East Meets West

East Meets West is a collaboration between FORMAT, QUAD and GRAIN Projects and is made up of a series of masterclasses for emerging photographers from across the UK. This professional development programme offers photographers a unique opportunity to take part in presentations, portfolio reviews and advice sessions with leading professionals. The experience is immersive and provides an opportunity for practitioners to take the next step in their careers.

Fourteen participants from the 2019/2020 cohort are showcased at FORMAT21. Throughout the masterclass they have developed a body or bodies of work and refined existing works and series. It has been an enjoyable experience to see how each participant’s work and criticality has developed over this time, and to see how the group have come together to form a supportive network.

Due to Covid-19 and the inability to have a physical exhibition the group ambitiously created a publication, an online platform eastmeetswestphoto.co.uk and conducted a series of Instagram Live conversations about their practice, all archived on their website, in addition to sharing their work at GRAIN PhotoCafe.

East Meets West would like to thank the reviewers and presenters: Abbas Zahedi, Clare Strand, Colin Pantall, Mahtab Hussain, Max Barnett, Monica Allende, Natasha Caruana, and Tom Seymour, who have pushed the boundaries of each participant’s personal development through portfolio reviews and by offering magnificent advice.

For FORMAT21 the participants’ work is exhibited as a digital showcase. We would like to thank this year’s exhibiting photographers for sharing their work with us and for being part of this year’s festival:

Andy Pilsbury                       Lucy Turner                          Mitchell Moreno

Emily Jones                          Mark Hobbs                           Nicola Morley

Fraser Mcgee                        Marley Starskey Butler        Tamsin Green

Jacqui Booth                         Maryam Wahid                     Susana De Dios

Joseph Allen Keys                Laura Dicken

East Meets West is a professional development programme open to practitioners based nationally. It is supported by Arts Council England, Birmingham City University and the University of Derby.