I thought for my last blog post I would copy a letter that I wrote to Wendy and Fred the octogenarian powerhouse behind the whole festival. I met them again recently at a launch for the accompanying book to the Biennial exhibition: ‘Changing Circumstances’ on the future of humankind in the face of environmental change and degradation….
here it is:
Hi Wendy
Great to see you at the book launch and I hope you are both comfortably home with your feet up after a very busy few weeks and months! I admire you greatly and wonder at your energy, drive and commitment. I feel it is unparalleled and explains why and how Fotofest is such an unusual and unique experience.
So, today I filled out my survey and I wanted to just write to you too to summarise my sense of Fotofest, having participated for the first time.
Firstly, I have attended review sessions before. I went to Rhubarb in 2009 and NYPH in 2011, Aperture’s reviews at Paris Photo in 2010. So I have some experience of reviews.
Fotofest was recommended to me several times by English artists who described it as “the mother of all reviews” a sort of trial by fire: four days, four reviews a day. It took me eight years to finally get to Fotofest and I agonised greatly about the cost before getting there.
But once there, I wondered at my own faint heartedness: I was amazed at the quality of reviewers, the quality of opportunities on offer, the quality of organisation. All of this conspired to create an atmosphere of utter seriousness. I felt the reviewers were genuinely looking to find talent, nurture it and push it along. After two days I was on a strange sort of high. My work was being recognised, appreciated and understood in ways that I had rarely experienced before. Reviewers were articulate, educated, interested and encouraging.
My work is not your typical editorial/documentary style. I have struggled enormously to be understood as an artist working with photography within the confines of the British photographic art world. Now I found every other reviewer describing my work to me: it was conceptual (Ann Shafer), important historically (Fabian Conclaves Borrega), it would sell easily in New York Galleries (Barbara Tennenbaum), was deeply intellectual (Anna Kasia Rastenberg/Alejandro Malo), I could go on. I couldn’t believe that the format of 20 minutes could produce such sophisticated readings.
Finally I felt understood, accepted, believed in. I didn’t go to Fotofest expecting anything. I had never really received any concrete offer from a review session although I know that is probably what 99% of artists want. In fact, I am still only just following up on various leads because, as an artist and as a person I am slow and plodding and I find I can’t rush into anything. But within two weeks of returning Caroline Docwra had contacted me to remind me to apply to the juried exhibition coming up at HCP, and fantastically, I had been selected by Phaidon for a book on ’The Art of Botany’.
There is a feeling of solidity at Fotofest: that the reviewers are invested in the process as much as the artists. This comes across in the way that they speak to reviewees. They disclose their preferences and respectfully offer only reflections if your work is not their ‘cup of tea’. In the past I have felt reviews were something of a shooting gallery with artists racing to avoid being hit by sardonic, harsh and entirely un-self aware comments. I saw none of this. Every reviewer was entirely genuine in their approach. Even after four days they were steadfast in their approach to be open minded, interested, alert and articulate. This was mirrored in the fact that they came to openings with us, ate with us, offered more reflections out of hours, made time for us in all the unofficial events. This generosity was amazing to me, I have never seen it before. It was such a warm, accepting and nurturing environment that everyone wanted to support everyone else. Exhibiting artists shared their hopes and frustrations with reviewers. I got to meet Susan Derges who is my all-time hero and talk to her in detail about art, the art world and art careers. I spent time with Jeff and Gina Glover and we discussed the idea of a curated show about fertility. Together with Jessa Fairbrother this is something I will pursue over the course of the next couple of years.
I hope that what I am communicating is the depth and breadth of what Fotofest gave me. I laughingly compared it to “Big Brother combined with the X Factor” when I got home. It was something of this in the hothousing and talent competition. But it was so much better than this: nobody was stuck in a box, reviewers reviewed each others work in between sessions, we gave each other professional tips, we formed strong bonds and made promises to ourselves and each other. We got to see what the world could be like if we just believed in ourselves. For those four days I lived without doubt, without fear. I was suspended in a reality where art was everything. The ‘real’ world of bills, children, responsibilities didn’t exist. And that bubble I now carry inside me. Because knowing that Fotofest exists, knowing that I can go back in two years for another injection of love, acceptance and inspiration, gives me such hope, and the energy I need to keep going, keep making the work, keep trying to get better as an artist…
Coming back I have met other artists who have been to Fotofest and I realise it’s something of a code: this is how artists get their careers started. Fotofest is sort of a pass code for success. It’s a word that signifies something only if you have been. Undoubtedly many have gone and still floundered. But what I am realising now is that most of those who have succeeded have gone to Fotofest.
And that’s what I mean when I say it’s an eye opener.
So thank you both for all you have done, all you have achieved. It’s more than you can ever possibly know, as you have clearly planted seeds that will continue to flourish and reseed across the globe for decades, if not centuries. I’m sure you’ve been told all this before but I wanted to tell you myself.
Lisa
Wendy and Sian Bonnell at the launch for Changing Circumstances by Schilt Publishing, London, May 2016.
Outside the book launch with artists from this year and previous Fotofests, from the UK and USA.
