PHOTO FESTIVAL

Educational and contest programs
april-november 2024

PhotoArtDoc - a photography festival at the intersection of documentary and art. Such photography aims not only to capture reality but also provides authors with broad opportunities to explore and interpret events, phenomena, and trends in contemporary society. Today, this is one of the most sought-after fields in photography, drawing authors worldwide who seek to make sense of reality.

The festival was initiated by the community of Belarusan photographers, and is held for the first time. The program has two parts - educational and contest.

We keep the focus on Belarusan photography, and we consider it important to preserve both inclusion in the international art environment and continuity as a factor of preservation and development of national culture. There have already been periods in the history of Belarusian photography when cultural ties between generations of authors were destroyed. Over the last few years, there have been events that have led to a new rupture. The Belarusan photographic community found itself in a situation when many respected and established authors left, and the remaining ones faced restrictions inside the country and from the outside world.

The educational part of this year's festival is aimed at preserving the potential of Belarusian photography, which was laid down thanks to many projects and initiatives over the previous 10-15 years. We aim to support and develop the community of independent photographers of Belarus both inside and outside the country, to promote Belarusian photography in the European space, to preserve visual heritage and to contribute to the development of modern photographic culture in Belarus.

At the same time, we believe that culture and art environment have no borders - that is why the contest part of the festival has the status of international and one of the nominations of the contest is addressed to all authors, without reference to the place of residence.

FESTIVAL CURATOR

Sergey Mikhalenko

"By launching the PhotoArtDoc festival of photography, we aim to gather on one platform Belarusian photographers of different generations, those who have left for different countries and those who continue to live and work in Belarus. Yes, the situation nowadays is such that Belarusian photography is going through difficult times. Many established authors have been forced to leave Belarus, which has led to a significant atomization of the photographic community, which has just begun to form. Another goal is to remain active participants of the international art and photo environment, regardless of external conditions and circumstances.

PhotoArtDoc is the epitome of our efforts to create a unifying platform to reconnect and promote continuity."