Fast Forward 5; Women in Photography - striving for equality, diversity and inclusion for women through photography
Lead Research Organisation:
University for the Creative Arts
Department Name: Farnham Campus
Abstract
Professor Anna Fox is one of the most acclaimed British photographers of the last thirty years and was recently awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. Since 2016 she has instigated, developed, and promoted Fast Forward: Women in Photography, a research and development project which has created a global network with far reaching impacts on the equality, diversity, and inclusion for women through photography.
This ED&I Fellowship offers an opportunity to build on the Fast Forward project and the aims and objectives of the 2020 Manifesto, to support junior colleagues and to work in partnership with a progressive-thinking group of collaborator organisations to support a community of marginalised women. Through a series of innovative workshops and mentorship activities, the aim is to increase awareness of women's unheard life stories using photography and story-telling practices by increasing their skills to use photography to create new work. Most recently the coronavirus crisis has made the telling of women's stories all the more urgent, highlighting the inequalities within society for marginalised groups of women.
Each workshop will run for between five and ten days and will involve tutors and mentors as well as at least six participants who are in contact with the partners. By promoting practical skills, networking skills, and industry knowledge, the women will develop confidence to tell new stories using the language of photography. The four workshops will be run by the partners starting in February 2021 and will be followed by a period of mentorship up to the end of the project enabling professional development in terms of networking and the production of high quality outputs, owned by participants, and widely disseminated, with permission.
The work created and key moments in the processes undertaken at the workshops will be recorded, with participants' permission, on film and/or sound and aim to show the development of skills, confidence, and understanding. By working with the partner organisations, we will actively connect women to new networks, new experiences, and valuable role models, and set up a sustainable mentorship scheme.
Outputs include artists books and prints made during the workshops. An exhibition of works will be organised along with a series of smaller scale exhibitions in local libraries and community centres, and a series of podcasts of interviews/discussions with both participants and mentors will be disseminated, designed to inspire women outside the project as well as to act as a legacy (These may vary with the restrictions due to the Covid situation). Outputs will be designed to create maximum impact through effective use of the website and social media of Fast Forward and through that of the partners and host institution, and will include promotion of exhibitions, publications, short films, and podcasts. The outputs will also be presented at the conference Decolonising the Curriculum (working title only) at University for the Creative Arts in late 2021.
This work offers an approach to improve conditions and opportunities for marginalised women in UK society (such as refugees) by using the tool of photography. We will also be developing our relationships with our partners enabling future ways of working together to support women in photography. The work of this fellowship is designed to improve well-being, creativity, and employability of those involved. By bringing practical experience and new knowledge to the women taking part in the workshops and mentorship activity they will gain understanding and grow confidence in their newly acquired skills and inspire new creativity and abilities that will contribute to future well-being. It is vital to give marginalised women a voice and the opportunity to tell their stories, stories that have frequently been hidden. Photography has the ability to tell stories in a way that neither the written nor spoken word can do.
This ED&I Fellowship offers an opportunity to build on the Fast Forward project and the aims and objectives of the 2020 Manifesto, to support junior colleagues and to work in partnership with a progressive-thinking group of collaborator organisations to support a community of marginalised women. Through a series of innovative workshops and mentorship activities, the aim is to increase awareness of women's unheard life stories using photography and story-telling practices by increasing their skills to use photography to create new work. Most recently the coronavirus crisis has made the telling of women's stories all the more urgent, highlighting the inequalities within society for marginalised groups of women.
Each workshop will run for between five and ten days and will involve tutors and mentors as well as at least six participants who are in contact with the partners. By promoting practical skills, networking skills, and industry knowledge, the women will develop confidence to tell new stories using the language of photography. The four workshops will be run by the partners starting in February 2021 and will be followed by a period of mentorship up to the end of the project enabling professional development in terms of networking and the production of high quality outputs, owned by participants, and widely disseminated, with permission.
The work created and key moments in the processes undertaken at the workshops will be recorded, with participants' permission, on film and/or sound and aim to show the development of skills, confidence, and understanding. By working with the partner organisations, we will actively connect women to new networks, new experiences, and valuable role models, and set up a sustainable mentorship scheme.
Outputs include artists books and prints made during the workshops. An exhibition of works will be organised along with a series of smaller scale exhibitions in local libraries and community centres, and a series of podcasts of interviews/discussions with both participants and mentors will be disseminated, designed to inspire women outside the project as well as to act as a legacy (These may vary with the restrictions due to the Covid situation). Outputs will be designed to create maximum impact through effective use of the website and social media of Fast Forward and through that of the partners and host institution, and will include promotion of exhibitions, publications, short films, and podcasts. The outputs will also be presented at the conference Decolonising the Curriculum (working title only) at University for the Creative Arts in late 2021.
This work offers an approach to improve conditions and opportunities for marginalised women in UK society (such as refugees) by using the tool of photography. We will also be developing our relationships with our partners enabling future ways of working together to support women in photography. The work of this fellowship is designed to improve well-being, creativity, and employability of those involved. By bringing practical experience and new knowledge to the women taking part in the workshops and mentorship activity they will gain understanding and grow confidence in their newly acquired skills and inspire new creativity and abilities that will contribute to future well-being. It is vital to give marginalised women a voice and the opportunity to tell their stories, stories that have frequently been hidden. Photography has the ability to tell stories in a way that neither the written nor spoken word can do.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Anna Fox (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
| Title | Putting Ourselves in the Picture - Photographs produced by the participants in the project from Bradford, London and Edinburgh |
| Description | Our project participants made photographic works and photo stories as a part of the project. These photographs took many different forms and some included creative writing and poems, as well there were a series of hand made zines made by the Bradford group. Art works by the participants have been exibhited at Autograph, Impressions Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland and The Centre for British Photography. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Participants making the work learned to use photograph as a tool for speaking about their lives. Some of the participants developed an interest in becoming photographers as a future job. |
| URL | https://www.impressions-gallery.com/putting-ourselves-in-the-picture-at-the-new-centre-for-british-p... |
| Title | Putting Ourselves in the Picture - Short films |
| Description | This series of 18 short films directed by Laura Sims under the direction of the Fast Forward team and all of our partners looks at the experience of the project and engagement with photography by 18 of the participants from the project. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | To date the films have been primarily used by participants and partners to give context to the project with the focus primarily being on the artistic work made by the participants |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX2PCd3eAl0&list=PLEYX39qwnMl8qy24FdyA-pb54o_XaBpns |
| Title | Putting Ourselves in the Picture - six podcasts |
| Description | In collaboration with Social Broadcasts, Fast Forward have produced the Putting Ourselves in The Picture podcast series This series focuses on conversations around the Fast Forward Manifesto for increased involvement of women in photography concerned with improving inclusivity and diversity in photography. It also features discussions about the project Putting Ourselves in The Picture created with a group of partner organisations, participants and other photography professionals. This project engaged with three groups of women migrants and refugees providing them with skills training and knowledge about photography as a tool of empowerment to give voice to their stories which in turn educate us. Episode 1 - An Introduction Episode 2: Fast Forward, Manifesto Part 1 Episode 3: Fast Forward, Manifesto Part 2 Episode 4: Fast Forward, Putting Ourselves in the Picture Part 1 Episode 5: Fast Forward, Putting Ourselves in the Picture Part 2 Episode 6: Fast Forward, Putting Ourselves in the Picture Part 3 |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | We have had feedback from listeners who have recognised the value of the podcasts. We have received further funding from University for the Creative Arts to develop two new series of podcasts concerend with how women work in photography |
| URL | https://fastforward.photography/podcasts/ |
| Title | Putting Ourselves in the Picture in Being Human |
| Description | Being Human was a nationwide exhibition project organised by the British Council which universities took part in at the end of 2024. Putting Ourselves in the Picture was devised as an exhibition and shown in the James Hockey Gallery at University for the Creative Arts. The exhibition included work from Putting Ourselves in the Picture part 2 as well as this original project. Also on show was work by Fast Forward steering committee member Elizabeth Ransom and a portrait project, Unbowed by the group of Ukrainina women refugees working with Fast Forward in Putting Ourselves in the Picture Part 2 - Engaging with Industry. There were 2 workshops connected to this show run by Professor Jean Wainwright (Fast Forward steering committee member) and Camille Serisier (Fast Forward funded PhD student). As well a musical performance by an Ukrainian orchestra. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This exhibition had impact in the local community and particularly for the new refugee working with us on Putting Ourselves in the Picture Part 2 - Engaging with Industry. The experience of being to exhibit the project was valuable to all the participants from the project as well as providing impact for Fast Forward in the local community who learnt more about us and our research aims. |
| Title | Putting Ourselves in the Picture in Its Time. To See. To be Seen at Chennai Photo Biennale |
| Description | Its Time. To See. To be Seen at Chennai Photo Biennale was a group exhibition of photography, text and moving image at Lalit Kala Akademi in Chennai promoting a feminist viewpoint on women and non-binary photographers. The show included artists, photographers, publishers and film makers and was held during the international festal Chennai Photo Biennale. Work from Putting Ourselves in the Picture was included in the show curated by Shuchi Kapoor, the festival director. There were also a series of panel discussions at the Biennale two of which Anna Fox contributed to concerned with the politics of working with communities and with publishing. Natalia Sharamova a Ukrainian refugee participating in part 2 of Putting Ourselves in the Picture was invited by Fox to contribute to the panel discussion on the politics of working with communities. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | Chennai Biennale is an international festival and the press coverage was intense from TV to magazines and newspapers there was weekly attention for the exhibition. It was also a considerable achievement to have one of our project participants participating in a live debate during the Biennale and presenting to an international audience. |
| URL | https://chennaiphotobiennale.foundation/biennale/projects/its-time |
| Description | Through the Putting Ourselves in the Picture project we have discovered a wide range of inequalities for women in relation to working in the fields of photography particular connected to arts-based practices such as being commissioned by arts organisations, selling work in the art marketplace, being represented in major collections as well as exhibiting and publishing photography. In all sectors of the arts based photography industry and its various outputs the representation of women photographers ranges from 2% at worst and 40% at best (this higher percentage is rare) with the exception of women only projects of which there are a few good examples. In the commercial photography world the situation is worse though opur investigation in this project did not cover this sector we did find some information relating to photography and commerce. We know that while women's work is (slowly) becoming more visible there are still major inequalities for women working in photography and our manifesto for increased involvement for women in photography has been developed to take forward to wider audiences through our website and through workshops where we present it. We will be presenting and discussing the manifesto at an international research workshop on 24th March 2022 hosted by The Hyman Foundation in London (inviting key curators, campaigners and researchers from the UK with guests from the US and France) and have also presented the manifesto at Paris Photo last year as part of the EDI conference Enseigner la photographie en Europe hosted by the Bibliotèque National de France and organised by Ecole Louis Lumiere https://www.ens-louis-lumiere.fr/seminaire-enseigner-la-photographie-en-europe. We have also asserted that women's stories are frequently hidden and in particular women from vulnerable groups such as migrants and refugees are regularly silenced. Through our workshop and training programme created in collaboration with Autograph, Women for Refugee Women, Impressions Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland and Work Show Grow for women participants from marginalised communities we have discovered ways of working that enable women to use photography and text to tell their stories within a safe and positive environment and then how to bring these stories into a public arena. We have also discovered a series of diverse and previously hidden stories from the refugee and migrant women who took part in the project and create photo/text stories. |
| Exploitation Route | The page link given above on the Fast Forward website is for the project and the outcomes of the project are still being checked and final edits need to be done so they will appear on this page over the next weeks in three stages. The podcasts and films for the project will be available in about 4 - 6 weeks and information on the publication and where to access it will appear in May 2022. These outputs will be used to inform the widest possible general public about the project and the findings. The three key outcomes, podcasts, films and publication are all very different and go together to document the project and facilitate understanding about it and its findings that will inform future projects of a similar kind as well as inspire those unfamiliar with photography as to its power and value, as a language without borders, to promote social change and to tell hidden stories. The outcomes can be used in different settings, across society, to educate, to inform and to campaign for change for women and change for migrant and refugee communities in the UK. The films and podcasts document the experience of the project and the publication foregrounds the creative work made by the participating women through the workshops and mentorship. The publication itself will be a physical object to start with and we are in discussion with the publisher to develop an online version accessible to all. The publication will reach its audience through libraries to start with, through associated publicity, through being sent to key politicians and campaigners and later in the year through an on-line presence. Essentially all the outcomes act to bring audiences to the project and through the outcomes these audiences will learn about how photography can be used to give people a voice as well as to discover what are the stories of women refugees and migrants, stories frequently concealed are made visible through the project. The manifesto has already been published on the website and is gaining signatures we will draw further attention to the manifesto through our next Fast Forward research workshop at the Hyman Foundation in London which has been funded by University for the Creative Arts Knowledge Exchange funding. Further developments of the manifesto will be to look for funding to take it to the international photography community. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Education Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://fastforward.photography/our-projects/ahrc-ukri-fellowship-putting-ourselves-in-the-picture/ |
| Description | The project was re named, Putting Ourselves in the Picture after discussion with our partners, to give a more appropriate overview of the work. Our findings can be divided into sections the first to do with what we have discovered about the situation for women in photography today and these findings have gone into compiling our manifesto, getting signatures added to it and devising an international research workshop (March 24th 2022) to gain further momentum for it and broaden its appeal. The second section of findings are connected to the training programme for migrant and refugee women and are being used initially to inspire women migrants and refugees to tell their frequently hidden stories to a wide public audience. They have been used also in a two-way educating process on the one side to teach vulnerable women how to use photography as a tool of empowerment and on the other side for them to educate us all regarding the nature of their lives and the difficulties and joys that they have faced through telling stories with photographs and texts. The findings can be seen to be giving visibility to invisible voices through the short films, podcasts and publication that will be available soon on our website. The findings, regarding the processes and methods of the project, have illustrated (to all the partners and other organisations within their networks) the complexity of working with refugee and migrant communities and enabled new proposals to be devised in relation to ways of working. There will be many more uses of the findings in the longer term and we expect the outputs to act as a valuable legacy for the project. The outputs are still in progress with the films and podcasts planned to be published in late April and the book in late May/early June 2022 |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
| Description | workshop and mentorship partner 2 |
| Organisation | Autograph ABP |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Our research team worked collaboratively with Autograph to organise the workshop and mentorship activity in London and once this activity had been completed to work together to gather all the creative materials produced during the training activity in order to organise, design and publish the book that foregrounds the participants work. As well we worked together to organise the making of the short films about the participants in Bradford and the making of the podcast which included recording staff from Impressions who had been involved in the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Autograph organised the employment of workshop leaders, speakers and mentors for the London group. They provided space for all the educational activities to take part in and they exhibited the creative work made during the project last year. They also supported the film crew and podcast producers in the making of the short films and podcasts and the participants in the educational activities who were from marginalised communities. Autograph contributed to developing the collaboration with Women for Refugee Women that was vital to the project. |
| Impact | The publication, Putting Ourselves in the Picture (Trolley Books 2022), short films and podcasts were all made as a result of this collaboration. We worked with photography, writing, film and sound recording. The participants in the workshops also produced images, poems and texts for the project and some of these were exhibited at the Autograph Gallery |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | workshop and mentorship partner 3 |
| Organisation | National Galleries of Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Our research team worked collaboratively with National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh to organise the workshop and mentorship activity in Scotland and once this activity had been completed to work together to gather all the creative materials produced during the training activity in order to organise, design and publish the book that foregrounds the participants work. As well we worked together to organise the making of the short films about the participants in Scotland and the making of the podcasts which included recording staff from National Galleries of Scotland who had been involved in the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) organised the employment of workshop leaders, speakers and mentors. They provided space for all the educational activities to take part in and they are planning to exhibit the creative work made during the project later this year. They also supported the film crew and podcast producers in the making of the short films and podcasts and the participants in the educational activities who were from marginalised communities. |
| Impact | The publication, Putting Ourselves in the Picture (Trolley Books 2022), short films and podcasts were all made as a result of this collaboration. We were using photography, film and sound recording. The participants in the workshops also produced images and texts for the project and a small exhibition was curated at The National Galleries of Scotland. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Fast Forward newsletter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Fast Forward sent several newsletters specifically dedicated to this project and its outcomes during the period 2021 - 2022. 1800 subscribers received these. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Putting Ourselves in the Picture - Podcasts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This series focuses on conversations around the Fast Forward Manifesto for increased involvement of women in photography concerned with improving inclusivity and diversity in photography. It also features discussions about the project Putting Ourselves in The Picture created with a group of partner organisations, participants and other photography professionals. This project engaged with three groups of women migrants and refugees providing them with skills training and knowledge about photography as a tool of empowerment to give voice to their stories which in turn educate us. Six Episodes can be listened to on the Fast Forward website and are also distributed through Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts. Professionals have commented on how interesting these are and also valuable records relating to women working in and with photography |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://fastforward.photography/podcasts/ |
| Description | Putting Ourselves in the Picture - Short Films |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A series of short films were produced by Fast Forward in partnership with the filmmakers Laura Sims and Sarah Jeans, these short films were made with some of the participants of the project - there are 18 films in total. They aim to highlight the experiences of the participants through the project and to give an insight into what the women who took part in the project wanted to tell. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://fastforward.photography/watch/ |