TALK PHOTO is a new fortnightly social event in Oriel Colwyn’s gallery space, where invited speakers will be here IN PERSON to share presentations and insights about their work or projects, with a friendly intimate audience.

Due to space limitations, we will be restricting each event to 25 tickets only and are happy to make the tickets FREE OF CHARGE to remove any financial barriers to attend.

We do ask however that if you find you can’t make it, you return the ticket for others that may be on the waiting list.

If you do happen to be in a position to contribute towards the talks then donations can be made on the night and will be greatly received.

Although the talks are free of charge, tickets will be required to attend and they will be issued on a first come, first served basis via the links – be quick!

Tickets for the April TALK PHOTO events are now available via the links below:

FRIDAY 26th APRIL

TESSA BUNNEY

For over 30 years, Tessa Bunney has photographed rural life, working closely with individuals and communities to investigate how the landscape is shaped by humans. From hill farmers near her home in North Yorkshire to Icelandic puffin hunters, from Romanian nomadic shepherds to Lincolnshire flower farmers her projects reveal the fascinating intricacies of the dependencies between people, work and the land.

‘FarmerFlorist’ was exhibited at Oriel Colwyn in 2019 and published by Another Place Press as part of their Field Notes series and in early 2020 her exhibition ‘Otherwise Unseen’, bringing together four series which explore various rural communities in Europe and Southeast Asia was shown at the Side Gallery in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Recent work includes ‘Made out of Orchards’ which was commissioned, published and exhibited by the Martin Parr Foundation and ‘Going to the Sand’, an ongoing personal project collaborating with Morecambe Bay fishermen which was published by Another Place Press in 2023.

She is the recipient of the TPA/RPS Environmental Bursary 2023 to work with fishermen from the Teesside and Yorkshire coast to tell their story following the devastating wash-up of crabs and lobsters on which their livelihoods depend.

Tessa regularly gives talks about her practice to a wide range of community groups, galleries, schools and universities. She is currently photography lecturer at York St John University.

To make things fair we will only release details of the speakers and tickets for these on a monthly basis.

PAST EVENTS

FRIDAY 12th APRIL

NIALL McDIARMID

Scottish photographer Niall McDiarmid has been living and working in London for more than 30 years. However, he is best known for travelling across the country producing colourful and celebratory street portraits from the North of Scotland, all the way south to Cornwall.

His work has been exhibited at a variety of galleries and museums across the country and internationally including the Martin Parr Foundation, the Museum of London and of course, Oriel Colwyn and its outdoor projects across towns in North Wales. In coming months exhibitions of his work will be held in Spain and Belgium.

In recent years his work has moved in new directions including a long series entitled Nightfall which focusses on the early evening transition between day and night. Even though Niall grew up on a small farm in rural Perthshire, this series of images shot across the UK reflects his intense love for city spaces. At the same time the work has an underlying sense of melancholy often associated with dusk.

Niall will talk about his ongoing projects, his continued joy in making daily street photographs and the restless urge to continue journeying across the UK.

THURSDAY 28th MARCH

MOHAMED HASSAN

MOHAMED HASSAN, originally from Alexandria in Egypt, has been living and working in Pembrokeshire, in west Wales in the UK since 2007.

Living and studying in Wales has been pivotal to his journey as an artist as he becomes more connected to the people, communities and land of Wales. As a result of these experiences he is devoted to continue his journey as a Welsh artist, graduating with a 1st class honours degree in Photography from Carmarthen School of Art in 2016.

As an artist with dual nationality, Mohamed’s projects explore his identity as part of an ever expanding diasporic community based in Wales.

The constant feeling of displacement and questions of identity are forever present.

When Mohamed first arrived here he felt as if he was in a dream, and as he discovered and explored more of Wales found inspiration in the rugged landscapes around him. As a newcomer to Wales he has also become captivated with its rich and artistic culture and language, steeped in ancient folklore and song – and has a continuing fascination in documenting his direct experience of people and the land.

Mohamed has been creating photobook dummies and we are pleased he will also be sharing and talking about his thoughts and processes for making these.

Mohamed has been shortlisted for several awards and competitions and his work has been exhibited at the prestigious Mission Gallery, the Waterfront National Museum in Wales the Trajectory Showcase Competition Exhibition in Shoreditch, London, Nova Cymru 2018, and a portrait was included in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait exhibition 2018 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

More recently Mohamed has exhibited 4 images in ‘Facing Britain’, curated by Ralph Goertz at Kunsthalle Darmstadt Museum Goch – touring to Koslar and Krakow in 2022. In Wales, the ‘Many Voices, One Nation 2’ exhibition supported by the Senedd and exhibiting at Ffotogallery included 11 of his images and he has also had 5 images included in the Oriel Davies ‘Responding to Rembrandt’ exhibition.

THURSDAY 14th MARCH

RICHARD BILLINGHAM

Richard Billingham (born 25 September 1970) is an English photographer and artist, film maker and art teacher. His work has mostly concerned his family, the place he grew up in the West Midlands, but also landscapes elsewhere.

Billingham is best known for the Photobook Ray’s A Laugh (1996), which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray, and obese, heavily tattooed mother Liz. Billingham adapted this into his first feature film, Ray & Liz (2018), a memoir of his childhood.

He won the 1997 Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize (now Deutsche Börse Photography Prize) and was shortlisted for the 2001 Turner Prize. His work is held in the permanent collections of Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Government Art Collection in London.

Billingham lives in Swansea on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales and holds professorships at Middlesex University and the University of Gloucestershire.