Photo London 2024 Talks | Sun 19 May

The 2024 Talks Programme features a strong line-up of speakers and is curated by Thames & Hudson, with contributions from Photo London partners Nikon and FT Weekend.

The talks provide listeners with unique insights from some of the world’s most vital photographic voices, so expect to hear lively, dynamic debates and in-depth discussions to broaden and deepen your understanding of photography.

Talks tickets do not include admission to the Fair. You must purchase a Day Pass ticket for the same day as the talk is taking place. Talks are in The Screening Room (South Wing via Embankment) and each event has a limited capacity, so we advise arriving five minutes before the scheduled start time to avoid disappointment. Please note that latecomers may only be admitted at the discretion of Visitor Experience staff in a suitable break.

12.30 - 13.30
Charlotte Jansen presents: CAROLINE TOMPKINS - BEDFELLOW
"Bedfellow" is about the intrinsic relationship between women, sex, and fear. Caroline Tompkins' photographic series explores the primal vulnerability and power dynamics inherent in gender constructs.

14.00 - 15.00
Charlotte Jansen presents: PORTRAIT, SELF, OTHER
A discussion between artists JK Lavin (Alta Vista Arts), Tonje Birkeland and Maria Pasenau (Gyldenpris Kunsthall), Kennedi Carter (Cierra Britton Gallery) and Nancy Floyd, moderated by curator Fiona Rogers.

Why do we keep turning the camera on ourselves? What do self-portraits reveal about the self? What do self-portraits reflect about the wider world we live in? Are all portraits, as the old adage goes, self-portraits? Portraiture remains a timeless and highly charged genre in art and photography. Women artists working in photography have pushed the art form in exciting, original, and engaging new directions in the last century.

15.30 - 16.30
Nikon presents: RÓŻA WIKTORIA TYBOROWSKA - COLOUR STUDY AS A JOURNEY INTO SELF-AWARENESS
Heavily inspired by expressionism, experimental theatre and German opera, Polish artist and photographer Róza Wiktoria Tyborowska shares valuable insights into her ongoing artistic exploration of the significance of colour, and how its role extends beyond design details or aesthetic choice.

17.00 - 18.00
Nikon presents: SANNE DE WILDE - EMBRACING THE DIVERSITY OF SEEING AND BEING
As a photographer working with the medium of photography, film, installation and painting, Sanne De Wilde creates long term work on genetics, identity and perception while experimenting with collaborative approaches in storytelling. Colour vision or the absence of it is key in The Island of the Colorblind, a body of work about a tropical island with an extraordinarily high percentage of achromatopsia (complete colour blindness) in Micronesia. With mythology as a vessel and colour blindness as an incentive, you are invited to transcend the conditioned notion of colour, how we see the world and each other. In Land of Ibeji, a project co-authored by Nikon ambassador Benedicte Kurzen, the universal symbolism and mythology of the twin figure becomes a metaphor to address contemporary issues. Twins embody the idea of duality - in the world that surrounds us as well as within ourselves - highlighting the friction between the individual and the collective, black and white, light and dark, day and night. Perception is the lens through which we view the world. Sanne De Wilde's colourful and formally adventurous work twists the medium of photography into a metaphor for the boundaries of vision and invites you to embrace the "diversity of seeing".