Celebrating the democracy of photography

10:25am Wednesday 1st October 2008

Internationally renowned photography festival Photomonth returns to east London in October and CLAIRE HACK uncovers a host of diverse exhibitions, from polaroids to war photography to portraits and everything in between.

Celebrating the democratic nature of photography, the festival showcases work from as many as 500 photographers across more than 60 galleries and display spaces.

For the first time this year, there will also be a photofair at Spitalfields Traders Market, giving a dozen up-and-coming snappers the chance to exhibit and sell their work to press, publishers, curators, collectors and the general public.

“Photography has always been a very important art form in the East End,” says film maker and photomonth organiser Maggie Pinhorn, of Alternative Arts.

“Photomonth is the largest photography festival in the UK and we’ve been building it up year by year.”

Set up in 2001, the festival now has more than 100 exhibitions and is still accepting submissions for this year’s event.

“There’s a whole series of events that go with the exhibitions,” says Pinhorn.

“The Whitechapel Art Gallery is hosting the keynote lecture, given by Tom Hunter, who has an exhibition at the V and A Museum of Childhood.

“He was also the first photographer to be shown at the National Gallery.”

The Photomonth lecture sits alongside portfolio reviews for photographers, a seminar on issues facing photography today and even a photo scavenger hunt.

There will also be a special exhibition dedicated to the first female war photographer, Gerda Taro, whose iconic images of the Spanish Civil War will be displayed at the Barbican Centre in the first UK retrospective of her work.

Taro died in action at the age of just 27 but her pioneering photographs, including her famous images of Spanish militiawomen, captured life on the front lines as it really was.

Celebrating its east London roots, the festival plays host to an exhibition at Candid Galleries entitled “My name is Joseph and I have lived in Shoreditch longer than any of these trendies”.

Running from November 7 to 9, the exhibition, by Martin Usborne, features portraits of Joseph Markovitz, who has lived and worked in hipsters’ haven Hoxton for more than 80 years and, among other things, asks what the world would be like if Jesus had had a camera.

Photomonth will also be paying tribute to its celluloid cousin with a screening of Not In My Name, a feature-length film which explores the responses of artists to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The film, by east London directors Phil Maxwell and Hazuan Hashim, features politician and staunch anti-war campaigner Tony Benn and will be screened at the Genesis Cinema, Whitechapel on November 19 with Benn as the guest of honour.

“Our whole credo is to invest in new arts and new ideas,” says Pinhorn.

“That’s what we’ve always been doing and this is quite a good example of what we’re all about.”

Photomonth is from October 1 to November 30