Open Now Opening

Open Now opens in Belfast on Thursday 3rd May between 6 and 8pm. Everyone is welcome but if you can't make it to the opening, don't worry, as all of the selected work will be in Gallery Nine in River House until 24th May before moving to the Gallery of Photography in Dublin.

New Member - Fergus Jordan

Fergus Jordan has just jumped aboard the good ship 'Photo Factory'. More of his work can be seen over at www.fergusjordan.com

New Member - Mark Drillingcourt

We're multiplying like damp mogwais after midnight here at the Photo Factory. Our latest member is Mark Drillingcourt, his website is right here if you're curious.

Open Now Submissions Closed

Big thanks to everyone who has submitted, there is a crazy amount of amazing work in there. Tanya, Trish and Donovan really have their work cut out.

St.Patricks Day

Hope everyone has a good'un. Don't party too much and forget to submit to Open Now though, the deadline's tomorrow.

Wispa Competition

We had a short competition on facebook with the prize of a delicious Wispa Gold going to whoever was lucky enough to be the 100th person to 'like' our page. Casey Carlin is the lucky chap to help us reach this illustrious milestone.

Alberto on Conscientious

Alberto has been given a mention on the influential Conscientious blog. We've now officially filed him under 'Contemporary European Photography'.

New Member - Ian Foster

Ian Foster is the latest grunt to the join factory lines. He brings a world class resume of tea making skills to the table, so we're naturally ecstatic to have him here. If you feel like looking at some of his work check out his flickr

B Book Show

We're pleased to say that our group book 'Prophecy', produced for our one-month project, will be shown as part of the 'B Book Show'. So if you're near Ground Floor Left in London on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th March you should pop your head in to see what we're sure will be a great selection of books.

Significant Objects

The opening of Jim's first solo show will be this Thursday night (16th Feb, 7pm) at the Ballaí Bána Gallery in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on the Falls Road. He will be exhibiting his 'Significant Objects' work, which looks at institutionalised abuse and the effect it has on those who suffer as a result.

Open Now Guide Update

Due to some confusion regarding the sizing of final prints we have updated the Open Now submission guide. Hopefully it will make things a bit clearer. If you've got any questions give us a shout and we'll do our best to answer.

Submission Guide.pdf

New Member - Gavin Devine

We're very happy to announce that Gavin Devine has joined the Photo Factory. We look forward to having him around the place to involve him in our indepth discussions about crucial subjects and to pick his brain about whether cheese really does go with everything. More of his work can be seen over on his website at gavinodevine.viewbook.com

Open Now Now Open

Open Now is now open for submissions. Open Now is the Belfast Photo Factory's annual open submission exhibition. The show will be exhibited in both Belfast and Dublin and has 3 great judges in the form of Donovan Wylie (Magnum Photos), Trish Lambe and Tanya Kiang (Gallery of Photography).

As listed on PhotographyCompetitions.Net and The Photo Contest

Christmas

Here's hoping everyone has a great Christmas, may your figgy puddings be excellent and Santa bring all that you wished for.

Fundraiser

Auntie Annies 8PM Wednesday 14th December Pub quiz and raffle to generate some funds for a shiny new scanner. It's not all about money though as it's also a great chance to have a Christmas shindig and get the ol' mistletoe out.

BXmas Fair

We had a great day at Belfast Exposed and would like to say a big thank you to BX and to everyone that came along, with a special thanks to all the people who bought a print!

BX Christmas Market

We'll have a variety of 12x16 prints for sale for £5 each at the BX Christmas Market(Saturday 10th December), so pop in, say hello and stick your hand in your wallet to get a great photo. If you're lucky you might be able to find a mince pie or two as well.

Fragments of Faith

Gordon's beautiful handmade book 'Fragments of Faith' has been selected for the 'A' Book Show. Opening night is Friday 2nd December with promises of tea and cider and should be well worth a visit to view all of the selected work.

'A' Photo Book Show

We have just posted our 'Prophecy' book to the 'A' Book Show. Hopefully our submission will be successfull and we'll have a nice excuse to go to Workflow Studios in Brighton for the opening on December 2nd.

Paris Photo

Jason, Michael, Jim and Alberto are all jetting off to Paris Photo this week to soak up what's going on along with plenty of wine. We hope our jealously won't be too apparent from a (hopefully) cool and dry Belfast in (an ideally wet) Paris.

Time Online

Alberto has been getting a great response to his 'Et Nunc' work recently and he has now come to the attention of none other than Time magazine. His work is currently featured on the Time online Lightbox along with an inteview.

Hereford Photo Festival

Jim and Alberto are back and buzzing about the opening weekend of the Hereford Photo Festival, where they are participating in the Open Here exhibiton. Paddy Kelly is also flying the flag high for the Photo Factory with his work being shown in the exhibition 'Manouevres'. Both of the exhibitions are on until November 27th.

Little Brown Miscellanea

We posted our group book from the 'One Month Book Project' to Alec Soth and Little Brown Mushroom earlier in the month. Really glad to see it has now arrived safely in Minnesota. We wish it the utmost happiness in its new habitat and hope it's new owners enjoy it. After all, it's a great book - it can hold doors open all by itself and swat away all manner of small crawling beasts.

RUA Annual Exhibition

Jim McKeever and Alberto Maserin are both exhibiting work in the annual RUA show in the Ulster Museum. Congratulations are also due to Alberto for being awarded a prize with a really long name, the 'Irish News Prize for a work depicting the theme of Ireland today'

South Africa

Dave Farquhar is off to South Africa, with Shaleen Temple for 5 weeks, where they're both going to make some work. Shaleen is continuing her Boys & Girls series and Dave is going to explore possible research avenues. We wish them luck from rainy Belfast.

Open Peer Critique

We are holding our first open critique session on Friday 28th of October between 12 and 2pm in the Photo Factory. We are hoping to see some new faces and some inspirational work. So come along for a cup of tea and a head full of ideas.

Washington

Photo Factory member Paddy Kelly is in Washington DC until the 18th November as part of the ARCH and Belfast Exposed Fall Residency. With travel costs, living costs and a weekly allowance covered by Arts Council NI, it's a great opportunity and we cant wait to see what he has been up to.

Hereford Photo Festival

Alberto Maserin, Jim McKeever and Paddy Kelly will be flying the Photo Factory flag at Hereford this year. Open Here is Hereford Photography Festival’s open submission exhibition. From over 300 applications, just 22 photographers were selected. The exhibited work represents some of the newest, most exciting international work being made.

Book Project

Inspired by ‘mini-projects’ within larger bodies of work that some of us have created to aid our thought process with regards to themes and issues we may be struggling with. Although sometimes they give interesting results they are rarely seen by anyone else. Through many idle chats about these experiments we landed on the idea that it would be interesting to create an array of these works and publish them as ‘zines, or one off books. Opened at Belfast Exposed on Friday 5th August, 6pm. Part of the Belfast Photo Festival.