Ipswich Waterfront is set to come alive with photography next summer as a new visual arts festival is launched in the town.

PhotoEast, an arts start-up based in Framlingham, announced today (3 December 2015) its collaboration with University Campus Suffolk (UCS) in delivering the first PhotoEast international photography festival from 24 May-25 June 2016. The 4-week festival will showcase photography as the most diverse and accessible art form, from the work of world-renowned photographers to community workshops, from historic archives to social media. Photography exhibitions and events, indoors and out, will be held on the Waterfront in Ipswich and at other locations along the East Suffolk railway line.

A programme of activities is planned to attract professional and aspiring photographers as well as engage students, families and enthusiasts - anyone with a camera or a phone.

Highlights of the 2016 programme:

  • Ipswich-born Julian Germain’s photographs of families with four-five generations is the keynote exhibition at the Waterfront Gallery, UCS Ipswich. The photographs extend his ‘Generations’ project, depicting the life cycle and ageing process and are central to the Festival theme of ‘Of Time and Place’. A call out to Suffolk families interested in being photographed is going out through social media
  • A collaboration with DanceEast will produce a ‘Moving Gallery’ - a choreographed blend of specially commissioned imagery and dance to launch the Festival along the Waterfront
  • Halesworth-based photographer Bill Jackson will run a pop-up studio at The Cut in Halesworth, photographing dog owners with their pets and updating Libby Hall’s historic collection “These were our Dogs’ in an exhibition sponsored bySkinners Dog Food
  • George Georgiou will be photographer-in-residence on Ipswich Buses, documenting life in the town from the top deck
  • Tim Mitchell will work with highly-prized archive photography of Ipswich docks to create new work with local residents and the Ipswich Maritime Trust
  • UCS visiting professor Steve MacLeod will build on his hugely popular photobooths as experienced at Latitude Festival to engage a new PhotoEast audience around the Festival theme
  • A weekend of workshops, family events and talks at UCS hosted by former Guardian picture editor and Suffolk residentEamonn McCabe to include Chloe Dewe Matthews’ homage to WWI deserters and former Ipswich student, David Titlow,winner of the prestigious National Portrait Gallery prize 2014.

The Festival is key to the shared ambition of PhotoEast and UCS to establish Suffolk as a centre for excellence in photography. In subsequent years, the aim is to extend the Festival along the railway line as far as Lowestoft and create economic and artistic opportunities for students and local photographers to develop their practice. For UCS, this builds on its popular Photography programme

Course leader for BA (Hons) Photography at UCS, Mark Edwards, said “We are thrilled to be playing an active part in this exciting new festival of photography. It’s an exciting exhibition programme of internationally renowned photographers and will be an inspiration for the students whilst the lectures and workshops, together with the opportunities to exhibit within the festival, will give them a fantastic insight into the world of professional photography.”

For PhotoEast founder, Adrian Evans, it brings the experience of his London-based photography agency, Panos Pictures, closer to home. “Where else could one find a local authority and local businesses so ready to embrace the vision of a new festival? Ipswich has the audiences, the venues and the potential to become a major event on the international photography calendar.”

PhotoEast has received start-up funding from Arts Council England and Suffolk Coastal DMO. Local businesses including Gotelees solicitors are sponsoring the event.