This year we are collaborating with Photography at University of Salford for our 2026 conference, Seeds of Change. A hybrid conference exploring regenerative practices in digital and analogue photography.
We invite you to join us this October to gather and share ideas and approaches to a sustainable future for photography. Through presentations, workshops, discussions, a book launch and a conference exhibition we gather to create radical new visions for the future of photography.
Fees and Registration:
The ticket is inclusive of talks, workshops and lunch.
- Academic – full conference – £100.00
- Academic – single day – £50.00
- Artist/Practitioner/Student/Independent Researcher – full conference – £50.00
- Artist/Practitioner/Student/Independent Researcher – single day – £25.00
Booking here.
OFFSHOOT Symposium – Wednesday 28 October 10am - 16.30pm: This conference will follow straight on from OFFSHOOT, a free day symposium on 28 October, hosted by the University of Salford Art Collection in collaboration with RHS Garden Bridgewater and Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool.
Check back soon for more information on the OFFSHOOT Symposium.
Location:
New Adelphi Building, University of Salford, Peel Park Campus, Manchester, M5 4BR
Schedule:
28 Oct
4.30 – 6.30 Seeds of Change Registration and drinks event for OFFSHOOT Symposium at Salford Museum and Art Gallery (continues at The Old Fire Station Café until 8pm)
29 Oct
9.30–10.15 Keynote - Alice Cazenave
10.15–10.30 Coffee Break
10.30 – 11.30 Gardens of Images Panel:
Entangled Light: Soil, Photography and the Garden as Studio - Dr Antony Hall and Dr Helen McGhie
The Heliographic Garden - Tuula Närhinen
Unpicturing the garden: voicing a small wild place - Tracy Piper-Wright
11.45-12.45 Material Learning Panel:
Errant Bodies - Chris Wright
A Garden of Shared Learning - Leanne Wiggers, Hilde Barwegen, Raven Kiss
Visualising Decay for Future Thinking - Eileen White
1.00 - 2.00 Lunch Break
2.00 - 4.00 Workshops to choose from:
Cyanotype on 16mm with Edd Carr
Flower Power Photography with Samuel Ian McCarthy and Lasse Lindqvist
The Garden as a Socially Engaged Art Space: Collective Practices of Care and Connection with Eda Emirdağ
OFFSHOOT Exhibition – Curator Tour at Salford Museum and Art Gallery
5.00 - 8.00 Public Exhibition Preview and Book Launch
Conference Exhibition Opening and the launch of The Sustainable Darkroom’s new book of collected essays, Bury After Reading: The Afterlife of Images.
30 Oct
9.30-10.30 Panel Discussion
Beyond Process: How can Ecological Future Thinking Transform Photography?
Chaired by Caroline Edge
10.30-10.45 Coffee Break
10.45-11.45 Co-creation Panel
Marshland as Method: Co-creating photography with place, towards a murky, silty reciprocal practice - Rosaleigh Harvey-Otway
Immersive Afterlives: Collaboration, Auto-Destruction and the Material Agency of Water - John Inns
Lizzie King
10.45-11.45 Gestures Panel
Mnemosyne Grove - Georgia Metaxas
Returnings: Photography as a Practice of Re-rooting - Lāsma Poiša
‘Cruising the collection’: using archives to inform and inspire alternative photography in socially engaged practice - Marge Bradshaw
12.00-12.45 Weeds and Seeds Panel
Future Flora - Dr Liza Dracup
The Photograph as Seed Bank: Archiving Ecological Futures in the Anthropocene -Andreas Scholz
12.00-12.45 Temporalities Panel
From the act to the gesture: In conversation with Andrés Pardo Piccone on bodies, elements, and temporalities in the eco-somatic film process - Joseph Pugilisi
Time Signatures - Alexa Dilworth
1.00-2.00 Lunch Break
2.00 - 4.00 Workshops to choose from:
Sustainable Thinking workshop with Hannah Fletcher
Bioyarn Cyanotypes with Martha Gray
Toning Cyanotypes with Peaty Water with Bethany Copsey
OFFSHOOT Exhibition – Curator Tour at Salford Museum and Art Gallery
4.30 - closing event
Please see University of Salford's website for more info.
