I’m delighted and a little ashamed only to have recently discovered we have a full blown photography festival in our midst in the UK; Format has been organising photo-themed events and exhibitions since 2005, and this year it’s all about ‘photocinema’, impressively headlined by the likes of Gregory Crewdson, Hannah Starkey, William Eggleston and David Lynch. It is everything anyone interested in cinema and photography could ever want: a whole month of photography and film centred festivities – and somewhat remarkably, it’s not in London.

The festival was kicked off with a context-setting conference which included speakers from both academic and artistic backgrounds. The presentations provided a stimulating taster, offering a varied menu of ideas for the audience to chew on whilst ambling around the exhibitions afterwards. For those who missed this initial event, there is still an enticing smattering of artist talks, film screenings, workshops and seminars to look forward to.

In the festival guide, the curators describe their chosen theme as hovering in the ‘half-light ‘ in which photography and film converge, ‘colliding fact with fiction, historicism with fantasy, and reality with the cinematic’. With this in mind, one would hope that the festival will explore this notion of what makes a photograph cinematic, and illustrate the different angles at which artists have approached this particular premise. The festival has certainly risen to this task, reeling in no less than 200 photographers to display their wares and arranging 20 venues in which to exhibit them. In addition to the big names who make up the ‘Focus’ exhibition, there is also a generous amount of work being showcased on the ‘Exposure’ side of events, which includes submissions from other established artists as well as dedicating ample space to up-and-coming talent.

David Lynch’s name is sure to muster up excitement, yet it may be slightly disappointing to discover that the director’s contribution consists of some stills from his recent film, Inland Empire – granted, his work has a very distinctive aesthetic, but considering Lynch’s recent claim to be forsaking future film projects to pursue adventures in photography, it may have been more interesting to see a selection of fruit from his lust for all things Hasselblad. As it stands, the film stills appear to do little more than promote the forthcoming screening of his film – or do they? Presented in the gallery context, the stills prompt us to question if, how, and why they can be seen as photographs – and in doing so, draw attention to the merits of Lynch’s cinematography. But didn’t we already know he possesses lashings of artistic flair? The Inland Empire images also happen to be placed opposite samples Crewdson’s large-scale ‘Beneath the Roses’ photographs, which share that Lynchian love of a sinister and surreal suburban underbelly. Crewdson’s images are produced much in the same manner as a film, complete with elaborately crafted sets, crew members and atmospheric lighting. In contrast to Lynch’s pictures, Crewson’s were created with stillness in mind, and so are loaded with visual information designed (or perhaps borrowed from recognised ‘cinematic’ cues) to create an atmosphere of expectation:

‘The almost claustrophobic calmness of the inhabitants in his tableaux contradicts the activities around them, causing an uncanny tension that we, as viewers, understand and react to like the moment before a catastrophe in a science-fiction film.’ (2)

It is not only this narrative tension which makes Crewdson’s images so compelling. As with a film still, the staged photograph poses itself like an unanswered question, and it is this enigmatic quality which compels the viewer to linger over this ‘story that is forever frozen in between moments’ (3) and invites them to fill in the gaps in the narrative themselves. These are the gaps which might be filled in a conventional film narrative, where being fed a succession of images pushes the spectator into a more passive role rather than the more pensive one afforded by a still image.

Indeed, it was suggested during the conference that whereas photography has traditionally been seen as ‘capturing’ what famously become known as the ‘decisive moment’, cinema lends itself to revealing the indecisive, in-between moments as well. Is this then, one of the characteristics of the cinematic image? Hannah Starkey’s carefully staged photographs are often described as quiet moments loaded with narrative drama; they are not decisive moments so much as those moments that occur before or after the decisive (or dramatic) event. Although they present themselves as frozen moments, they are ones which are instilled with a their own sense of time; a suggested past and a future that is left un-presented, just to the left or right of the frame which has been revealed to the viewer. Unlike a typical documentary photograph, making reference to an event which has already occurred, these images can be seen to inhabit a more flexible, perhaps even timeless, space, allowing the viewer to contemplate both a possible past and future.

The main exhibition also features a selection of ‘Polyarnye Nochi’ (Polar Nights) images from Simon Roberts’ impressive journey across Russia. Many of the artists in the exhibition have constructed their photographs, rather than ‘taken’ them; they are pre-conceived and precise, employing performance, choreography, and lighting which is theatrical rather than naturalistic. By contrast, Roberts’ images serve to document a place and an exploration. The photographs themselves are wonderful to behold; their small size encourages the viewer to peer into the scenes, looking for details. Roberts travelled across this northern region during the time when the landscape was afforded was little daylight, and it is this quality of light which has inspired comparison to the films of contemporary Russian filmmakers (Andrei Zvyagintsev’s The Return will be screened after the accompanying artist’s talk later in the month). Alexandra Lennox elaborates on this interplay with cinema in her essay about Roberts’ work, claiming that the photographs can be read as a ‘road movie’, due to the narrative which plays across the implied timeframe and journey (4). I personally find it hard to see past the allure of each individual picture; perhaps it is the harsh beauty of the locations, the ‘otherness’ of this vast landscape bathed fading arctic light which makes the viewer linger a little longer.

During the conference Neil Campbell explored the dialogue between the films/photography of Wim Wenders and the photographs of Robert Frank. Taking Frank’s renowned book, The Americans as an example, Campbell demonstrated how even seemingly documentary style photographs can be layered with potential meanings and interpretations. Frank himself perhaps phrases it best:

‘When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.’ (5)

With the variety and quality of work currently being exhibited in Derby, I suspect that the festival will provide plentiful cinematic treats which have the potential to evoke similar sentiments.

Format Festival is taking place in numerous venues around Derby from 6 March till 5 April 2009. In addition to the exhibitions, there are film screenings, artist talks and workshops. For more details, visit: formatfestival.com

1) Gabby Wood, Guardian interview with David Lynch, 1 March 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/28/david-lynch-twin-peaks-mulholland-drive
2) Susan Bright, Art Photography Now, Thames & Hudson 2005, p80
3) Gregory Crewdson, quoted in Art Photography Now, p81
4) Alexandra Lennox, ‘The influence, inspiration and interplay of Simon Robert’s Polyarnye Nochi and Russian cinema’
http://simoncroberts.com/site/images2/pdf/Polyarnye_Nochi_Article.pdf
5) Robert Frank, LIFE, 26 November 1951, p21