HEREFORD Photography Festival, the UK’s longest running photography festival, returns with 40 exhibitions featuring more than 75 artists from across the globe.

Running from October 28 to November 26, the festival will see more than 200 works featured in a range of venues, including Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, The Courtyard, Hereford Cathedral, Hereford College of Arts and The Watershed.

Now entering its 21st year, this year’s festival highlights include an exhibition at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, co-curated by Simon Bainbridge, editor of the British Journal of Photography. The exhibition Time and Motion Studies features documentary work from six leading artists – Donald Weber, George Georgio, Manuel Vasquez, Robbie Cooper, Tim Hetherington and Vanessa Winship. They demonstrate the process between seeing a potential photo and making the conscious decision to take it. The exhibition will open with a panel discussion and Q&A with the artists.

“I was thrilled to be approached by Hereford Photography Festival, which has such a great history of exhibiting international photographic work,” said Simon. “I’m excited to be working with them in this their 21st year, on an exhibition that will respond to the idea of movement, this year’s festival theme.

“Work will focus on the strategies that contemporary photographers employ to capture everyday life as it passes across their frame and photographers will be selected from the UK and throughout the world.”

Open submission exhibition

The festival also sees the return of the highly popular open submission exhibition Open Here, won last year by Jason Larkin. Organisers of this year’s exhibition have seen more than 300 entrants from across the globe which they have had to whittle down to just 22 submissions. The winner, who will be announced on October 28, will then be commissioned to create an exhibition of their own for the 2012 festival. Larkin’s exhibition explores the changing face of business premises in Hereford and features living rooms that have been converted into cafes (above left), and phone booths which are now public libraries.

World renowned parkour (free running) photographer Andy Day will be displaying his latest work at the Watershed Gallery, exploring unconventional methods of movement within cities and extreme environments. This year also marks the launch of Transit, a body of work by eight Polish artists curated by Krakow Photomonth for HPF which is broken down into a number of segments exploring transit populations within eastern European communities. One particular strand of this exhibition re-stages photos taken from online profiles, looking into how Moldovian women believe they have to present themselves in order to find a Western husband.

Visit photofest.org for full details. There is still time to bid for a work of art by one of more than 40 renowned photographers in a unique auction to raise funds for the festival, with all proceeds going directly to supporting future HPF commissions and exhibitions. To view the lots, visit photofest.org/auction. The live auction takes place at London’s Hotshoe Gallery on October 7, with bids accepted online until 8pm.