SO NOW THEN CONFERENCE
Contemporary Documentary Photography
Tuesday, 10 October 2006
9.30 - 17.30

Produced by the HEREFORD PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

One-day international conference that reviews some of the ideas proposed in the newly published book SO NOW THEN on contemporary documentary photography. All the photographers speaking at the conference are exhibiting in the Hereford Photography Festival.

Venue
The Courtyard Centre for the Arts
Edgar Street
Hereford HR4 9JR
Box Office 0870 1122330
www.courtyard.org.uk

All bookings of tickets to be purchased through the Courtyard (please note that we can offer you a reduced rate of £18 per ticket for block bookings of over 25 tickets)
Tickets:
£ 30.00
£ 20.00 students
£ 18.00 for block bookings of over 25 tickets

Speakers included:

Shelby Lee Adams (USA)
Each year for extended periods of time, over three decades, Shelby Lee Adams has returned to his home state of Kentucky to photograph the people who live in the Appalachian Mountains. The resulting study of isolate rural communities has created its share of controversy because his photographs are both raw and complex at the same time. Many of his portraits feature friends and relatives that give a depth to his work that can be easily missed with a casual glance. His work requires active engagement of the audience in the process of understanding the life of a community that we have little direct relationship with. The photographer has exhibited extensively across the US.

David Campany (UK)
The writer and artist David Campany has written extensively on photography. His essay for the publication So Now Then reviews the relationship between art and documentary photography. His essays have appeared in major catalogues like Cruel and Tender: The Real in The Twentieth Century Photography (Tate, 2003). He has written for many journals including Art Review, Contemporary and the Oxford Art Journal. His book Art and Photograph was published by Phaidon in 2003.

Simon Norfolk (UK)
The photographer Simon Norfolk is known for his colour landscapes that picture the effects of war on the landscape. His photographs make references to both historical and contemporary events and how they leave marks on the land from which we can learn to understand how warfare structures daily life. He studied photography at Gwent College, Newport, Wales in 1988. Previously he studied social anthropology, philosophy and sociology at Bristol and Oxford Universities. His work has been shown internationally and his prints are held in numerous collections.

Paul Shambroom (USA)
The large-scale panoramic images produced by Paul Shambroom deal with a subject that is rarely photographed, the workings of local democracy. Between 1999 - 2003 he travelled across America to attend over 100 council meetings. From this journey visiting small towns with populations of not over 3000 he produced group portraits of the local councillors at work. These images of civic power are compelling, not only in their detail, but also by illustrating the theatricality of politics. A book was published on this work titled Meetings in 2004 by Boot Books. He has had many one-person exhibitions in the US and Europe.

Weng Peijun (China)
The economic and urban developments taking place in China has become the subject of the moment. Many photographers are travelling to document the enormous physical transformations taking place in this country. But it is the Chinese photographers who are taking a more personal view of these changes that directly affect their own lives.
Weng Peijun is one of these Chinese photographers who are dealing with this new world that has been built around them. From his two series Bird’s Eye View and Sitting on The Wall, schools girls from a high vantage point look at their future as the city expands in front of them. This body of work has been included in recent major group exhibitions on contemporary Chinese photography.

Michael Wesely (Germany)
Over the last ten years the photographer Michael Wesely has been developing a unique form of making photographic images by extending the exposure time to sometimes as long as three years for one exposure. He has used this approach to explore major urban construction projects like the rebuilding of the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. In 2001 he was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York to photograph the re-development of the museum that resulted in an exhibition and publication at the Museum.

All bookings of tickets to be purchased through the Courtyard
Box Office 0870 1122330