“We share billions of photographs of urban life every day via social media. The idea of a specific city, our understanding of how we live in it, its history, people, institutions, icons, challenges and triumphs are all expressed through these photographs we share.”
— Sarah Fisher, Director, Open Eye Gallery
This year LOOK begins a new direction, working more closely with Open Eye Gallery to establish an international model for our festival based on exchange. LOOK/17 presents a unique opportunity for trans-global sharing of images and ideas. Working with Hong Kong based curator Ying Kwok, the festival will focus on exchange with China, welcoming Chinese photographers to our city, and exploring images taken in Hong Kong and Liverpool – cities with a long history of exchange.
The festival will consider how we use the universal language of photography to experience and shape the city. It will encourage conversations with other disciplines such as architecture, education, planning and commerce. Going forward, we aim to develop each LOOK festival through international exchange, working with a curator with specialist knowledge of a specific country. Through photography we will build connections between global communities to seek greater understanding of shared experience.
I would personally like to thank Liverpool City Council and Arts Council England for their continued support of the festival. We look forward to the sharing of ideas, perspectives and reflections in respect to the importance of photography as a means and vehicle of individual and cultural exchange and expression.’
— Lawrence George Giles, Chair, LOOK: Liverpool International Photography Festival
