Seeking to celebrate the deep (and expanding) history of photography in Wales and bring great international examples to our domestic galleries, Ffoto Cymru’s second edition looks to be as arresting and thought-provoking as its debut two years ago. Ben Woolhead sifts through some potential highlights.
October sees the return of the biennial, month-long Ffoto Cymru to venues around the country, following its debut in 2024 as a successor to Diffusion. Under the broad theme “There’s More To Life”, this year’s event is focused on offering new angles and fresh perspectives and, in the words of organisers Ffotogallery, “celebrates photography as a tool for storytelling, questioning and imagining – creating spaces where different experiences, ideas and conversations can come together”.
The headline exhibition, arguably, is Coping With And Enjoying Life, a retrospective of images taken by the late Francesca Odell between 1983 and 1985, when she was studying at the storied School Of Documentary Photography in Newport. Many of the prints come from the archives of Ffotogallery and the University Of South Wales, but it’s the tantalising prospect of previously unseen pictures, selected by Odell’s daughters, that will have enthusiasts flocking to Penarth’s Turner House Gallery.
The tender fly-on-the-wall work is the result of a sensitive approach and a concern to construct rapport. Odell’s photographic philosophy – “I try to convey the essential humanity we share as individuals, despite sometimes very adverse situations, believing that through knowledge and understanding, we can come to a more tolerant attitude towards each other and, perhaps ultimately, change for the better” – makes her an ideal figurehead for the festival.
Richard Billingham also made his name with intimate domestic images – in his case, lurid portraits of his dysfunctional parents. 1996’s Ray’s A Laugh has a fair claim on being one of the most controversial photobooks ever published, and pictures from the series were selected by Charles Saatchi for his infamous 1997 exhibition Sensation. For Ffoto Cymru, he’s been specifically commissioned to produce new work: a moving image installation on far-right protest to be screened at the Elysium Gallery in Swansea.
Politics and simmering anger are also to the fore in Jack Moyse’s work on disability and inadequate welfare provision, on display at Machynlleth’s Oriel Sploj. The title of his project, A Sorry State, draws attention to the way in which structural problems are all too often read merely as individual failings. Exploring and depicting how others live is a key preoccupation of Bindi Vora’s practice too, with her exhibition Silence In The Dream Of A Language That Cannot Hold Us showing at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff.
At Ffotogallery HQ, the curators have brought together a quartet of photographers for a thematic group exhibition. These include Heather Agyepong, whose work centres around Blackness, identity, agency and mental health, and Harley Weir, who pursues personal projects alongside her commercial and editorial work for prestigious publications and international fashion brands.
Beyond the capital, another group show is taking place at Carmarthen’s Coleg Sir Gar, featuring images by Welsh photographers Peter Finnemore and Paul Cabuts, who share a fascination with culture, memory and history. At Pontypridd’s YMa, self-proclaimed “visual storyteller” Bukunmi Oyewole’s Living On The Edge tackles the thorny and urgent topic of climate change, illustrating its devastating impacts in Nigeria and The Gambia but also human resilience and resistance in the face of environmental apocalypse. Visitors to Theatr Clwyd in Mold, meanwhile, have the opportunity to enjoy Gemma Pepper’s intriguing project The Quiet Locus, in which found photos are absorbed into carefully arranged natural collages.
With a programme that builds on and strengthens the fledgling festival’s international alliances (with the GLAZ Festival in Rennes, for example, and with the Foto Feminas group in South America) and encompasses a Portfolio Review day on Fri 16 Oct and the ever-popular Photobook Fair on Sat 24 Oct, Ffoto Cymru promises to provoke dialogue and promote creative connections.
Ffoto Cymru 2026: Wales International Festival Of Photography, various venues across Wales throughout October
Admission: FREE. Info: Linktree
words BEN WOOLHEAD
