East Meets West

East Meets West is a series of Masterclasses organised by FORMAT Festival, QUAD, Derby, and GRAIN Projects, which offers photographers from the East and West Midlands an immersion in their subject matter and a unique opportunity for emerging photographers to receive feedback from industry experts.

Seventeen participants formed the cohort and each photographer developed a body of work between October 2018 to February 2019. It has been an inspiring experience to see how each participant’s work has developed over these months, and to see how the group have formulated a critical and supportive framework.

We would like to thank the reviewers: Andrew Jackson, Matthew Murray, Peter Dench, Natasha Caruana, Kate Peters, Michael Sargeant, Anthony Luvera and Harry Hardie, who pushed the boundaries of each participant’s personal development through portfolio reviews and by offering fantastic advice.

For FORMAT19 the participants work is exhibited as a digital showcase at QUAD. In addition, the group have curated a fringe exhibition for the opening weekend of FORMAT at The Market Hall, Derby, demonstrating the group’s enthusiasm and ambition.

This year’s exhibiting photographers are:

Anand Chhabra; Emma Case; Hazel Simcox; Ilona Denton; Jonny Bark; Kaya Isaac, Kristy Clark; Liam Pye; Luca Bailey; Luke Williams; Maryam Wahid; Oliver Tooke; Phillip Singleton; Simon Burrows; Tom Wynne and Tristan Poyser.

East Meets West is a partnership with GRAIN Projects and is supported by Arts Council England, Derby University and Birmingham City University.