Identity - ideas and thoughts of how to approach the theme for Festival 26
© Kallum Hall
Identity :What makes us who we are?
How to approach the theme.
This year Dark Peak Photo Festival has gone with quite a bold one word theme: Identity.
The obvious format will be portraits but we also hope to see lots of creativity in our upcoming open call, where it can be a chance to explore the meaning of your identity as a photographer, people who you photograph or a more abstract response.
For experienced open call photographers and photographic artists the process of responding to an open call can look easy, when you are less experienced it might feel daunting to respond to a theme such as this year’s theme. It can feel daunting and overwhelming. To help we have a few essays and ideas that we will be posting in the next few days.
There are so many deep questions you can ask, helping your photographic practice and response to the theme.
What shapes us as humans? Our upbringing, our geographical location can have a profound impact on how we identify. It might be a cultural response or it might be a socio-political factor that a person might feel defined by.
A different culture, a different country. How we identify with our gender, our careers and jobs, our family status, where we grew up, who brought us up.
Then as life happens we identify and can be defined by life events, marriage, divorce, births and bereavements all leave a sense of life that we can be defined by. These can be solitary words that some of us will get hung up on or they can be something that’s seen as negative and others will see it as something the human spirit will rally against.
There are things we choose for ourselves, the sports those we play and the sports we watch, the hobbies, interests and past times. The arts and culture that spark our emotions, connections and passion. All these feed into our sense of individuality but also perhaps our sense of belonging.
As a photographer you might define your identity as one of what you photograph, such as landscape photographer, an experimental photographer, street photographer or aerial photographer to name a few.
We can ask these questions but actually not one single thing defines us, we have aspects that demonstrate what we identify but also what we should remember is that not one single thing defines us. We may all be different individuals, unique, flawed and human beings but we also may find through this process a cemented sense of there is more to unite us than divide us.
We look forward to welcoming so many of you to the festival this year and this starts with the open call. Every submission is valued and don't hold back if you have never exhibited before, and you just have a stack of images on a hard drive or your phone camera, this is your opportunity to be exhibited.
Our CIC is here to promote photography for all
Carys
Festival Director