PHOTOWORKS AT 30 - a year of celebrations announced marking 1995-2025

Photoworks is pleased to launch news of plans for 2025 - the 30th year of Photoworks. A range of exhibitions, events, projects and exhibitions in some of the major arts and photography galleries across the UK and internationally are set to take place, alongside residencies, a digital programme, celebratory events, online moments and a new Photoworks Annual.

Louise Fedotov-Clements, Director, Photoworks, said, ''We are delighted to be marking 30 years of championing photography for everyone with an exciting programme across the UK and beyond, as well as online. Our programme is rich and varied - there is something for everyone to join in with. Audiences can experience exhibitions and commissioned projects by some of the most exciting lens based artists today; engage with photography everywhere from Stonehenge to the seaside to a major photography festival, or join us for a talk, a birthday party or by delving into one of our online or print publications planned for 2025. We also want to support our sector with this anniversary programme, with development opportunities, new residencies and seed grants. We are grateful to all of our partners, funders, audiences and artists for their valued participation.''

Exhibitions:
Echoes: Stone Circles, Community and Heritage at Stonehenge
Saturday 15 Feb 2025 – Sunday 7 September 2025
Photoworks, in partnership with English Heritage, has opened a new photography exhibition at Stonehenge, featuring the newly commissioned work of three emerging artists - Sally Barton, Serena Burgis and Yuxi Hou. Focussing on stone circles in English Heritage’s care, their photography highlights the meanings that communities draw from these special places, while also exploring how prehistoric stone circles resonate with young people today. This will be the first ever exhibition of contemporary photography at the historic site.

Mahtab Hussain at Ikon: What Did You Want To See?
Thursday 20 March – Sunday 1 June 2025
British artist Mahtab Hussain explores the fine line between photographic documentation and surveillance culture, intervening in the intelligence sites established by the media and the state to monitor the Muslim community in Britain. Commissioned in partnership with Photoworks, the exhibition features new work, including Hussain’s systematic documentation of 160 Birmingham mosques, revealing the diversity of mosque architecture; portraits of Birmingham residents which highlight the city’s vibrant Muslim community through fashion identity; a communal space within the gallery aimed at fostering inclusion and intercultural dialogue; and the artist’s installation What Did You Want To See? which simulates a space under surveillance.

Felicity Hammond - Variations
Staged in four venues across the UK, and with a first iteration at Photoworks Weekender in 2024, Variations is a new work by Felicity Hammond is an evolving installation exploring the relationship between geological mining and data mining, and image-making and machine learning. The work will be shown at The Photographers Gallery, QUAD in Derby as part of FORMAT International Photography Festival and Stills Centre for Photography, Edinburgh across 2025. The first iteration of this installation, V1: Content Aware, reflects on the global structures that support the digital economy; V2: Rigged brings together extractive processes that exploit humans and the land; V3: Model Collapse considers how machine-produced data feeds back into its own system; and V4: Repository highlights the role of data storage centres. Each installation will be photographically documented, and the resulting images used as a training set for the next exhibition; as in AI image-creation, the logic from past datasets will therefore be reiterated in new work. Variations is commissioned through the Ampersand/Photoworks Fellowship, a unique biennial opportunity that supports a mid-career artist to create and exhibit a new body of work.


Publishing, residencies and opportunities
Photoworks Annual
Edited by Diane Smyth, a new Annual will be launched in October to mark the anniversary. The publication will be future facing, looking back and celebrating the new talents that are set to influence the scene. In this, Photoworks will look into the potential of the next 30 years while celebrating highlights since it began three decades ago in 1995 .

Photoworks X Premio Luigi Ghirri: Forest Residency
Public talk on 11 April at the Italian Cultural Institute, London 6.30pm
Photoworks and GFI | Premio Luigi Ghirri (Young Italian Photography | Luigi Ghirri Award) with support from the Italian Cultural Institute, are delighted to announce our selection of Camilla Marrese and Alessandro Truffa as the photographers who will undertake a one-week artists’ residency at Forestry England Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire in April.

Alessandro is a photographer and visual artist based in Turin. The primary focus of his research revolves around the themes of care relationships and ritual traditions exploring potential correlations between photographic language and various disciplinary fields, including history and anthropology. His work has been published and shown nationally and internationally in exhibitions and fairs such as Sprint, Polycopies and Enter Enter.

Camilla is an Italian photographer and designer with an MA in Information Design from Design Academy Eindhoven after completing a BA in Graphic Design and Visual Communication at ISIA Urbino. Her practice combines documentary photography, design for publishing, and writing, with the goal of expressing and visualizing complex issues. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, Espaço Alto, San Paolo, PhMuseum Lab, Bologna, Spazio MAD Magadino, Locarno, and Kranj Foto Fest, Slovenia. She was the recipient of the PhMuseum Criticae Prize 2022. Camilla will undertake this Dalby residency as an artist duo with photographer and film director Gabriele Chiapparini (b. 1980, Italy).

Forestry England, Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire has a rich history of working with artists who have used the unique past, context and landscape of the forest as creative inspiration for residencies, installations, workshops and sculpture.

Photoworks X PhEST
Supported by the Italian Cultural Institute, Photoworks is collaborating on a new partnership with PhEST, a festival based in Monopoli, Italy. PhEST is an ambitious international festival that is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025. The festival is focussed on photography, art, and music, in relation to the Mediterranean.

Photoworks and PhEST will be working together to select and host an artist based in Italy to spend time in the UK to take part in a residency in Brighton responding to the environment and communities of the coast, culminating in the presentation of works in the programmes of both organisations within 2025.

Tessa Boffin: Angelic Rebels
Photoworks has joined Devonshire Collective (Eastbourne), Backlit (Nottingham) and Aspex (Portsmouth) as a partner for Angelic Rebels a programme that develops critical new scholarship on the work and pedagogy of lesbian British artist, photographer, writer, editor, and activist Tessa Boffin (1960 - 1993). Through original archival research and artistic commissions, the team will collaborate to create a national touring exhibition offering potent resonance with contemporary identity politics.

With research running throughout 2025, the tour will begin at Devonshire Collective early 2026, travelling to Backlit in Autumn 2026 and finishing at Aspex in Winter 2026. This collaborative project offers a collective, intersectional approach to curatorial research which is carried out by four emerging and underrepresented curators with queer and feminist practices; Polly Wright (Devonshire Collective, Eastbourne), Jazz Swali (Backlit, Nottingham) Danit Ariel (Photoworks) and Ricardo Reverón Blanco (Aspex, Portsmouth). As a research practice, collectivity is also an act of queering and decentering. Collective practice is political: creating space for multiple voices, in an echo to Boffin’s activism and what it can teach us in the present moment. In March 2025, via an open call, the partnership will be offering two artists the opportunity to propose new responses to the Tessa Boffin archive for inclusion in the touring exhibition.

This project is supported by The Jenni Crain Foundation, an initiative dedicated to preserving the legacy of the esteemed artist and curator.

Earth Photo
Earth Photo 2025 invites submissions from still and moving image makers of all ages, working in any genre, from anywhere in the world, to submit their most powerful works that align with the focus of Earth Photo. Individuals and collectives are encouraged to submit up to 10 images, as singles or a series. Projects must have been created within the last five years. In addition to photography, Earth Photo welcomes short films between five seconds and five minutes long. The deadline to enter is 3 March and an exhibition curated by Photoworks Director, Louise Fedotov-Clements will then tour to 20 venues throughout the UK including forests, galleries and heritage sites. Earth photo was founded by The Royal Geographical Society, Parker Harris and Forestry England.

Photoworks X MPB
R&D Seed Grants

To celebrate 30 years of Photoworks, we are partnering with MPB to launch R&D Seed Grants supporting artists to make work. Photoworks and MPB are working together to offer 6 R&D seed grants especially designed for photographers who would like to focus on creative development to support their professional practice.

Selected through an open call the R&D Seed Grants can be used to assist with a broad range of activities such as: Learning new skills by accessing training; Mentoring or coaching sessions; Submission costs; Research projects; Buying equipment; Visiting national or international conferences, exhibitions; Project start-up costs; Networking with organisations or artists; Attending portfolio reviews or workshops

Online portfolio surgeries

Meanwhile, a new series of online portfolio surgeries with the Photoworks team is set to launch later in the year, allowing photographers to develop their practice with guidance from the team.


Events and celebrations
Birthday events
A celebratory party will take place in Brighton in October, where Photoworks have been based for much of their 20 years. Expect talks, screenings, workshops, live music and more to be announced soon and the launch of Photowork’s 2026 festival. Further events at Peckham 24 will also be announced soon.

Photoworks Champions
Over the last two years Photoworks has driven an inspirational new initiative across 6 priority places, supported by the Arts Council England as part of Photoworks NPO programme, to facilitate, support and enhance photography networks. Connecting practitioners, local and national stakeholders, independent and institutional organisations to collaborate in Blackpool, Barnsley, Dudley, Medway, Portsmouth and soon calling for a new colleague to join from Gloucester. Impacts include a new darkroom set up in Barnsley, photography social and professional practice events across all locations, six network leaders and multiple steering group members, mentors employed, exhibitions, new work, publications and festivals. The plan with the project is to facilitate long term, locally led, strategic and sustainable legacies for the UK’s photography ecosystem. Multiple events will be taking place across all 6 locations throughout 2025.


Save the date:
Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 5
Photoworks is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the fifth edition of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards as Roman Manfredi and Sayuri Ichida. These expanded photography works using still and moving image, sound and installation will undertake a UK touring exhibition including presentations with associated partners Drawing Room | Tannery Arts (London), Ffotogallery (Cardiff), Barnsley Civic (South Yorkshire) and Street Level Photoworks (Glasgow) in early 2026, with dates and more information to be shared soon. Both artists will be developing new projects throughout 2025, Roman Manfredi’s research will be touching upon relational connections to the histories and contemporary experiences of queer and gender expansive communities in Naples; while Sayuri Ichida is exploring the local and global impact of population decline in Japan on schools and rural communities. Launched in 2015, the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards are a biennial major commissioning opportunity open to all UK based artists using photography and within the first ten years of their career. The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards offer the awardees the opportunity to make ambitious new work and significantly develop their practice at a pivotal moment in their career. Previous recipients have included Joanne Coates, Heather Agyepong, Silvia Rosi, Theo Simpson, Alejandra Carles-Tolra, Sam Laughlin, Lúa Ribeira, Matthew Finn, Joanna Piotrowska and Tereza Zelenková. The exhibitions will take place in 2026 as 2025 will be a year of making for the artists but follow Photoworks digital channels for more across the year.

Photoworks Friends
Over the past 30 years, Photoworks has built a thriving contemporary photography community. To celebrate this milestone, we’re offering a 30% discount on Photoworks Friends membership throughout April (code: PWFRIENDS30), along with monthly giveaways and exclusive discounts on upcoming events, including our new Portfolio Surgeries. We’re also marking our rich editorial history with a 30% discount in our online shop this April (code: PWSHOP30), and special Photoworks book bundles will be available throughout the year.

Photoworks Friends is for anyone who wants to learn and be a part of the contemporary photography community. Last year, the scheme helped support the creative development of over 100 artists and writers, as well as 1,200+ young people. Benefits include a subscription to our annual publication on contemporary photography, our Festival in a Box (including 18 posters), discounts in our online shop, and invitations and discounts to events.



More information:
Photoworks
Photoworks is the UK’s leading development organisation for photography. We champion photography for everyone and are an international platform, global in reach, that has provided opportunities for artists and audiences since 1995. Our programme brings new experiences to audiences and opens up innovative ways to encounter photography including the Photoworks Festival (next festival 2026). Photoworks is a registered charity and the only organisation with a national remit for photography in the UK. Our work is supported by public funding through Arts Council England’s National Portfolio. In 2025, Photoworks celebrates their 30th anniversary.

The Ampersand Foundation
The Ampersand Foundation is a UK grant-awarding charity that exclusively supports the visual arts. The Foundation supports high-quality exhibitions and projects, provided they are free to the public at least one day per week. They also support public collection expansion, artists’ residencies and fellowships. The Foundation is focused mainly on supporting institutions and projects within the United Kingdom. The biennial Ampersand/Photoworks Fellowship is an opportunity for a mid career artist to complete and exhibit a new body of work. It aims to enable the artist through a combination of support including a £15,000 award; mentoring and curatorial support; a dedicated public programme and digital content with international reach; a production budget and a touring exhibition.

The Ampersand/Photoworks Fellowship The biennial Ampersand/Photoworks Fellowship is an opportunity for a mid career artist to complete and exhibit a new body of work. It aims to enable the artist through a combination of support including a £15,000 award; mentoring and curatorial support; a dedicated public programme and digital content with international reach; a production budget and a touring exhibition

MPB
MPB is the UK’s top camera reseller. MPB customers buy or sell an item every 32 seconds. It’s all sorted at the right price. Join a million MPB customers worldwide. Sell to MPB for free. MPB collects your camera gear and pays cash into your bank within days. Buy MPB Approved gear in exchange and get free shipping both ways. With the UK’s largest used range, MPB Approved means used camera gear you can trust. Experts check and photograph every item, so you know exactly what you’re getting. There’s a six-month warranty included, too. The Excellent Trustpilot rating reflects MPB’s world-class experience and award-winning UK customer service. MPB supports your community and is the first camera reseller to publish sustainability commitments on circularity, diversity and inclusion.

The Photographers Gallery
The Photographers Gallery explores how photography is connecting, captivating and radically changing our world today. The Gallery’s programme and spaces – from exhibitions, events and digital platforms, to the galleries, shop and café – all explore the beauty, complexity and future of photography. Right outside the Gallery, the very best of contemporary photography is shown for free, day and night, in Soho Photography Quarter.

Stills Centre for Photography
Stills is a centre for photography based in the heart of Edinburgh. We offer exhibitions and production facilities as well as a range of engagement opportunities for anyone to discover, enjoy and understand photography. Stills was established in 1977. Since that time it has become a champion for the important and powerful role that the medium of photography plays in the world today.

QUAD
QUAD is Derby’s Cultural Hub providing contemporary art exhibitions, film, cinema, integrated digital media work and a range of educational and creative activities that is inspirational, innovative and inclusive since 2008. QUAD is a charity, supported by Derby City Council and is an Arts Council England NPO. Felicity Hammond’s exhibition will be presented as part of FORMAT International Photography Festival. FORMAT is organised by and is a partnership between QUAD and the University of Derby. FORMAT organises a year-round programme of international commissions, open calls, residencies, conferences and collaborations in the UK and Internationally.

Spectrum
Spectrum is a longstanding professional imaging lab specialising in high quality fine art and photographic printing, as well as archival mounting. They are proud of the reputation that they have established for themselves and are known for their high quality, passion, and above all, excellent service to their customers.

Jerwood Foundatio
Jerwood Foundation was established in 1977 for John Jerwood MC (1918-1991) by Alan Grieve CBE. The Foundation supports excellence and emerging talent in the arts in the UK and has to date donated over £110 million. In 2023 the Foundation merged with Jerwood Charity (Jerwood Arts) to create a single UK charity, ensuring maximum impact for beneficiaries and a sustainable future. Alan Grieve, who was Chairman of Jerwood Foundation for 30 years, was appointed Chairman Emeritus and Rupert Tyler appointed Chairman. The organisation is led by Lara Wardle, Executive Director and Trustee.

Jerwood Foundation owns the Jerwood Collection of Modern and Contemporary art, and an important part of Jerwood’s philanthropic mission is delivered by the Collection through its promotion of a broader understanding, interpretation and enjoyment of art. Also included in the Jerwood group of organisations is Jerwood Space, which was Jerwood’s first major capital project when opened in 1998. Jerwood Space continues to be one of the best and most sought-after rehearsal spaces for theatre and dance in the country.

Italian Cultural Institute of London (ICI London
The Italian Cultural Institute of London is the official Italian governmental body dedicated to promoting the Italian language and culture in England and Wales.