STIRLING PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL 2023
Falkirk Ironworks ©Tom Astbury
Stirling Photography Festival kicks off this Thursday (3 August). Here’s Festival Director Janie Meikle Bland to tell us more:
Stirling Photography Festival is back for its sixth year, and we couldn't be more excited about this year’s line up. Join us from August to September for a series of events, exhibitions and workshops across the city.
We're proud to collaborate with some of Stirling’s top venues and community groups, all with the aim of creating opportunities to bring people together, to learn new skills and to explore topical issues from a creative perspective.
A cornerstone project of social enterprise Picture the Possible, the festival is produced and curated by an enthusiastic group of volunteers who work together to deliver a festival programme designed to appeal to a broad range of interests and abilities.
Our theme this year is Reflect, inspiring us to stop and think and look around for wellness and inspiration.
With generous support and sponsorship from The Barracks Conference Centre, the Robertson Trust, the Tolbooth, the Engine Shed, and local business CitNOW, we are able deliver a programme of free events.
We are also delighted to partner with a number of local groups and organisations including Argarty Red Kite Centre and Equi-Power RDA with photography workshops that will also help raise the profile of the great work they do.
Heritage and history is always a popular topic in Stirling, and this year we have a talk and exhibition at The Barracks on the great industries that once thrived in the central belt and a talk at the Engine Shed by Historic Environment Scotland’s Head of Archives Lesley Ferguson and Director of Cultural Assets David Mitchell.
We also have a city walk , led by local historian Andy McEwan exploring some of the major events that shaped the city we know today.
Some of our events also consider current issues such as Artificial Intelligence, mental health and wellbeing, homelessness and belonging, and the role of photography and the photographer in championing positive change.
Margaret Mitchell will talk about a project she is doing in partnership with Shelter Scotland and the issues it raises for society.
An Ordinary Eden ©Margaret Mitchell
While Michael Carroll will host a fundraising screening of Hand Held at the Macrobert, about the charity he established in Romania following the fall of communism, and will give a talk at The Barracks about the work they are now doing supporting refugees from Ukraine.
Our festival attracts photographers, speakers and artists of all disciplines from across Scotland and further afield. We are partnering with Street Level Photoworks of Glasgow again this year to bring three recent graduates to exhibit at the Tolbooth - Mirror/Mirror explores the uncanny, the personal, gender and grief.
Other festival highlights include artist in residence at the university, Audrey Watson, who will lead a walk and talk on her residency, and Stirling Makar, Laura Fyfe, who will bring poetry together with photography in some moments of mindful writing.
The full festival programme and ticket booking details are available at: https://www.stirlingphotographyfestival.co.uk/2023
Image: Mirror/Mirror Liquid Light ©June Barnton