John S Barrington, John Hamill, circa 1966. Courtesy Rupert Smith Collection A new exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery traces the origins of gay physique photography in the capital, from Chelsea Barracks to Highgate Pond Before there was Grindr, the hookup app used predominantly by gay and bisexual men, there was cruising – the search for an encounter that could lead to sex in public spaces. One might have briefly locked eyes with a man on the street and found the glance reciprocated, but mostly, one had to know where to go in order to find what he was looking for. In a city like L ..read more

All images © Mik Critchlow The social documentary photographer, who passed away last week on his 68th birthday, told the story of his industrial hometown of Ashington with unparalleled insight and sensitivity To remember Mik Critchlow is to tell the story of a place, a man whose life and photographs existed in symbiotic union with Ashington – his ancestral home, inspiration, and artistic stage. The social documentarian made pictures in the North East for over four decades during a time of burgeoning and then decimated industries, resulting in projects which followed the rise and fall of a who ..read more

© Dil Kayas. All images Courtesy of the Artists and Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar 2023 A group show of three displaced Rohingya photographers documenting their experience of living in the largest refugee camp in the world is a compelling highlight of the festival’s second edition   The second edition of Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar launches in Doha this week. The biennial seeks to promote the diversity of Qatari culture and amplifies the voices of photographers from Qatar, Western Asia and North Africa (WANA). The festival launched in 2021, spearheaded by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayass ..read more

All images © Morgan Ashcom. This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography: Performance. Sign up for an 1854 subscription to receive it at your door.  For almost a decade Morgan Ashcom thought his images of Palestine’s West Bank had been destroyed – now, after rediscovering the corrupted film, he considers them a metaphor for oppression   In 2009, American photographer Morgan Ashcom travelled from his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, to the city of Nablus, nestled in a valley in the West Bank, Palestine. “I was interested in photographing daily li ..read more

Portrait by Anna Selle. This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography: Performance. Sign up for an 1854 subscription to receive it at your door.  The curator spent over a decade at the Whitney Museum of American Art before joining the International Center of Photography earlier this year – here she discusses her career with BJP’s editor Seeing the Louise Bourgeois retrospective at Tate Modern in 2007 made me want to pursue curatorial work. I was studying for my MA at The Courtauld at the time, and saw it again at the Guggenheim, New York, in 2008. It w ..read more

© Margarita Galandina. This article is part of the Education collection, a series of interviews highlighting student and early career photographers.  Through two graduate projects, Margarita Galandina reinterprets her Siberian heritage – blurring the line between the staged and the candid When Margarita Galandina revisits well-loved places from her youth, the Russian artist is struck by how different they feel. On a practical level, the changing scale of the body relative to the world it inhabits creates new perspectives as children become adults. Returning to both rural Britain and ..read more

SIX.TWO Editions’ print sale features more than 200 photographers, while Pictures for Purpose sees 30 artists contribute works. Read more about three key fundraisers below The devastation caused by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria on 6 February is unfathomable. At the time of writing, the death toll has exceeded 50,000, thousands are still missing, and millions have become homeless. The event has been described by the World Health Organisation as the worst natural disaster in the European region for a century. As both countries continue to appeal for international aid, here’s three photogra ..read more

Clean Hong Kong Action, 2019 © Wai Hang Siu This article is printed in the latest issue of British Journal of Photography: Performance. Sign up for an 1854 subscription to receive it at your door.  Back for its 11th edition, and in-person for the first time since 2019, the photofestival brings work by over 200 international artists to 12 venues across Derby The long, often difficult days of lockdown may now feel remote, but in the not-too-distant past, navigating this trying time was an all-consuming task. Yet, for those of us fortunate enough to be living in relative safety, this per ..read more

© Nada Harib. In the first book from Women Photograph, 100 images highlight the diverse perspectives of women photographers around the world “Photojournalists have a unique privilege in that we teach the world how to see,” says Daniella Zalcman, the Vietnamese-American documentary photographer and curator of What We See, a new book spotlighting women and non-binary image-makers. “We expose audiences to people and places they may never otherwise encounter… If we don’t have a photojournalism corps that’s as diverse as the communities we aim to cover, we’re missing out on stories and ways of se ..read more

Joanna Lumley with models backstage during Jean Muir fashion show. All images © Marilyn Stafford Curator Julia Winckler looks back at the photographer’s extraordinary life and work following her death earlier this year The professional career of pioneering photographer Marilyn Stafford (1925–2023) began in New York in 1948. She had moved there hoping to become an actress on Broadway. One day, friends at the Screen Actors Guild gave her an old Rolleiflex camera and encouraged her to take up photography. As a result, she was asked to accompany them for an interview with Albert Einstein to take ..read more