Shooting stars of Photo Oxford 

Round & About

Photo Oxford, 25th October to 16th November festival uncovers plenty of truths… or does it?! 

Oxford’s biennial festival returns to the city featuring a packed programme of more than 25 exhibitions and events by 60 photographers, ranging from celebrated international artists and documentary photographers to exciting new talent. Venues include Modern Art Oxford, Pitt Rivers Museum, The Bodleian’s Weston Library, North Wall Arts Centre and the Jolly Farmers pub. 

At Oxford Brookes, an exhibition documents the clandestine nocturnal activities of The Night Climbers of Oxford, a hidden culture of climbing, scaling and traversing the city’s rooftops while the rest of the world sleeps.  “For nearly a century, an unseen, undocumented, and unspoken tradition has unfolded under the cover of darkness within the walls of Oxford’s colleges and gothic architecture. One of risk, elite athleticism, and quiet rebellion,” says photographer Austin Bradley. “Their climbs are both a challenge and a statement, sometimes used as a platform for acts of political defiance.” Shot in the visual language of 1930s film noir, the exhibition is as much about the stories of these extraordinary climbers as it is about the ascents themselves.  

There are more secrets to uncover in an exhibition at Caper Books on Bartlemas: Oxford’s Hidden Sanctuary which is celebrated in a new book and accompanying exhibition exploring Bartlemas Hamlet and leper hospital on the 900 anniversary of their foundation. 

Over at the John Radcliffe Hospital, photographer Marysa Dowling explores how to make pain visible, whilst also investigating uncomfortable truths, Bog Jobs, at the Jolly Farmers presents  photographs of “cottaging” locations around London taken between 1979 and 1996 demonstrating photography’s power as evidence: during this period photographer Phil Polglaze was commissioned by criminal defence lawyers in aid of gay men standing trial for gross indecency. Outside of the court room, his photographs have never before been seen by a wider public. 

The theme of truth runs through the programme exploring photography’s relationship to reality. “Questions about photography’s relationship with truth are as old as the history of the medium,” says Festival Director Katy Barron, “and with the rapid growth of AI, they feel particularly relevant now. This year we are presenting the work of three thought-provoking artists who explore artificial intelligence (AI) in their work.” 

 
“One of these, artist and performer Haley Morris-Cafiero, interrogates AI tools to expose the hidden biases in the recruitment software used by large companies to assess potential applicants. Those with large eyes are viewed as being more honest and those with high cheekbones as better leaders! Exhibition visitors will have the opportunity to try the tools themselves and create ‘more-employable’ versions of themselves!”  

Other festival highlights include an exploration of data related to US military expenditure released by the Pentagon, a lecture by legendary American photographer, Joel Meyerowitz, who championed the use of colour in the 1960s, and a new representation of work from the 1970s by pioneering photographer Daniel Meadows documenting the last Lancashire cotton mill.  

The programme also includes the first UK exhibition of photographs about the human stories behind South Africa’s truth and reconciliation hearings. These are on show for the first time in over 20 years.