The Eastgate Shopping Centre & Other Venues

At the end of August, Hundred Heroines & Friends will be hosting a long weekend of photography exhibitions, artist talks and screenings, along with an exciting programme of empowerment and creativity. International stars will be zooming into Gloucester (literally and virtually), to join us for debates, discussions and a lively weekend of all things women in photography.

Festival Central and the main exhibitions will be on the top floor of the The Eastgate Centre with further events in other venues around the city, including Jolt Studios.

Exhibition: Paola Paredes

Skin Deep is an interactive photographic experience. Presenting eight stories, representing the diverse sexualities and gender identities of the queer community in Ecuador.

Despite the LGBTIQ+ community having won important rights in recent years, this group continues to be subject to discrimination and violence.

This project symbolically reconstructs these personal stories through "interactive portraiture."

This project aims to tear aside perceived stereotypes, and show a community that is ethnically, economically, generationally and emotionally diverse.

It rejects the limited definition of gender or sexuality as static or innate. It recognizes both as something fluid, built by each individual throughout their lifetime as they understand and consolidate their own identity.

Exhibition: Anita Khemka

Anita has been photographing Laxmi since 2003 and witnessed her transformation, particularly her relationship with her biological family and neighbourhood.

The transgender community in India, also referred to as the third gender or hijras are a source of fear, fascination, and curiosity. Born either male or intersex, the members of this community identify as female, dress accordingly, with some even undergoing the ritualistic castration ceremony, known as nirvana which is considered a rebirth.

In Conversation: Meryl Meisler

Sassy New York photographer, Meryl Meisler is zooming into Gloucester to talk about her quirky vision.

From discos to high school life, Meryl's work provides us with an insight into life in the Big Apple in the 1970s and 1980s, at at time when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy and the world had written it off.

The evetis timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Portrait(s) Festival in Vichy, where QUIRKYVISION is being exhibited until September 4.

In Conversation: Ellen Carey & Friends

A Linked Ring - Keynote talk and round-table conversation about Ellen's cutting-edge experimental photography.

Following a keynote talk about her work, Ellen invites friends Claire Raymond and John Reuter for a round-table conversation about Ellen's experimental approach to photography - how it started, who influenced her (spoiler alert - one of the great British women in photography pioneers), how she works with a 20 x 24 Polaroid camera, as well as wider questions about the intersection of the art and science of photography.

Ellen's work will be on display throughout the festival.

In Conversation: Kourtney Roy

The Other End of the Rainbow - The women who have disappeared along Canada's Highway 16.

Kourtney's will be joining us virtually in the Glo Lounge to share the details of her recently published book with us.

Winner of the special mention in the Luma Rencontres d'Arles Book Dummy Award, The Other End of the Rainbow raises awareness of the women and girls who go missing along the 'Highway of Tears' - stretches of picturesque but sequestered landscapes within British Columbia's Far North.

In Conversation: Jenevieve Aken

Great Expectations - Jenevieve's photographic response to the Dickensian novel.

Jenevieve joins us via zoom in the Glo Lounge to talk about her work Inspired by the classic Victorian novel, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

 The series looks at the ripple effect of Miss Havisham being jilted at the altar. Immersing herself in the story and re-interpreting it through a contemporary African-Nigerian lens, Jenevieve raises questions about marriage as an institution, particularly its relationship to love, happiness and friendship.

Installation: Mónica Alcázar-Duarte

Astro 2030: Present Future - An interactive installation that invites the viewer to join the conversation about space travel, colonisation and ecology.

Through the use of augmented reality, lightboxes, and video presentations, Mónica poses questions about taking the next step in space exploration and what it means to humanity both here on earth and those who journey into the realms of the unknown, and ultimately to the colonisation of a new planet ... Mars.

Screening: Karen Knorr

Questions (After Brecht) - Projected images of La Samaritaine (Paris) during its refurbishment.

In 2017 a number of artists were given a carte blanche commission to photograph the Art-Deco department store, La Samaritaine in Paris, during its refurbishment.

 Karen chose a documentary approach 'infused with playful fantasy and surrealism' through which she created 'solarised "work theatres"'. Each image is accompanied by a stanza from Questions from a Worker Who Reads (Bertolt Brecht).

The entire series will be screened daily during the festival, accompanied by a podcast Karen made with Hundred Heroines.

Screening: Lisl Ponger

The Master Narrative and Don Durito - Effects of the colonial project and its relevance today.

Join us to watch parts of Lisl's 8 hour film, divided into ten chapters. Using first day covers to illustrate the Master Narrative, the film addresses issues of colonialism, ethnography and museum collections, their history and relevance today, as well as their impact on the visual arts.

'The calendar is made up of the past, for those at the top. So that it will stay that way, the powerful fill it up with statues, holidays, museums, homages, parades. That all serves the purpose of keeping the past in place; where things have already happened and not where they will happen,' says Don Durito, a well-dressed, pipe smoking beetle from the Lacandon Maya jungle, who appointed Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Liberation Army to be his shield bearer.

In Conversation: Paola Paredes

About Skin Deep - Join us to find out more about the inspiration behind the exhibition.

From an idea that started in front of the bathroom mirror to a major exhibition in Ecuador's leading museum, Paola will be zooming into the Glo Lounge to talk about how Skin Deep evolved. There'll be plenty of time for questions from exhibition visitors.

Exhibition: Glossy

Sisterhood is Still Powerful - A participatory photography exhibition curated by Georgia Williams.

Sisterhood is Still Powerful is a participatory photography exhibition taking place as part of Photo Gloucester. To celebrate women in all our facets and pluralities we are inviting local women to be a part of the conversation.

Glossy is excited to present a real time installation involving participants to come have their photos printed and displayed in a contemporary exhibition during the festival.

We invite all women to co-produce the narrative of Women and Sisterhood with their images. This exhibition is a direct response to the need to sustain and protect our solidarity while creating a stronger female voice and presence in the city.

The title is drawn from Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks, American cultural theorist, activist and feminist writer.