debate. My love is for all areas of photography and I respect and admire successful images wherever they come from, whoever created them and whatever there provenance. It is from that perspective that I write this post. Over the last few years I have attended a large number of photography festivals created by passionate and hard working individuals dedicated to the photographic image across the United Kingdom. Their has been no shortage of festivals to visit, as the photography festival has become as essential to a town or cities cultural offering in recent years as an out of town retail park was in the Nineties.  Yet despite their proliferation and independence, varied geographic locations, different themes, curating agendas and exhibiting programmes a dark cloud has hung over each of those I have visited. I once wrote for a magazine I edited of my belief that the influence of the Dusseldorf School practitioners had killed photography. An oversimplified comment if taken purely at face value but if you read the piece I think you will see where I was coming from with such a contentious stance (just Google ‘Did The Dusseldorf School Kill Photography?’ and it is easily found). I now feel that it is time to adapt that stance and add another accessory to the crime and the word ‘Festival’ to the name of the deceased. The idea of a photography festival should surely be to celebrate all areas of photographic practice. To show work that is informative, challenging, engaging and inspirational to both an engaged and a non-engaged audience. Unfortunately, too many of the festivals I have visited have failed to achieve that final requirement to reach out and engage with the non-engaged through the images exhibited. I blame this on the dominance of work exhibited at these festivals created with the heavy hand of both the ‘Duselldorfer’s’ and the ‘New Topographer’s’ on the shoulders of photographers desperate to be taken seriously by a self-appointed establishment of ‘taste makers’ closed to the broader world of photography and only open to the introspection of the personal and ‘serious’. Discussions of post-photography and deconstructed photography leave me cold and confused so how must they appear to the disengaged? Those who have not read devoured and memorized the hallowed writings of those photographic theorists we are expected to venerate and never question. I have long believed that in this world of photographic pretension that the emperor is only barely dressed; that clothing is to my mind looking even more depleted with every festival I see that places that emperor on an ever higher pedestal. I know that I am not alone in these beliefs. I have had many conversations with people involved with festivals bemoaning the insular nature of such events and the reality of the same small but dedicated audience appearing at each and every one. Of course I am using a broad brush here and every festival has highlights that contradict my stance here but which of the UK based photographic festivals that have been staged over the last few years have offered a platform for sports, music, food, fashion, editorial or advertising based images? Which of those festivals have put a smile on your face through images that accurately reflect most people’s everyday touch-points with photography? Can a photographer only be judged to be serious about their work if in turn the images they create are serious in nature, tone and creation? Funded and not commissioned? And in turn can a festival of photography only be perceived as serious if it includes these images? If you answer yes to these questions you are disrespecting and ignoring the photographers creating work that is shaping our world by informing the decisions we make on what we eat, what we watch, how we live, what we buy and how we dress. Commissioned photography is largely ignored by these festivals and yet the festival curators seem happy to turn a blind eye to Martin Parr helping to sell Birds Eye frozen products, the popular success of show’s by Avedon, Bailey, Penn and Testino at the National Portrait Gallery and the critical and commercial success of the Horst P. Horst show currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Photography is commercial across all genres, all of which require a client to support the creation of future work. That client may buy a print, a book, supply a bursary or funding or present a commission. The client is the enabler so why the dismissive attitude by some many of the festival organizers and curators to commissioned work? The UK interpretation of the photographic festival has I believe become narrow focused, insular and obsessed with how they are perceived by a small but powerful cabal who are then asked to speak and present workshops at those same festivals. This may be influenced by the need to secure funding from arts based organizations or through academic research funding, if so the impact this is having on the perception of photography by the populace is achieving the opposite result to what these organizations claim to be their goals. Glastonbury is a great festival because of its eclectic, open-armed, open-minded approach to all genres of musical performance. It attracts a similarly diverse audience eager to experience what they know and what they stumble upon from Beyonce to Royal Blood. This for me is the essence of a festival, an event that is inclusive not exclusive, that shares but never preaches, that promotes but does not judge. It is such a shame that the UK photography festival cannot adopt a similar approach to attract a similar audience. That would be a true photographic festival that would truly reflect photography as the global visual language it is today.  

https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3702/1/Photography%20Festivals.pdf

Photography Festivals: An Opportunity Repeatedly Missed?

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