Brighton Photo Biennial is pleased to announce the launch of TogetherAlone - a teaching resource for post 16 teachers and youth workers created as a result of an artist led filmmaking project with young people aged 13 – 18.

TogetherAlone is a short film made by young people, accompanied by information for post 16 teachers of Art & Design, Film Studies, Media Studies, Citizenship, Health & Social Care, and Humanities, and youth workers and agencies delivering a range of support programmes for young people about emotional health, decision-making, sexual health, and literacy.

Funded by Awards For All, artists Helen Cammock, Denis Doran and Rosie Holmes worked with the young people to explore notions of borders and boundaries - both real & perceived through discussion and a variety of creative activities. They learnt how to make films, and collaborated to create a visual representation of the lives and experiences of themselves and their peers.

The TogetherAlone film is written, performed and directed by young people. It presents their own ideas and views, and reflects something of the challenges faced by young people today, described in their own way, creating a valuable opportunity for young people to inspire other young people to go out and make films of their own.

The accompanying resource highlights some of the themes explored in the film, and suggests some of the learning opportunities that engaging with the film might present.

A limited number of the Together Alone DVD/resource pack are available free from BPB for teachers and youth workers. If you would like a copy contact: mail@bpb.org.uk

Success!! We did it... our Post Up public event over two days in Jubilee Square and our Hub at the Lighthouse was a fantastic time and resounding success. Many people passing by the Square came to engage and enter into the spirit of our group's efforts. Lots of comments were posted onto our Peace Wall and we accumulated another batch of photo placard artworks made by people of all ages. We also handed out free copies of our special edition newspaper containing artworks and writings by the group.

The group interviewed the public about their views on conflict, war and peace and engaged in interesting dialogue. We even had a Speakers' Corner which had contributors providing thoughts and debate around the issues of war and conflicts. It was a really mixed bunch of people, including our group members reading poems, their thoughts on war, the BPB curator Julian Stallabrass, and others (including a song in ode to Obama).

We ended our two day event with a rabble rousing parade with a samba band leading the way, taking with us the placards made by the group and public participants, and balloons complete with our slogan YWarY, taking our messages out into the town.

I'd like to thank all the Post Up group for their brilliant contributions and active engagement with such important issues. Their honesty, openness and ability to engage with challenge was profound. The critical dialogue that the group has shaped and participated within, I am sure will continue... .

I am delighted to announce the concluding weekend of the Brighton Photo Biennial 2008 and our two final events.

The one day conference Memory of Fire programmed by Julian Stallabrass on Saturday 15th November is a serious opportunity to engage with the themes and issues relating to this edition of the Biennial. And Post Up! The War of Images by Anthony Lam on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th November in Jubilee Square, Brighton is an open invitation to participate and engage with what war means to you.

This is also the last chance to see the exhibitions at our partner venues, although do check closing dates and times. For more information see the ‘exhibitions’ section of our website.

I hope you can join me, Julian Stallabrass and the rest of the Biennial team this weekend.

1. Brighton Photo Biennial: Memory of Fire, one day conference, programmed by Julian Stallabrass, Curator BPB 2008, organised by the Biennial with support from University of Brighton, will explore the production, distribution and engagement with images of war through photojournalism, contemporary art photography, architecture, and the media through referencing newsprint, publishing and online spaces and the art gallery.

Date: Saturday 15th November
Time: 09.30am – 5.45pm
Conference Venue: Sallis Benney Theatre, University of Brighton, Grand Parade, Brighton
Admission: £30 £15 (concessions) includes tea/coffee and a free copy of Photoworks magazine, issue 11, with an essay by Julian Stallabrass on the curation of BPB 2008 and editorial relating to the Biennial themes.
To book either contact: Dome Box Office, 29 New road, Brighton T: 01273 709 709. W: www.brightonticketshop.com
Or you can buy a ticket on the day. Please arrive at the venue by 9.30am.
For the day’s itinerary, speaker biographies and in-depth outline see ’conference’: www.bpb.org.uk/2008/events/

2. Post Up! The War of Images by Anthony Lam, is a public event with veterans and year 9 pupils from Patcham High School in Jubilee Square, Jubilee Street in the heart of the cultural quarter of Brighton. Using material held by the Mass Observation Archive (held at the University of Sussex), BPB exhibitions and personal experiences as a starting point, Lam and the participants have been considering the way in which memory of war and media images affect modern day understanding of conflict. This event is a public opportunity for comment, contribution and participation and will include a peace wall, parade, balloon give away and speakers corner.
Come along and have your say.
Supported through Their Past Your Future 2 (TPYF2) programme funded by the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council. A Celebrating Age event.
Dates: Friday 14th and Saturday 15th November
Time: 10am-4pm (free)

Further details: please see Anthony’s blog entries below.

Come and get a balloon (designed by our Post Up group members) as well as contribute to our Post Up event this Fri/Sat 14 - 15th November at Jubilee Square, Brighton between 10am - 4pm each day.

We have started! Our Post Up group consists of Year 9 students from Patcham High School and veterans who have experiences of war, particularly World War 2. The group have been working together now for 3 sessions and have been looking at materials held at the Mass Observation Archive www.massobs.org.uk.

It has been really interesting to see the difference in ages between the participants disappear as they talk together, see exhibitions and make photographic art works in response to the themes of conflicts and war.

We have just made the visual contents for an 8 page tabloid size paper that we will be printing a 1000 copies for the Post Up event we are holding on the 14th & 15th November in Brighton. This paper has photo montage works the group made together in response to images of war and in particular, looking at the US army website photographs www.army.mil. We have been exploring propaganda in the Archive looking at original materials from WW2.

This week we are meeting again, keep posted for more updates....

The Changing Representation exhibition opens in the cafe at the University of Brighton on Saturday 1st November (private view Monday 3rd November 5pm - 7pm).

Photographer Marysa Dowling has been working with year 10 students from Bexhill high School, and Hillcrest School, Hastings. Together they have been investigating the complex relationships that young people have with each other, their families and the wider world, at a time when media representation is considered a powerful tool that manipulates image and perception. 

The exhibition continues until Saturday 15 November. The cafe is open Mon - Sat 9am - 5pm.

All our In Conversation events have been recorded and turned into handy podcasts for you to download. Follow this link to subscribe to the Biennial podcasts. There is one In Conversation event still to be uploaded.

The following are available now:

In Conversation: Julian Stallabrass and Helen Cadwallader

In Conversation: Julian Stallabrass and Ashley Gilbertson

In Conversation: Geert Van Kesteren and Brigitte Lardinois

Hope you enjoy listening and please give your feedback here or on our Facebook group.

I have been speaking about the Biennial in many different circumstances and to many different audiences. Something that has come across very strongly is that many people are deeply engaged by the subject, often feel that they have not been well-served by the mass-media depictions of it, and appreciate an attempt to bring about a more considered and critical view. Much of what I have done in curating the Biennial is to re-present photojournalism in a frame that allows for a deeper engagement with it, and that places it in a context in which longer and more complex narratives and implied arguments can be built. This suggests that the photographic material as such is not powerless, shallow or trivial, and that the audience is not constitutionally apathetic, but that the way in which the media handles that material fosters trivialisation and undermines trust.

I have also been reading the comments books in the Brighton exhibitions, and these have contained long, thoughtful and deeply felt responses. They are remarkable documents, and we will start to put some of the comments onto the blog entries that ask for responses to each of the exhibitions.

The issue includes the Brighton Photo Biennial 2008 Programme. Co-published with Photoworks, this fully illustrated 24 page publication provides details of BPB 2008 exhibitions and events including a concise essay by Julian Stallabrass introducing festival themes and issues, and an essay by Sarah James exploring the genre of aftermath photography in the museum.

Issue 11 of the redesigned and expanded Photoworks magazine takes its theme from Brighton Photo Biennial 2008, Memory of Fire: the War of Images and Images of War. Julian Stallabrass, BPB 2008 Curator, considers the difficulties entailed in the public exhibition of war imagery in a gallery context; Ian Jeffrey looks at the photography of Wilhelm von Thoma; Catherine Moriarty explores the graphic deployment of photography in posters produced in opposition to the Vietnam war; and Kitty Hauser explores the work of British field archaeologist Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford in Nazi Germany. The magazine also features folios by Daniel Blaufuks, Lisa Barnard, Nina Berman and Sarah Pickering,

Elsewhere, Martha Rosler writes on Flat Daddy; Mignon Nixon offers a personal response to Nancy Spero’s 1966-70 War Series; David Chandler considers the ethical difficulties surrounding Eddie Adam’s iconic photograph of the execution of a Vietcong prisoner; and Roger Hargreaves previews of the Barbican Art Gallery’s forthcoming exhibitions On the Subject of War; Gerda Taro and This Is War! Robert Capa at Work. Book reviews by Clare Grafik on Iranian Photography Now and Chris Mullen on CEAU complete our eleventh issue.

Brighton Photo Biennial 2008 Programme is freely available for download here.
 

"Photography in the Community" is an extension studies course for 2nd year undergraduates from different courses (Photography, Illustration, Visual Culture and Critical Fine Art Practice) at the University of Brighton. The course is aimed at students who are interested in gaining practical work experience in the field of community arts and socially engaged practice. During the eight week course, the students will visit and engage with the Brighton Photo Biennial exhibitions "Iraq Through the Lens of Vietnam", "Why, Mister Why?" and "Baghdad Calling" by Geert Van Kesteren at Lighthouse and  "The Incommensurable Banner" by Thomas Hirschorn at Fabrica. In response to these exhibitions the students will plan and deliver a series gallery based activities for 6th Form Students from Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College (BHASVIC). 

I'll be posting up information and ideas that emerge during the project with links to any video or photographic material we might develop and upload onto YouTube or Flickr.

The students will also have the exciting opportunity to facilitate a breakout session, in collaboration with me,  during the Engage Conference (for further details visit www.engage.org). Participants will explore questions around censorship and how the development of interactive media, mobile phones and new technologies have changed the way we process and receive images of war. This will inevitable lead to critical concerns about how we view human suffering. The session will include a variety of discussion strategies and practical suggestions of how to run a workshop programme for A Level students that the undergraduate students themselves will be facilitating the following week.

BPB is pleased to announce the launch of a resource for teachers planning visits to BPB 2008 exhibitions. Download the pack here

We are thrilled that Engage (the National Association for Gallery Education) have this year, decided to hold their international conference Rules of Engagement: Art, Conflict and Gallery Education in Brighton to tie in with Brighton Photo Biennial. The conference examines the role of art, artists and gallery educators in sites or situations of conflict and includes a presentation from Julian Stallabrass, visits to BPB exhibitions and contributions from the Biennial education programme.

Visit www.engage.org for more information.