Announcing The ZoomedIn Festival: A Week of Architecture and Photography Talks, Hosted Online For Free

While we’ve all been stuck inside, London-Based photographer Luke O’Donovan has been hard at work curating an incredible lineup of photographers, critics, and architecture industry thought leaders to create the first ever ZoomedIn festival, a free global event targeted to those with an interest in photography and architecture. Starting THIS WEEK, the event promises to be an incredible resource for anyone who tunes in.

The festival brings together a diverse international selection of architectural photographers and cross-disciplinary creatives in a series of online talks and discussions, short film screenings, image galleries, and a charity print sale in aid of the Trussell Trust to raise funds for those most in need during the current pandemic crisis.

The virtual festival presents an opportunity for the architecture and photography communities to better engage with the public, creating an informative and inspirational programme of virtual events curated by industry experts.

From the photography side, the lineup features a stacked deck with some of the biggest names in the business, many of whom have been featured on APALMANAC in the past:

• Adam Mørk
• Alastair Philip Wiper
• Dennis Gilbert
• doublespace
• Emile Rafael
• Forbes Massie
• Hélène Binet
• Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre
• Jim Stephenson
• Justin McGuirk
• Laurian Ghinițoiu
• Mike Kelley
• NAARO
• Phineas Harper
• Space Popular
• Dr Sue Barr
• Tom Hegen
• Unscene Architecture

By the nature of our job, as architectural photographers we tend to be quite solitary – so it’s been fantastic to see how in the face of the global crisis we’re facing, Zoomed In has really brought together the architecture and photography communities across the world. Working together with the guest curators over the space of just more than a week, we’ve put together a programme featuring an eclectic range of participants, starring some of the world’s leading photographers, architects, critics and many more, and I’m beyond excited to see this all come to life very soon.

As a community of architectural photographers, we want to do our bit to support those who are working tirelessly to help those most in need during the current pandemic, so we will be using the festival as an opportunity to raise funds for the Trussell Trust, which supports a network of over 1200 food banks around the UK. We hope that through our charity print sale, and the generosity of sponsors and individuals supporters, Zoomed In will be able to make a real difference where it’s needed most right now.

Luke O’Donovan, Founder of ZoomedIn

Programme Summary and Schedule

Note all times London local time

Day One (21st April) will feature a programme guest curated by Dennis Gilbert, of the renowned architectural image archive VIEW Pictures. The VIEW Pictures programme will dig deeper into the projects of some of its photographers, starting with a presentation of their long-term collaborative work documenting the redevelopment of London’s iconic Battersea Power Station and a panel discussion on photographing infrastructure including VIEW photographers Alastair Philip Wiper and Dr Sue Barr, alongside Network Rail’s Anthony Dewar. This will be followed with a talk from Barcelona-based VIEW photographer Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre, and a discussion on images and the media between VIEW photographers and media experts, chaired by Manon Mollard, editor of The Architectural Review. The day will close with a video screening presented by photographer- lmmakers Dennis Gilbert and Jim Stephenson.

Day Two (22nd April) will feature London-based architectural photographers Mass. Collective will showcase their personal work and new collaborative lockdown project “How long is this going to last?”. In addition to film screenings and the members showcase, there will be a seminar on different approaches to marketing for photographers, featuring media and communications experts Christian Trampedach (Restless Living), Luke Neve (neve agency) and Peter Townsend (Found Artists), followed by architects including Alex de Rijke (dRMM) and Amos Goldreich sharing their experiences of working with photographers alongside Mass. Collective founders Francesco Russo and Henry Woide in a panel talk on “The Architectural Image”. International heavyweight photographers Adam Mørk, Mike Kelley, and representatives from photographic duos NAARO and doublespace will weigh in on a discussion on the differences in image culture across the Atlantic in a panel discussion entitled “The International Commission”.

Day Three (23rd April) sees architecture critic, designer, and keeper of Walmer Yard, Laura
Mark, present a more abstract programme which focuses on ways in which we can experience architecture without physically being present. Leading architectural photographers Hélène Binet and Jim Stephenson, and music artist Haich Ber Na will join Laura Mark for the screening/ panel discussion “One building: Three takes”, followed later in the day with director Emile Rafael screening his experience-led architectural short films made in collaboration with the likes of Frank Gehry for NOWNESS. The evening will conclude with the panel discussion “No Touching Please”, exploring alternative experiences of architecture through a conversation between an eclectic range of creative practitioners including Forbes Massie, Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg (Space Popular), Sam Bompas (Bompas and Parr) and photographer Tim Crocker.

To close the festival on Day Four (24th April), architectural photographers Francisco Ibàñez Hantke and Luke O’Donovan have curated an internationally-minded programme inspired by the upcoming exhibition they’ve curated for the London Festival of Architecture: “Power Structures”. The day will focus on the work of photographers and other artists producing work that re ects on the socioeconomic powers that govern the built environment, and the freedoms and restrictions that they face within their own creative practices. The day kicks off with the panel discussion “Longing for Public Space”, featuring the Venice 2020 British Pavilion curators Madeleine Kessler and Manijeh Verghese (Unscene Architecture) alongside the likes of Design Museum chief curator Justin McGuirk, with writer and critic Edwin Heathcote as chair. Prolific Romanian architect turned globe-trotting architectural photographer Laurian Ghinițoiu will also present a selection of his archive work in a live talk and question and answer session. Before closing with day with an as yet to be announced video screening, there will be a quick- re round of presentations from photographers using their work as a research tool in “Beyond the Image”, including Noelle Mason and Tom Hegen.

To see the full lineup, schedule, and find details about how to view and participate, check out the ZoomedIn Festival’s website here.

I look forward to seeing many of you in ‘attendance!’ I can’t wait to see the results of this initiative, I am sure it will be an incredible event made possible only in the current global situation, so it will definitely be one for the ages.