From 28 April to 11 June 2023, the renowned international photography festival Fotografia Europea returns to Reggio Emilia. This festival, which recently won the prestigious Lucie Award for Best Photo Festival of the Year in Los Angeles, is organized by the Palazzo Magnani Foundation in collaboration with the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and with support from the Emilia-Romagna Region. 

The highly anticipated XVIII edition of European Photography focuses on pressing current events that continuously challenge our individual and social identities. The theme for this edition is Europe matters: visions of a restless identity, while the selected projects are curated by the festival's artistic direction composed of Tim Clark (editor of 1000 Words and curator of Photo London Discovery), Walter Guadagnini (photography historian and Director of CAMERA - Italian Center for Photography), and Luce Lebart (photography historian, co-author of the influential book Une histoire global des femmes photographes, and curator and researcher for the Archive of Modern Conflict Collection). This edition stands out not only for the quality of its exhibitions but also for the caliber of its meetings, conferences, book presentations, and educational activities that will be organized throughout the festival.

Once again, the grand Chiostri di San Pietro will serve as the central hub of the festival, housing a total of ten exhibitions including two by artists from Eastern Europe: Odesa by Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk and You Will Never Walk Alone by the Poland-based collective Archive of Public Protests (APP). As part of the accompanying program of the festival, visitors will have the opportunity to meet Yemchuk and members of the APP, who will be discussing their work in a session moderated by Luce Lebart and Tim Clark.

Yelena Yemchuk, a Ukrainian immigrant who moved to the United States with her parents at the age of eleven, created the Odesa photographic project as a tribute to the city that has always intrigued her due to its freedom during the Soviet era. In 2003, Yemchuk made her initial visit to Odesa, and it left a lasting impression. However, it was her return in 2015 that marked a significant turning point in her project. On this occasion, she focused on capturing the faces of sixteen and seventeen-year-old boys and girls from the Military Academy. The ongoing conflict on the eastern border, which had started a year prior, convinced Yemchuk to expand her project to encompass not only these individuals but also the broader life context surrounding them. This expansion aimed to immortalize the experiences of these young faces who would soon be thrust onto the front lines.

The exhibition You Will Never Walk Alone at Fotografia Europea will showcase works by the members of the Archive of Public Protests. The Archive collects images and visual traces of social activism that not only embody ideals opposing political decisions but also serve as a warning against the rise of populism and discrimination, encompassing issues such as xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, and the climate crisis.

The main purpose of the creators is to prolong the life of these images beyond their initial publication in the press. Firstly, the APP gathers photographs into an easily accessible collection for artists and activists. Secondly, the Archive and its images will be open to all users who align with the values of the creators.

It is important to mention the archiving of public gatherings, as proposed by Rafael Drozdowski, to study events that have been taking place on the Polish streets for several years. While it may seem modest, this undertaking is immensely responsible, as it shapes the way we think about protests and emphasizes the need to study the visual aspects of protests, including their aesthetics, performance, and settings.

These are the principles that guide the creators of APP. Despite the traditional terminology used in the name of this photographic venture, the archive exhibits a loose organizational structure and distances itself from the aesthetic canons of photojournalism.

It represents a natural evolution of a journalistic primer that prioritizes engagement and commitment during times filled with injustices against the most vulnerable. Although it remains an institutional invention, its contents can become a banner in your hand, a poster on a building, or a picture on a wall. They can serve as a part of a bodily gesture, an agent of transformation and political change, rather than mere representations of resistance.

More information about the event is here.  

Image: Rafał Milach, Women’s Strike Protest against nearly total abortion ban, Warsaw, Poland, 28.10.2020, courtesy of The Archive of Public Protests