Read all about our cast of 8 industry experts who will be mentoring the Masterclass Programme.

Vivienne Gamble

Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Peckham 24 Festival

Vivienne Gamble  is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Peckham 24.  Established in 2016, Peckham 24 festival of contemporary photography takes place annually during Photo London Week.  With a focus on supporting new talent and experimental artists working with photography, the festival creates a vibrant takeover of multiple warehouse and gallery spaces across Copeland Park in the heart of Peckham’s artistic scene.   In 2023 the V&A launched the Parasol Foundation Prize for Women in Photography in partnership with Peckham 24.   The Prize amplifies the voices of women, celebrates diversity and promotes equality in the arts.   Vivienne is Co-Chair of the Prize Selection Committee with Fiona Rogers, Parasol Foundation Curator of Photography for Women at the V&A.  

From 2015-2023 Vivienne ran Seen Fifteen Gallery, also in Peckham, South London.  Seen Fifteen’s programme was dedicated to contemporary photography, and the most recent curatorial project, The Troubles Generation, considered the legacy and impact of the Northern Irish Troubles on artists who were brought up in the shadow of the conflict.  

Vivienne lectures in exhibition practice as an Associate Lecturer on the Photography Programme at The University of the Arts, London.  

Sebah Chaudhry

Sebah is a freelance Producer and Curator. She is experienced in working at international world class festivals, projects and events. She is Co-Founder and Co-Director of ReFramed, a photographic based visual arts network based in the Midlands, supporting the community and artists who are from the Global Majority. She is currently Producer of Photography Champions at Photoworks and is Creative Producer on Stockroom, a new community space due to open in March 2025. She will be working on the opening exhibition, Chosen Family Album, working with the community and their personal archives.

She was previously Creative Producer & Assistant Curator on an international British Council funded project with Ffotogallery, The Place I Call Home, connecting the UK to the Gulf region, culminating in 10 exhibitions in 9 countries. From 2013 — 2017, Sebah was Coordinator & Curator at FORMAT Festival. 

Sebah reviews portfolios internationally and mentor’s artists. She has also curated a number of exhibitions as a freelancer, and with organisations across the UK. With TRACE, she launched a year-long mentorship programme for women over the age of 35. She was on the selection panel for Source Graduate Photography Online 2023 and NAE Open 2023. She has been on the Jury for UNSTUCK, The Ian Parry Scholarship,  RPS IPE 163 Open Call and BJP Portrait of Britain 2021 & 2023. She has been the Curator for AIS Open, an international open call for women, since 2022. In 2023, AIS Open was the main exhibition at Korea International Festival of Photography. 

Steering Group member at FORMAT Festival and a Trustee at Royal Photographic Society and COMMUN.

Max Gorbatskyi

Max Gorbatskyi is the curator of Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, UK. With Viktoria Bavykina, he curated the Ukrainian National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, exhibitions at BredaPhoto Festival, and Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh. Previously, he was a curator at the Department of Contemporary Art at Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he led the photography direction. He is an Academy member of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and a jury member for the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Humanity award. Gorbatskyi is a recipient of the UK Government’s Chevening Scholarship. He holds an MA in the History of Photography from Birkbeck College, University of London, and an MA in Cultural Management from the University of Bologna.

Lydia Goldblatt

Lydia Goldblatt is a London-based photographic artist.

Her work considers themes of belonging, transience and emotional experience. She is concerned with female identities and is interested in the ways personal experience informs collective understanding. Her works creatively fuse the approaches of both documentary and constructed photography. Of her work, she writes: “I am looking to see within experiences and moments that are unfolding, to reach something that speaks about being human, about our emotions, connections, and interior life as much if not more than external appearance.”

Lydia Goldblatt attended London College of Communications, studying a Master’s Degree in Photography. Her work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Somerset House London, the National Museum Gdansk, the GoEun Museum of Photography and the Felix Nussbaum Museum in Germany. Her first book, Still Here, is held in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum National Art Library, and her work is held in numerous public and private collections. Lydia received an award for her portrait ‘Eden’ in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, and the GRAIN Projects Artist Commission. She was awarded the Grand Prix at Tokyo International Photography Festival. Her second book, Fugue, is published by GOST Books in 2024.

Kavi Pujara

Kavi Pujara is a Leicester-based photographer working on long-term personal projects. He is currently exhibiting in the Hayward Gallery touring show, After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989–2024. His debut project, This Golden Mile, was first shown at the Martin Parr Foundation, and a monograph of the same name was published by Setanta Books in 2022. 

For more information please visit www.kavipujara.com

Colin Pantall

Colin Pantall is a writer, educator and photographer based in Bath.

He has written for a range of publications and organisations across the world including Magnum Photos, The British Journal of Photography, World Press Photo, Foam, Source Magazine, and The Far Eastern Economic Review. 

He teaches on the Falmouth University Photography MA and runs independent workshops on writing and photography, ethics and photography, and the practice and theory of photography.

 His photography focusses on domestic environments and family, and include his books Sofa Portraits, All Quiet on the Home Front, Sofa Portraits, and German Family Album, projects where the conflicting narratives of family, environmental and political histories collide.

Clare Hewitt

Clare Hewitt is a Photographer and Archivist based in Birmingham, and a Senior Lecturer at UWE, Bristol.

In her recent project, everything in the forest is the forest, Clare has worked with a community of 12 oak trees at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research to visually understand how they thrive through connection and communication, to inspire similar behaviour amongst human beings. Supported by Arts Council England, Clare is working collaboratively to turn this project into a biodegradable photobook, and a sustainably produced solo exhibition.

Clare’s work has been exhibited at venues including Landskrona Foto Festival, The National Portrait Gallery, Royal Photographic Society, and Palace of Westminster. Her clients include The New Yorker, Photoworks, Oxfam, and Guardian.

Jermaine Francis

Jermaine Francis is a London based lens-based artist, who explores our physical, historical, psychological negotiation of space, exploring issues of Power, class, race, social, political and the architecture of their visual manifestations.

His work has been exhibited in shows at the International Centre of Photography New York, The National Portrait Gallery London, Haus Wien Austria, Galerie Pcp Paris, Centre of British Photography London, The Saatchi Gallery London, Pembroke JCR Gallery Oxford, The Camden Arts Centre , Sherbert Green London , Peckham 24 Photo Festival 2024, The Impression Gallery Bradford, Glass Tank Oxford Brookes University, and ‘Soulscapes’, Dulwich picture Gallery London

He co-curated the group show ‘Notes on a Native Son, After Baldwin’ with Emma Bowkett as part of the 2023 edition of Peckham 24 Photo Festival.

Jermaine’s work has also appeared in monographs, The Art of Protest: Political Art and Activism, ICP Concerned Global Images for Global Crisis & Photo No’s No’s. He has also written for a 1000 words Photographic Magazine, Thames & Hudson,BoyBrother Friend and Beauty Papers. 

Jermaine has published 3 books ‘Something that Seems so Familiar becomes distant  ‘Rhythms from the Metroplex’ which appeared in the London exhibition of ‘Civilization.’ just released  ‘A Post Industrial Dreamscape 0/ii’ published by Herepress. 

Jermaine was nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award 2024.

His work can currently be seen in the upcoming show ‘JW Turner and changing visions of landscape” at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.

Current associate Lecturer in MA media studies at the Royal College Art, MA Documentary Photography at London College of Communications, and BA Fashion Communications Central St martins’ school of Design.