Photo Biennial

October 1 – 31, 2011

The Photo Biennial, Louisville’s premier photographic festival, is set to take place throughout the city during the month of October. Embracing local, national and international photography, workshops, symposia, public discussions and more than 30 exhibitions city-wide, the Photo Biennial will celebrate artistic excellence in this rich and diverse medium. The Photo Biennial represents a cooperative effort among local museums, galleries, universities and other public venues to give viewers the opportunity to learn about and to appreciate photography, spanning its history to the present, and from the local to the global.

The Biennial will highlight a variety of themes with each week in the month. The First Friday Gallery Hop will provide the kick-off of coordinated gallery openings. The keynote exhibit, Rough Road. The Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project 1975 – 1977, featuring work from Bob Hower, Ted Wathen and Bill Burke at the Frazier History Museum, provides the base for the second weekend of events focusing on documentary photography. This theme is also the subject of a panel discussion of nationally recognized experts hosted by the University of Louisville’s Center for Arts and Culture Partnerships. A strong international focus will highlight a group of Canadian photographers represented by Elevator Digital in Toronto when they invade local galleries, the Mellwood Arts Center and the Kentucky International Convention Center during the third weekend of the Biennial. Finally, the world-renowned Slideluck Potshow will close out the Photo Biennial, integrating local emerging photographers’ works side by side with some of the most established and well-known photographers from around the world.

Started in 1999 by Swanson Cralle East Market (now Swanson Contemporary), Galerie Hertz, Zephyr Gallery and Erin Divine Gallery (a predecessor of Pyro), the Photo Biennial, has consistently grown due to the dedication and support of the artistic community in the Louisville region. Over the years, it has expanded to attract the national View Camera Magazine Large Format Conference in 2007, and became the first Louisville Visual Arts Festival in 2009. This year’s Biennial will continue this evolution with focused events each weekend, to educate and entertain the public with the richness and variety of photography as both a documentary and an artistic medium.