Ten artists have won awards following an open call for photography projects for the biennial FORMAT International Photography Festival.
Taking place in Derby in March and April, this year’s festival theme, EVIDENCE, attracted submissions from photographers worldwide, with over 40% received from outside of the UK.
Of the 76 projects to be exhibited during FORMAT15, the ten award recipients include: Matt Henry (Clifton Cameras Award), Lisa Barnard (Genesis & Fuji Award), Martina Cleary and Jiehao Su (IdeasTap Award), Boris Eldagsen (The Photography Show Award), David Fathi (The Photocaptionist Award), Pixy Yijun Liao (SHOW ME PICTURES Award) and Fan Shi San (The Photography Show Award).
The Paul Hill FORMAT Award has this year been split between two photographers who each explore perceived reality.
Francesca Seravalle‘s series Until Proven Otherwise/On the Evidence of the First Photos considers the officially documented narratives of historical events; Wawrzyniec Kolbusz‘ Sacred Defense uses documentation of an Iranian film set to consider how culture might seek to create a national consciousness.
Themes of war and responsibility are further explored in Lisa Barnard‘s series Whiplash Transition (pictured, top) and David Fathi‘s project, Anecdotal.
Barnard confronts the consequences of operating drones on the American military personnel involved. Fathi’s work investigates and unpicks documents depicting the nuclear arms race since 1945, revealing a narrative that conjurs up both horror and farce.
FORMAT15: Evidence takes place throughout Derby from 13 March – 12 April 2015. www.formatfestival.com
More on a-n.co.uk:
FORMAT 13: “A disruption of the standard image” by Tim Clark
PICTURED #37: Alec Soth, Songbook – The latest in Tim Clark’s ongoing PICTURED series on contemporary photo books looks at the American photographer’s new publication
