FORMAT PhotoForum Live: Louise Fedotov-Clements in conversation with ReFramed

PhotoForum Live is a series of inspirational talks between leading photographers, curators, producers and industry professionals which will take place every Tuesday at 3PM throughout June, July and August.

ReFramed is a Midlands-based network for Black, Asian and other people of colour interested in producing photographic visual art. It was set up in January 2020 by a team of local, award-winning photographers and curators Andrew Jackson, Sebah Chaudhry, Anand Chhabra and Jagdish Patel.
ReFramed has been established by a team of award-winning photographers and curators who believe that visual arts can play a critical role in shaping civic and contemporary attitudes, initiating collaborative conversations, and changing prevailing thoughts about race, our local environment and our communities.
Andrew Jackson is a photographer and lecturer whose works negotiate explorations of selfhood, representation and narration within intimate and personal interventions, which focus on transnational migration, belonging, displacement and collective memory.
His works are held in both International and National collections of photography such as the United Kingdom Government Art Collection, the Garman Ryan Collection, Light Work Collection at Syracuse University, Autograph ABP Collection, Rugby Museum & Art Gallery, and in the process of being acquired by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, as well as being held in a range of private collections.
Sebah Chaudhry is a Freelance Creative Producer. She is currently Community Engagement Officer on Tape Letters. She was previously Creative Producer on an international British Council funded project with Ffotogallery, The Place I Call Home and in 2019, Sebah curated a show by Alina Kisina at Diffusion Festival in Wales.
From 2014 – 2017, Sebah was the Festival Coordinator at FORMAT, and still produces projects at FORMAT. She has previously worked with Photo Beijing, Beijing; Unseen Platform, Amsterdam; Kasselfotobook Festival, Kassel; Fotofestiwal, Łódz; Rhubarb-Rhubarb, Birmingham; Dong Gang, South Korea and Fotofest, Houston.
Anand Chhabra is a co-founder, director and the incumbent Chair at Black Country Visual Arts and other funded work in the last few years. Anand initiated and profiled the ‘Apna Heritage Archive’ project winning a national award for best New Archive in the UK in 2017 from Community Archives and Heritage Group.
In 2018 Anand was shortlisted for Magnum Foundation’s Photography in Collaboration: Migration and Religion and was been nominated for Prix Pictet 2019 on both occasions for his personal photographic work SUPNAA: Dreams of our Fathers. Anand recently worked on Historic England’s project ‘Picturing Lockdown’ in the Midlands as one ten regional photographers in the UK responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been assigned to document his local area as the photographer working in the Midlands.
He has also recently worked with the National Trust, Arts Council England, Worcestershire Archaeology Archives Service, British Council, Heritage Lottery Fund, Living Memory project. University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton Archives, Dudley College, GRAIN Photography Hub & Multistory.
Jagdish Patel is interested in issues related to socially engaged art, anti-racism and archives. He was raised in the Midlands, and worked in London as the Deputy Director of the human rights charity, the Monitoring Group. His work is firmly located within the realms of portraiture and documentary, but through a process of collaborative art practice. Much of his practice involves working within working class communities, and he is keen to ensure that the process of making images is empowering for the people taking part in the projects.
Over the past few years, he has undertaken projects with people from the Gypsy community, Portuguese farm workers, Asian football clubs, Northern Soul fans, victims of racial violence, Muslim War Veterans, and Punjabi bar owners in the Black Country. He has also worked on issues relating to arts and mental well-being for nearly a decade.
He was also one of the founders of ‘Off Centre : Nottingham Centre for Photography and Social Engagement’.

Louise Fedotov-Clements has been the Artistic Director of QUAD since 2001, and the Director of FORMAT, which she co-founded in 2004. An independent curator since 1998 directing commissions, publications, performances and exhibitions. Guest Curator for international exhibitions/festivals including Dong Gang (Yeongwol) South Korea; Photoquai Biennale Musée du quai Branly Paris; Les Rencontres Arles, Discoveries; Dali Photo, China; Poikkeustila 2020 Finland; Venice Biennale EM15; Photo Beijing, and LishuiPhoto China; Korea International Photo Festival. An international awards advisor, she has contributed to numerous publications as producer/writer/Editorial Team and a juror, portfolio reviewer, speaker in Europe, America, Africa & Asia.