A first look at Photo Fringe 2024 - Common Ground

4 October - 17 November

The biennial, open-platform photography festival returns in October with six weeks of exhibitions and events in and beyond Brighton & Hove, Newhaven and for the first time, Portsmouth.

Photo Fringe offers a vibrant mix of photographers presenting their own work, plus photography selected from open calls, in galleries, cafés, pop-up venues, outdoor installations and other extraordinary spaces. Exhibitors for 2024 include: Rhiannon Adam, British Culture Archive and Tish Murtha, Murray Ballard, Alejandra Carles-Tolra, Laura El-Tantawy, Arpita Shah, MacdonaldStrand, Peckham 24, Pippa Healy, Mandy Williams and many more.

For its eleventh edition, many of the established names and emerging talents featured in the programme respond to the theme of “Common Ground”. Festival Director, Claire Wearn, explains, “Finding common ground is a starting point for positive change. Like photography, common ground can bridge divides, challenge stereotypes and create space for collaboration and connection.”

The Collectives Hub at Phoenix Art Space has become a well-established feature of the Photo Fringe line-up. Eight different groups of photographers, selected from open-call, will show work responding to the festival’s Common Ground theme. The selected collectives are Brighton Queer Photographers Collective, Emic Collective, Flowers of Lilith, HOLD, Iris Collective, London Alternative Photography Collective, MAP6 and Rethinking Eastern Europe.

The British Culture Archive will present work by, and inspired by, social documentary photographer and trailblazer Tish Murtha, who dedicated her life to documenting the lives of working-class communities in North East England. Alongside an exhibition of her works selected by Tish’s daughter, Ella, and BCA Founder, Paul Wright, will be a new exhibition of images resulting from Documenting Your Community - an open-submission project celebrating the photographer’s legacy and capturing life in contemporary Britain. 3 Dukes Lane (Fri-Sun, 4-13 Oct)

The Hoppings Newcastle upon Tyne, 2023. Photo © Maria Maza _ British Culture Archive

Showing for the first time in the UK ahead of an exhibition at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is Alejandra Carles-Tolra‘s acclaimed series The Bears - a portrait series of women rugby players that explores group identity and gender roles. (Phoenix Art Space 23 - 27 Oct)

A group show, A Land Within, at Marine Workshops in Newhaven (1-14 November) will be curated by independent publishers Jane & Jeremy, exploring the land and our connection to it. Artists involved are Rhiannon Adam, Alison Lloyd (in association with John Marchant Gallery), Molly Maltman, Kathryn Martin, Véronique Rolland and Sara Knelman. Rhiannon Adam will present new work questioning our place in the cosmos and reflecting on her recent experience of being selected as one of eight creatives for dearMoon, the recently cancelled, first-ever civilian crew to fly to the moon. Jane & Jeremy will also present an installation and workshop space in association with Photoworks.

John Marchant Gallery will host a six-week exhibition (from 25 Oct) of photography, collage and film by the artist, activist and curator Alison Lloyd, who was defined by her inventive art, revolutionary politics and humour. Although her work was included in the recent Women in Revolt! exhibition at Tate, this will be the first exhibition dedicated to her work since her death in January 2024.

MacDonaldStrand will show at Galley DODO. Clare Strand and Gordon MacDonald make work in response to photographic history, politics and practice. Their project False Flags is a new iteration of their ongoing work No More Flags, a series of images of far right-wing gatherings in the UK and US. The national ﬂags the protagonists are holding have been crudely removed from the images, in what MacDonaldStrand describe as an act of ‘cathartic Photoshopping’. Sharing the project in the UK and internationally has raised issues of ethics, intention, copyright, ownership and consent that add additional layers of interest to the images and questions over how they are viewed.

Outdoor exhibitions feature strongly in the Photo Fringe lineup. Arpita Shah, co-commissioned by Photo Fringe with The Gaia Foundation for We Feed The UK, focuses on Black-led growing initiatives in North London and will be shown on Haringey billboards and at Brighton’s ONCA Gallery. This project has also inspired another commission at Moulsecoomb Forest Garden, where local growers and artist Becky Warnock have created an exhibition to be installed at Moulsecoomb Railway Station Footbridge.

Arpita Shah, Pam, Black Rootz Wolves Lane Centre, shot for The Gaia Foundation's We Feed The UK campaign. Arts Partner, Photo Fringe

Recently elected Brighton Pavilion Green Party MP, Siân Berry, is a guest judge on the selection panel for an open call in response to the climate crisis. Open Eco will present twenty selected images in an open-air exhibition on Brighton seafront.

Work by Laura El-Tantawy will show at St Peter’s Church. Commissioned by WaterAid and part-funded by the Wimbledon Foundation, Carrying Life: Motherhood and Water in Malawi explores the burden on women giving birth without access to clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. Through these images, El-Tantawy not only offers an intimate insight into the lived experiences of mothers across the generations but also explores the extraordinary bond between women giving birth in such unsafe circumstances.

Enala Etifala, 19, lives near Kangolwa health centre and gave birth a year ago, before the centre had clean water. Whilst there, her guardian had to collect water from a stream so she could bathe and clean herself up after the birth. “The water was dirty and not good. I could see things settling to the bottom of the bucket. I had to use the same water to drink from. Laura El-Tantawy’s Carrying Life photo series was commissioned by WaterAid and the Wimbledon Foundation.

A rolling programme of Photo Fringe exhibitions shows at the Regency Town House. This place is not a passive landscape (4-13 Oct) offers transformed experiences of place by Pippa Healy and Mandy Williams. Also at The Regency Town House, Expression, an ongoing portrait series of celebrated artists by Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize winner, Richard Boll (4-13 Oct).

Photo Fringe is well known for extending beyond the boundaries of its home city of Brighton & Hove, both with its online exhibitions and by stretching along the coast to connect with venues in Hastings, Lewes, Newhaven and Worthing. This year, the festival reaches Portsmouth for the first time with shows and happenings across the six weeks of the festival, including an extended weekend (Thu 10 - Sun 13 Oct) of artist talks and tours, openings, book events and portfolio reviews.

Bryan Adams: Hear the World

By Bryan Adams

Publisher : Steidl

2024 | 264 pages

Hear the World is a visually compelling and heartwarming collection of over 120 portraits by musician and photographer Bryan Adams, created in collaboration with the Hear the World Foundation. This beautifully curated book brings together some of the most recognizable faces from the worlds of film, music, fashion, and beyond—including Julianne Moore, Bruce Springsteen, The Weeknd, Priyanka Chopra, Jared Leto, Léa Seydoux, and Lenny Kravitz—all captured through Adams' distinctive lens. Each subject strikes the signature "Hear the World" pose, with a hand cupped behind one ear, symbolizing their support for hearing awareness.

The Hear the World Foundation, which focuses on supporting children with hearing loss in low- and middle-income countries, is grounded in the belief that every child deserves the opportunity to hear and live life to its fullest. Adams has been a passionate collaborator with the foundation since 2007, and Hear the World is the culmination of their shared vision to highlight the importance of conscious hearing and advocate for global accessibility to hearing care.

The portraits in Hear the World offer more than just familiar faces—they capture the humanity, individuality, and solidarity of renowned ambassadors uniting for a vital cause. Each image stands as a reminder of the preciousness of sound and the often-overlooked gift of hearing. Through this striking visual anthology, Adams not only showcases his skill behind the camera but also raises awareness of hearing loss and celebrates the foundation's mission.

This book is a testament to the power of art, philanthropy, and collaboration, making Hear the World a touching and meaningful contribution to both the world of photography and the cause of hearing health.

All About Bryan Adams

Mary Ellen Mark: Indian Circus

By Mary Ellen Mark

Publisher : Steidl

2024 | 160 pages

Playful yet haunting, Mary Ellen Mark’s photographs of Indian circus performers depict a world on the brink of disappearance. In 1969, Mark first traveled to India and photographed a circus, captivated by its "beauty and innocence." Two decades later, she returned for six months to document 18 circuses across the country, from bustling cities to remote villages.

Ranging from large troupes with hundreds of performers—both human and animal—to small, intimate acts, Mark's lens captures not the spectacle of the shows, but the quiet moments in between: scenes of practice, rest, and life beyond the spotlight. Her focus is on the human experience—marked by the contradictions of humor and sadness, beauty and hardship. By the time of Mark’s project, Indian circuses were already fading, holding onto an innocence long lost in the West, as they struggled against the pressures of the modern world.

This new edition of her 1993 book preserves the original text and images but reimagines the sequence and design, staying true to Mark’s poignant vision of a dying art form.

All About Mary Ellen Mark

Peter Lindbergh: Dior

By Peter Lindbergh

Publisher : TASCHEN

2024 | 512 pages

Peter Lindbergh photographed Dior’s most exceptional muses, Marion Cotillard and Charlize Theron among them, and signed campaigns for Lady Dior and J'Adore with his inimitable style. Throughout his career, the photographer was one of the house’s closest collaborators. This final book was an original cocreation that was close to the artist’s heart—and to ours.

Seventy years of Dior history projected against the effervescence of Times Square, New York: this was the concept behind Lindbergh’s project, extraordinary both in scope and dimension, for which Dior, in an unusual move, allowed an unprecedented number of priceless garments to be taken from its vaults in Paris and shipped across the Atlantic.

The result is electric. Amid the frenzy of Times Square, Alek Wek glows in the immaculate 1947 Bar suit, the storied ensemble that launched the House of Dior. In snatches of street scenes, models Saskia de Brauw, Karen Elson, and Amber Valletta flit through crowds and scaffolding, are reflected in building façades, and draped in haute couture, from pieces hand-sewn by Christian Dior to more recent designs by Maria Grazia Chiuri. Lindbergh’s trademark monochrome and color photographs masterfully highlight the intricacies, silhouettes, and textures of each garment.

Lindbergh himself is present in every aspect of this publication designed by his long-time collaborator and friend Juan Gatti. This volume features 165 never-before-published images from the shoot, including an introduction by Martin Harrison, and pays homage to Lindbergh’s profound relationship with the Parisian House by curating more than 100 of his photographs of Dior creations, from haute couture to ready-to-wear, men’s and women’s, originally published in some of the world’s most prestigious magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. A breathtaking tribute to two pillars of fashion and photography and their timeless collaborations.

All About Peter Lindbergh

Toilet Alex Paper Prager

By Alex Prager, Maurizio Cattelan, Pierpaolo Ferrari

Publisher : Damiani

2024 | 40 pages

A captivating fusion of the surreal worlds of Toilet Paper and the striking imagery of artist, director, and screenwriter Alex Prager, the latest issue of Toilet Paper magazine presents a visual dialogue between these creative forces. The issue showcases 12 of Prager’s evocative images alongside 12 conceived by the Toilet Paper team. Known for its vibrant aesthetics and playful visual twists, Toilet Paper enters into a dynamic exchange with Prager’s technicolor universe, where the line between reality and fiction is artfully blurred. Her signature use of archetypes, everyday objects, humor, and allegory creates a provocative and mysterious journey throughout the pages. This collaboration follows in the footsteps of ToiletMartin PaperParr (2018), a special edition that celebrated the iconic work of internationally acclaimed photographer Martin Parr, along with the creative minds of Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari. Like its predecessor, this issue brings together distinctive visual worlds in a way that delights and intrigues.

A first look at Photo Fringe 2024 - Common Ground

4 October - 17 November

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