The Fotofestiwal, an international festival of photography in Łódź, Poland, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Opening on 18 June, the event presents a series of exhibitions that focus on the concept of collective experience, moving beyond a binary world of us versus them.
Exhibition Highlights
Tommaso Protti: Cattle Slaughter in Brazil
Italian photographer Tommaso Protti captures the washing of cattle before slaughter at the Sita slaughterhouse in Uruara, Brazil, in 2022. His work examines the brutal reality of life in the Amazon, where environmental exploitation and violence against local communities are interlinked.
Feng Li: The Year of the Pig
Chinese artist Feng Li, born in the Year of the Pig, presents a deeply personal project exploring the line between livestock and companionship. His rescue pig, found abandoned at an airport security checkpoint, offers a counterbalance to his previous view of pigs as a resource, shaped by his grandfather's work at a meat processing plant.
Ola Skowrońska: Spit
Polish photographer Ola Skowrońska interprets the violent environmental history of the Curonian Spit in Lithuania, where wind and water have transformed forests into barren landscapes.
Luke Stephenson: An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds
Luke Stephenson provides insight into the world of bird-keeping. His project turned him into a collector of birds, as he photographed each species and added it to his collection.
Philip Montgomery: American Cycles
Mexican-American photographer Philip Montgomery examines a decade of social and political upheaval, reflecting the realities of contemporary American life.
Richard Barnes: Animal Logic
Richard Barnes focuses on hidden, behind-the-scenes tableaux of natural history museums, highlighting how unnatural these depictions of the natural world are.
Adrian Chmielewski: Eclipse
Adrian Chmielewski documents the intersection of alternative music culture, festivals, and photography.
Nikita Teryoshin: Backyard Diaries
Nikita Teryoshin showcases the real lives of urban cats in contrast to the memes and cute cat fodder of the internet.
Tanya Habjouqa: Neither the Shadow nor the Sun
Palestinian photographer Tanya Habjouqa documents the life she left after leaving her homeland in 2023.
Arhant Shrestha: Loose Fist
Nepalese artist Arhant Shrestha examines the aftermath of his experience of a homophobic attack in Kathmandu.
The Fotofestiwal runs from 18 June in Łódź, Poland, offering a diverse range of photographic perspectives on collective experience and beyond.
