Photocitizens was established in 2015. Its aim is to connect undergraduate and postgraduate photography students across the world with International photography festivals, galleries and art organisations. For its inaugural project it gathered partners from Italy, France, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Turkey and the UK to research, collaborate, and showcase future talent.
2016/17
THE CONCEPT – NATIONAL IDENTITY
“Wherever we go, on our face we wear our land. Whatever we do, in the soles of our shoes, in the timber of our voice, in the texture of our skins, in the depth of our eyes, we wear our country. The wind chases after us, depositing on our lips the scent of home, the flashes of our memory, the songs of our origin.”
Tahar Ben Jelloun 1994, From the preface to Owen Logam’s book ‘Bloodlines – Vite allo Specchio’
“Nations were the worst invention of human history” Toni Negri, Documenta 14
In the globalized world we live in, the individual can have a plurality of identities depending on his or her situation. Although globalization is opening up spatial borders either by voluntary or forced migration there are many contradictions. Identity may be one of the country we left behind or of the country in which we reside, the country of a previous generation of our family or with a continent such as Europe or Africa. Identification (or not) with a particular national or ethnic group can form the central pillar of one’s personality.
The NATIONAL IDENTITY Project seeks to explore the labels that define the idea of national identity: how people describe themselves and the signs and symbols that they use as groups or individuals to portray that identity.
The overall objective of the NATIONAL IDENTITY project is to challenge the viewer to think about how we form national identity. Selected images should communicate to the viewer national identity and how it is made up of actions, signs, symbols and environment.
Paul O’Leary – Founder/Director
PARTNERS:
Leicester College School of Photography, Leicester,UK
PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Gobelins, l’ecole de l’image. Departement Photo, Paris, France
Photometria International Photography Festival, Ioannina, Greece
Officine Fotografiche, Rome, Italy
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey
Facultad de Bellas Artes de Murcia, Área de Escultura, Murcia, Spain
Les Boutographies Recontres Photographiques de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
2022/23
THE CONCEPT – PLACE
“It is by knowing where you stand that you grow able to judge where you are.”
Eudora Welty
For many of those on the planet fortunate enough to own a passport and afford a ticket, the ability to travel and to experience new places has been central to work and leisure. Travel has been a rite of passage or reward, the physical embodiment of corporate takeover, connection for extended families, a gateway to new employment, a fresh start and adventure. For those fleeing war, famine, persecution or justice, the ability to change places has been a necessity, not a luxury. Since its inception, photography has been the medium through which we have recorded these experiences, sharing them through photographic exhibitions, books, prints and now on the many online platforms we scroll through.
However, since March 2020, COVID-19 has literally changed the face of our planet. Between 11 March 2020, when the W.H.O declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and 22 February 2021, nearly 105,000 movement restrictions were implemented around the world (IOM, 2021a).
Migration flows to OECD countries are estimated to have fallen by 46 per cent in the first half of 2020; a historical low. (OECD, 2020a). Birth, death and population demographics for years to come will register this seismic global event, and at this moment the vast majority of us are not going anywhere.
So, what does it mean for you as citizens and photographers, to be exactly where you are? The international Festival Photocitizens 2022 asks you to reflect on your relationship to Place. This relationship may have significantly altered during the course of the pandemic, perhaps becoming more important in some way. Place can mean roots, cultural connection, home and family. But place can also confine, exclude, isolate and intimidate. Your image may help us to understand something of your life or the life of those around you. It might communicate something precious or perilous, remembered, imaginary, or absolute. You may choose to directly reflect on your experience of place through the pandemic, or that may be a secondary or invisible theme in your work.
Whatever your response may be, we are asking you to communicate this, your unique relationship to Place, using any kind of camera or lens-less process that has a strong relationship to photographic practice.
PARTNERS:
Staffordshire University, United Kingdom
Universidad de Murcia, Spain
Gobelins Paris, France
Officine Fotografiche Roma, Italy
University of Balamand, Lebanon
BUV School of Creative Industries, Vietnam
Crawford College of Art and Design, Ireland
Photometria International Photography Festival, Greece
North Georgia Technical College, USA
Massey University of New Zealand/College of Creative Arts Toi Rauwhārangi, New Zealand
Photocitizens International Photography Festival was established in 2015. Its aim is to connect undergraduate and postgraduate photography students across the world with International photography festivals, galleries and art organisations. For its inaugural project it gathered partners from Italy, France, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Turkey and the UK to research, collaborate, and showcase future talent. We are working with new partners on the latest international collaboration.
Paul O’Leary – Founder/Director