Diane Smyth

Still time to catch Shows 2026 at LCC! Gathering works from the BA Photography, BA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography and BA Commercial Photography courses, it's open 15th and 16th May. I was interested to see how many screens were being used - it is the modern way. Last image is the Sports Direct on Oxford Street, except half the image is a reflection on a glassy building that's also a screen 🤯 . Sorry for the poor refresh rate re the TVs and my snaps in general, this is why I'm a writer lol. But bravo! and congratulations to all those graduating 🎊 . 1 @clem.644 2 @kayrasanda 3 @pictureswithgurtej 4 abbiecrolla.com 5 @elliehxsier 6 @mylesrussell.photo 7 @isabellajanapics 8 yueruizhang.cargo.site 9 @lilasfavero 10 @theowainwright

"Fairs play an important part in the ecosystem of the art world but I think Photo London will be even more important both as a space for artistic expression and in terms of the survival of art practices. And we are independent, so we don’t have a set of rules around what can and cannot be shown; we don’t have restrictions about showing a certain kind of artist because we don’t need to adhere to the demands of government policy." Charlotte Jansen [Discovery curator at PhotoLondon] . Interesting point by Charlotte especially if, like me, you are pessimistic re the next UK government... It's from a roundtable about @photolondonfair with @omfgnoway , director @__sophie.parker__ and Source [solo presentations] curator @lund_tristan , which is on the @bjp1854 website. Photo London is now at Olympia, and this move has been great I think. Caught my eye yesterday: . 1 @misanharriman at @hope93gallery 2 Ahmed Ali at @photoink - the gallery has done amazing work rescuing this archive 3 @tomwoodarchive at @zandergalerie 4 @fu_safira who is unrepresented 5 Cyanotype by Emile Zola!! Wow! @jameshymangallery 6 @gabulaurent at @flowersgallery 7 @mauriziosapia at @galerie_stp 8 So nice that @sunarchivebooks @lukaszrusznica gathered a gang including @rustpublishing and a personal favourite @outerspacepress @claudiopogo @wysocka.magdalena 9 Olympia, nice roof 10 Just-down-the-road v interesting work by @pickering_sarah in Vanishing Act at @hapaxmagazine

The longlists for the @kraszna_krausz_foundation Book Awards have been announced ✨️✨️ . I had an ace time judging the Photography Book Award with dream team @jermainefrancisstudio and Fiona Rogers @firecracker_foto ; the books in the Moving Image Book Award look fascinating too. Many thanks to Kraszna Krausz for inviting me to join the jury 📚📚 . The books in both longlists will be at @photolondonfair (13 – 17 May 2026 – Booth P20, Publishers’ Section, National Hall, Level 1, Kensington Olympia, London) and POST, Brighton (3 – 5 July 2026); there will be further announcements re the photography book shortlist in early June, and then the winner of the £10k prize in Autumn at the V&A 🏆🏆 . Our longlist is: The Fold by Hoda Afshar @hodaafshar @jointsloose A Reprise by David Alekhuogie @davidalekhuogie @aperturefnd Sound The Sirens by Bryan Anselm @bryananselm @overlapse The Ramble NYC 1969 by Arthur Tress @arthur_tress_official @stanleybarkerbooks Too Many Products Too Much Pressure by Janet Delaney @janet_delaney @deadbeatclub MAN by Erik Kessels / Karel De Mulder @erik.kessels @kareldemulder.be  @rvb_books Red Horse by Sasha Kurmaz @sashakurmaz @imagesvevey_books The Weight Of The Word by Piero Martinello / Piero Casentini @pieromartinello  @fw.books Swan Moon’s Swan Moon by Swan Moon @swancube @tbwbooks Black Chronicles: Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain Edited by Renée Mussai @mussairenee @thamesandhudson @autographabp It’s Hard To Stop Rebels That Time Travel by Raymond Thompson Jr @raythompsonjrphoto @photo_void Index2025 by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa @roma.publications . SO many other great books we sadly couldn't include - bravo to everyone who entered, and also managed the no-mean-feat of making and publishing a book. It was such a pleasure to look through your work 💕💕

Acres of fun stuff at @peckham24photo next weekend, including exhibitions by @maenster , @markduffyphoto , @hashimnsr , @notabrothel , @macdonaldstrand_ , A Bigger Book Fair, and a rich talks programme which includes a @photoworks_uk x Peckham 24 photo-poetry night on Saturday 📚📚 . I'm happy I can contribute by chairing a doubtless v interesting discussion between 1 @juliefhill 2 @alexandermourant , and 3 @eugenieshinkle – they're all exhibiting their cutting-edge work too, in a group show curated by Alexander. The talk is on Sunday from 3.30pm, for more info and to book visit peckham24.com 🚀🚀

20 MAY join us for our upcoming panel discussion exploring Martin Parr’s most iconic series, The Last Resort, which will take place at @MartinParrFDN in Bristol. ON THE PANEL ✨ Diane Smyth / @dismy , editor at British Journal of Photography 🐌 @MaisieCousins , photographer ✍️ Val Williams / @valredhouse , curator 📸 @Paul.Reas , photographer Diane will chair the discussion, delving into The Last Resort‘s impact and enduring significance. This talk will be set against the backdrop of the current MPF exhibition, where the full set of prints from The Last Resort photobook are on display. Produced as part of a pioneering wave of new colour work in the 1980s, The Last Resort would go on to help shape the photography landscape in Britain. Link in the @MartinParrFDN bio for full details or to book your space to join the conversation ☝️ Photos - New Brighton, England, 1983-85. From ‘The Last Resort’ © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

Come see me in Arles! I'm portfolio reviewing at @rencontresarles in the afternoon on 7 and 8 July - bookings are open now with me or 100+ others ☀️☀️

Some fun with the Reading + Writing seminar today at LCC – brainstorming negative words for looking. It seems to me many of the most negative words for looking in English involve lust or anger, or is it more generally looking with emotion as a negative thing?? Then there are the words for looking-detachedly, which can be negative depending on context... . I love the negative Mandarin and Spanish words here – the Mandarin is very specific. Are there negative words for looking in other languages? If so, what makes them negative? If not, are these words particularly numerous in English??

"Something I found compelling was images of May Day parades in the US. In 1949 there were these communist parades, then a year later they were being chased out and persecuted. The change is very obvious. The same thing in Japan. But the fact I have mixed Greek-Armenian Heritage means I am also interested in identities, in how people identify with nations or regions or cultures. I was interested in how people made sense of their identity during that time, how certain alliances became set." Aikaterini Gegisian . @aikaterini_gegisian on her radical rethink of postwar newsreels, in the March issue of @bjp1854 [which was themed Ghost in the Machine]. We were mainly discussing her book Third Person (Plural), just published by @kunstlerhaus_buchsenhausen but the project also exists as a film, which you can see this Thursday 30 April at @helleniccentre . Bravo Aikaterini and Happy May Day 🌸🌸

A report of a gang rape in a churchyard by migrants which turned out not to have happened at all - a bizarre story but what's more bizarre is that the exact same thing happened in October last year...

F A N T A S T I C exhibition by Hana Sawada @sawa_hana at @kyotoartcenter , Feet that frequently look away. It includes a new video piece filmed by walking around the center by light of a projector showing Night of the Living Dead - the film has been interpreted as an anti-consumerist parable, and Sawada's video suggests consumerism both literally, in shots of a vending machine, and more tangentially, in the act of recording and looking at images 🧟🧟🧟 . Other videos include layers of posters gently flapping in the wind, or images held up to a mirror opposite the camera, or videos selected and played; the mind remembers/forgets THIS IS NOT THE THING, or tries to focus on the movie despite the way it's breaking up on the architecture.... . Sawada pins images on the wall, dots screens around the center, abandons smartphones on chairs or the floor; @ka1eye and I wandered round looking for images, wondering if we were looking at installations or life, and therefore becoming that bit more aware of the penetration of images into the everyday... . A M A Z I N G bravo @sawa_hana and thanks @echos___answer for the recommendation 🤖🤖🤖

Just back after an ace time at @kyotographie , many thanks to all involved 🌸 . 1 Daido Moriyama, curated by Thyago Nogueira @thyago1234 @daidomoriyamaphotofoundation 2 Ernest Cole, House of Bondage, curated by Andrea Holzherr from @magnumphotos 3 Linder @lindersterling 4 @lebohang_kganye , curated by @marinapaulenka 5 @federicoestol   6 No War installation at the official launch  7 @antoncorbijn4real 8 Atsushi Fukushima presenting his work with the help of a translator [apologies, his name escapes me but he was doing a great job] 9 @marchandmeffre plus sound artist @ypaget presenting their work to the press crew at amazing rewilding building Jyushin Kaikain 10 @sarishibat mirror magic 11 @mila.rae.n.s in KG+ Select in @kgplus  great exhibition of emerging artists. I awarded Mila the BJP Mention @bjp1854 , so a feature on her is forthcoming. This is her very beautiful + interesting installation using white ink on white fabric + the natural movement of light  12 @wanchaofan in KG+ Select in @kgplus   13 Sohei Nakanishi, ace installation projecting images onto a mirror in KG+ Select in @kgplus   14 @piozbierski in KG+ Select in @kgplus   15 Fantastic @sawa_hana exhibition, she was a KG+ Select artist a few years back too 16 @yuxingchen_ in @kgplus  at @the.path.kyoto 17 @man_tin_man_tin  in @kgplus , curator @lau_tung_pui   18 Amazingly Lucille Reyboz and Yusuke Nakanishi at Kyotographie run a concurrent music festival, @kyotophonie_ , so I got to dance to @richiehawtin aka Plastikman in a very small, dark, smoky club 🖤🖤 and meet this nice woman with ace trousers [she did give permission for the photo!] 19 Flight info > Forward camera  20 Fun read on the plane – good to have a consolidated chunk of time with it because the narrative is pretty dense, ducking in and out of reality / cyberspace / SimStim realities 👾👾👾

"I wanted to make my personal narrative against the official narrative, and I believe that some time in the future, witnesses will testify before history." . In the March issue of @bjp1854 we carried an 'In their own words' article with an Iranian artist, who had to remain anonymous for their own safety. We had started talking in 2025 about their work with images from the Woman Life Freedom protests, and the idea of cats as witnesses; then the new wave of anti-regime protests broke out; now we are wherever the hell we are, as I read that Trump is "not at all worried" about committing war crimes in Iran. . The artist remains keen to share their narrative - please message if you would like me to pass on your details 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛