The commission

Brigstow is delighted to be able to work with the Bristol Photo Festival to offer the opportunity for one research team to work together on a short project that uses photography as a research tool/approach/method.  We’d like the project to be, ideally, both interdisciplinary and co-produced, and fit broadly within the Brigstow theme of living well. We are especially interested in projects that involve participatory photography or practice-led research (so photography is a critical part of the research process).

We invite applications from teams responding to either of the two themes identified by the Festival:

• Growing Spaces. This theme raises numerous questions around the places where a variety of flora grows and is grown.  We welcome a breadth of research questions that might explore the relationship between gardening, farming and craft, guerilla gardening, planting and harvesting during lockdown, productive and unproductive edgelands, as well as those spaces where nature is nurtured by human care and knowledge.  We’re interested in agriculture and growing vegetables and fruit, but also trees and plants.  These are just a few suggestions that are intended to open up, rather than close down thinking or define what we might mean by Growing Spaces! Have a look at the Bristol Photo Festival theme description at http://www.bristolphotofestival.org/growingspaces/

• The Living Room Archive. This theme raises questions around the meanings given to the places we call ‘home’.  We welcome a breadth of research questions that might explore where we live well, how ideas of what the living room represents changes over time and space, the negotiations of private and public space within the home, how we represent self within the home through curation, the gendering of domestic space, and the social nature of the living room.  We are as interested in other living spaces that people create and occupy that are more transient and temporary, and what ‘home’ means for the displaced as well as the settled.  What are other spaces where social interactions and conversations take place?  These are just a few suggestions that are intended to open up rather than close down thinking or define what we might mean by the Living Room! Have a look at the Bristol Photo Festival theme description at http://www.bristolphotofestival.org/the-living-room-archive/

About this funding 

 One commission will be made and the successful team will have a budget of c. £6k to fund costs such as fees and materials for the exhibition.

Please read the application guidance for further information about this commision, eligibility, and how to apply: Brigstow Institute and Bristol Photo Festival Commission_Application guidance (PDF, 226kB)

The closing date is Wednesday 21st October 2020.