From October 16 to November 16, exhibits and events across the city will explore the achievements and challenges for women, both behind and in front of the lens, including the problems of representation, women as photographers, collectors and curators, and photographic techniques. The festival also coincides with the centenary of women graduating from the University of Oxford.

Photo Oxford gives visitors the chance to experience original, arresting and rarely-seen photography exhibitions, installations and screenings at venues across the city. The Bodleian Libraries will showcase work of photographer Helen Muspratt (1907-2001), one of Britain’s leading photographers of the early 20th century, and documentary photographer Elena Gallina’s 2019 photographs of women in Afghanistan, exploring the role of beauty in their lives, will be on show at The Jam Factory.

Maison Française d'Oxford will host Clara Bouvresse’s award-winning exhibition panels from Rencontres D'Arles 2019, revealing the photobook-making process of Magnum photographers Eve Arnold, Abigail Heyman and Susan Meiselas, offering a unique look at women’s bodies in the 1970s. Within the exhibition Home & Heart, acclaimed Oxford photographer Paddy Summerfield will show images from Voyage Around My Mother, a sequence of black and white photographs centred on his mother as her life closes down. Circles is the theme of a collection of 20th and 21st century photographs by well known photographers, curated by Oxford photographer and collector Joanna Vestey.

Outdoor exhibitions include Silvia Rosi’s Self Portrait As My Father on Cornmarket Street, Anna Atkins’ 19th century Botanical Illustration & Photographic Innovation on Parks Road, and Fran Monks’ Strength and Resilience, portraits created for Photo Oxford of women connected to homeless drop-in centre The Gatehouse Project in St Giles churchyard. For the Festival’s launch weekend, building projections in public spaces show Miss Acland’s Gaze, exploring Oxford as lived and photographed by the city’s Sarah Angelina Acland (1849-1930) by Oxford Brookes University students, and images of Protest on Camera from the Format Photographers’ Agency.

During Photo Oxford there will be inspiring online interviews with photographers, and panel discussions including Photographers’ Question Time with 100 Heroine photographers from across the world. On October 24 a free one-day online conference, hosted by the Bodleian Library, will explore the critical work of women writing about, collecting, and curating photography. Photography workshops and courses, information about Oxford’s community dark room, exhibitions by local photographers and from Oxford’s eight twin cities, an exhibition of work selected from over 1000 images submitted for the Festival’s Open Call, artists incorporating photography in their practice and family-friendly activities.

For more info, please visit Photo Oxford