FORMAT International Photography Festival

A huge thank you to Eric Fong for taking over the @formatfestival Instagram over the past few days and for sharing such thoughtful insights into his practice and work. Eric’s multidisciplinary approach explores the intersections of art, medicine, and health, opening up important conversations around mental health, identity, and the human experience. As Mental Health Awareness Week continues, we’re grateful for the opportunity to spotlight work that encourages empathy, reflection, and dialogue. To discover more of Eric’s work, visit his website via the link in his bio @ericfongart . Thank you again, Eric.

This is Eric Fong (@ericfongart ) for my takeover during Mental Health Awareness week. I’m pleased to share with you APPARITIONS: HORTON CEMETERY, which is another element of my Victorian Asylum project. It is short film comprising a haunting journey through Horton Cemetery, where thousands of pauper patients, mostly women, from the nearby Epsom Cluster of asylums were buried. It is now an abandoned, derelict and overgrown site, where all grave markers have been removed, except one. The footage is overlaid with words drawn from the medical case notes of the patients buried there. Written by the medical and nursing staff, the words describe the patients’ occupations, behaviour, mental states, and diagnoses. They offer a glimpse into what was known about mental illness and attitudes towards pauper patients in Victorian times. This cemetery is the place where I collected the ivy leaves I used for toning the cyanotype Asylum Portraits. Watch APPARITIONS (6:28 minutes): /works/apparitions-horton-cemetery/ Although there have been significant changes since the Victorian era in the destigmatisation of mental illness and disability, stigma surrounding mental health and neurodiversity still exists in contemporary society. Mental Health Foundation UK reports that ‘nearly nine out of ten people with mental health problems say that stigma and discrimination have a negative effect on their lives.’ By revisiting the spectre of psychiatric treatment in the past, Victorian Asylum project aims to encourage conversations concerning our attitudes towards mental illness today. Many thanks again to Jodi Kwok, FORMAT Curator @quad_gallery for selecting my work for the @shutter_hub FORMAT Yearbook Award and inviting me to share my work, and to Karen Harvey @harveyhotdog for her support.

Hello, this is Eric Fong (@ericfongart ) for my takeover during Mental Health Awareness week. Today, I’m pleased to share with you Asylum Dress, which is part of my Asylum Needlework series. As mentioned in my previous posts, this series is inspired by the asylum’s practice of issuing uniform-like dresses to the female patients and encouraging them to do needlework as a form of moral therapy. Based on archve images of the pateints wearing these dresses, I commissioned a seamstress to recreate a similar dress and then used it to make a cyanotype print. It is known that patients sometimes tore their clothes as a form of protest, so asylum dresses were usually made of robust materials to prevent this. By making Asylum Dress with a thin, delicate material, it subverts the original utilitarian function, and alludes to the physical and emotional vulnerability of the wearer. Print dimensions: 171 x 114 cm Images: 1. Asylum Dress 2. Asylum Dress (detail) 3. Asylum Dress (detail) 4. Archive image, Surrey History Centre 5. Archive image, Surrey History Centre More info: /works/asylum-needlework/

This is Eric Fong (@ericfongart ) for my takeover during Mental Health Awareness week. I’m pleased to share with you some more images from my ASYLUM NEEDLEWORK series. Please see my previous post for a description of this body of work. Collarettes and Handkerchiefs: cyanotypes of found Victorian lace collars and handkerchiefs. Dimensions: 44 x 44 cm each Images: 1. Handkerchief 01 2. Collarette 02 3. Handkerchief 04 4. Collarette 04 5. Handkerchief 05 6. Archive image, Surrey History Centre 7. Archive image, Surrey History Centre More info: /works/asylum-needlework/

Hello, this is Eric Fong (@ericfongart ) for my takeover during Mental Health Awareness week. Today, I’m pleased to share with you ASYLUM NEEDLEWORK, which is part of my Victorian Asylum project. Asylum Needlework is a series of cyanotypes of found and recreated Victorian needlework, reimagining those made, mended, or worn by female patients in Victorian asylums. It is inspired by my research into a cluster of five mental asylums in Epsom, based on an archive at the Surrey History Centre: I discovered that upon admission, female patients were issued dresses of a standard style and material, like a uniform. For many, the new attire was warmer, cleaner and of better quality than their own. But for some, this type of ‘uniform’ was seen as an imposition, and a source of discontent and humiliation. However, they were permitted to adorn their dresses with lace collars of their own choice, which in a small way allowed them to express their individuality and regain a sense of agency. I also found that female patients were encouraged to do needlework as a form of ‘moral therapy’ - replacing harsh physical restraints with humane, structured environments to reform their minds. Records from the asylums showed that they made or mended many items such as dresses, handkerchiefs, collarettes, and bedgowns. Therefore, what they wore in the asylums could well be their own handiwork. While the asylum authorities believed that needlework was therapeutic for the patients, a medical case note revealed that a patient complained that she was kept there only because she was good at needlework, which raises questions about therapeutic intent and exploitation, care and coercion, and highlights the unequal power dynamics between the patient and the institution. Asylum Needlework is therefore a body of works inspired by these findings. Collarettes and Handkerchiefs: 44 x 44 cm each Images: 1. Collarette 01 2. Handkerchief 02 3. Collarette 03 4. Handkerchief 03 5. Collarette 05 6. Archive image, Surrey History Centre 7. Archive image, Surrey History Centre More info: /works/asylum-needlework/

This is Eric Fong (@ericfongart ) for my takeover during Mental Health Awareness week. Further to my last post, I’m sharing additional images and information about the Asylum Portrait series. As mention previously, it is a series of cyanotypes developed from historical glass plate negatives of portraits of pauper patients from five Victorian asylums in Epsom, toned with ivy leaves foraged from their burial site. The original portraits were taken by asylum officials for the purposes of medical diagnosis, identification and classification. They used the glass plate negatives to make small 3×2 inch albumen prints resembling ‘mugshots’ for pasting onto medical case notes. By reprinting them as large 30×22 inch ivy-toned cyanotypes, Asylum Portraits recontextualises the portraits and subverts the objectifying medical gaze by transforming their dimension and materiality. The scale of these large works invites the viewer to scrutinise the nuanced details in each portrait, engage deeply with the sitters, and consider them as individuals with unique lived experiences, rather than as anonymous, voiceless faces in mental asylums. Although there have been significant changes since the Victorian era in the destigmatisation of mental illness and disability, stigma still exists around mental health and neurodiversity in contemporary society. Asylum Portraits seeks to stimulate conversations around these issues. Print dimensions: 76 x 56 cm each 1. Kate Bailey (b.1882-d.1914) 2. Caroline Ward (b.1875-d.1910) 3. Susan Burton (b.1845-d.1916) 4. Lavinia Thredgill (b.1858-d.1911) 5. Rose Harris (b.1879–d.1919) The stories of the patients can be seen at The Friends of Horton Cemetery website: /the-people/horton-cemetery-stories/ More info: /works/asylum-portraits/

Hello everyone, I’m Eric Fong (@ericfongart ), amultidisciplinary artist based in London. My practice is driven by a keen interest in the juncture between art and health, informed by my experience as a former medical doctor. My process involves in-depth research and interdisciplinary collaboration. For my takeover and to mark Mental Health Awareness week (11-17 May 2026), I will be sharing with you my mental health-related project VICTORIAN ASYLUMS: Portraits, Needlework, Pauper Burials. This ongoing project focuses on the lives of pauper patients in five mental asylums in Epsom, Surrey. I conducted research on archive materials at the Surrey History Centre in Woking, including patient portrait photographs and their corresponding medical case notes. Today, I’m pleased to introduce to you the first body of work - ASYLUM PORTRAITS, a series of cyanotypes developed from historical glass plate negatives of portraits of some of these pauper patients. Asylum Portraits focuses specifically on those who were buried in the nearby Horton Cemetery, now an abandoned and derelict site, overgrown with trees, ivy, and brambles. Inspired by the thought that their bodies have merged with the surrounding soil and vegetation, the cyanotypes are toned (dyed) with extracts of ivy leaves foraged from the burial site. The portraits are thus infused with traces of their bodily existence. Print dimensions: 76 x 56 cm each 1. Caroline Appleton (b.1831-d.1911) 2. Ellen Simcock (b.1870-d.1915) 3. Harriet Massey (b.1833-d.1907) 4. Francis Roads (b.1875-d.1946) 5. Catherine Freston (b.1829–d.1914) The stories of the patients can be seen at The Friends of Horton Cemetery website: hortoncemetery.org By bringing their portraits out of the archive and into the public, naming them, and retracing their life stories, Asylum Portraits seeks to reclaim their humanity and dignity, and refuses their erasure from history and memory. More info: ericfong.com Many thanks to Jodi Kwok, FORMAT Curator @quad_gallery for selecting my work for the FORMAT Yearbook Award @shutter_hub and inviting me to share my work, and to Karen Harvey @harveyhotdog for her support.

We’re delighted to hand over the keys to the @formatfestival Instagram for the next three days to photographer Eric Fong. @ericfongart was awarded the @shutter_hub FORMAT YEARBOOK Award 2025, selected by QUAD/FORMAT Curator @jodikwok0718 . As part of the award, he’ll be sharing insights into his practice and a selection of works over the coming days. Eric Fong is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersection of art, medicine, and health, informed by his background as a former medical doctor. Working across photography, film, sculpture, and installation, his research-led and collaborative practice engages with themes including mental illness, disfigurement, and forensic anthropology. His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in both public and private collections. Stay tuned for more.

Tomorrow at QUAD 🌱✨ Join us for the launch of our new exhibition with an afternoon of photography, poetry, workshops, performances, family activities, and a drinks reception. FREE ENTRY, Saturday 9 May, 2–5 PM @derbyquad   Featuring: 📸 Portrait Booth with award-winning photographer @ayesha_jones 🎤 Live poetry performance by world-record-breaking beatboxer @testamenthomecut 🎨 Family-friendly activities 🪱 Wormery Workshop with Neville Portas / No Diggity Gardens 🖼 Pop-up exhibition of portraits by @louis_little Come celebrate with us and explore stories of agroecology, community, land, and food through photography and creative practice. @thegaiafoundation @derbyquad @formatfestival @sophiegerrard @arpitashah_ @johannahchurchill @hot_poets @mpbcom @hahnemuehle_uk @nativebiotauk @eaclauristonfarm @grampiangraziers @ionaleepoetry @streetlevelphotoworks @gogrowwithlove @blackrootz__ @zenaedwardspoet @photofringe @wharmleyregen @katefoxwriter @nephotonetwork

Symposium Announcement📢 PACING & SPACING: Crip Process, Form and Reception in Art and Writing  🗓 12 June 2026   ⏰ 10:00–17:00   📍 QUAD, Derby + online  This one-day symposium convenes artists, writers, and researchers to examine how divergent processes of making shape the production and reception of contemporary art and writing. Engaging with concepts of pacing, access, and crip time, the programme foregrounds alternative temporalities and methodologies that challenge normative frameworks of practice and spectatorship.  The symposium is organised in relation to Becky Beasley’s A Gentle Man (Part II) (1975–2029) and will include presentations and discussions led by Becky Beasley alongside invited speakers and contributors from across artistic and academic contexts.  Designed as a hybrid event, the symposium will be accessible both in person at QUAD, Derby and online.  🎟 Registration is now open 🔗 Further information and booking via the link in bio  This conference has been generously funded by Goldsmiths College, London, as part of Becky Beasley’s research grant: ‘Towards reducing ableist burdens and bridging silos by expanding understanding of crip time into the language and culture of the visual arts (and beyond)’.   @beckybeasleyuk @derbyquad

EXHIBITION LAUNCH FREE, Saturday 9 May, 2–5 PM Join us for an afternoon of workshops, performances, and celebration as we launch the exhibition🎉 What’s on: 📸 Photographic Portrait Booth 2–3:30 PM with award-winning photographer Ayesha Jones 🎤 Live Poetry Performance 2:30 PM with world-record-breaking beatboxer Testament 🎨 Family-Friendly Activities 2–4 PM with QUAD Education Coordinator 🪱 Wormery Workshop 2–5 PM with Neville Portas (No Diggity Gardens) 🖼️ Pop-up Exhibition 2–5 PM featuring portraits of agroecological growers by Louis Little Plus welcome speeches + drinks reception 🥂 Come by, bring friends, and celebrate with us! @thegaiafoundation @derbyquad @formatfestival @sophiegerrard @arpitashah_ @johannahchurchill @hot_poets @testamenthomecut @mpbcom @hahnemuehle_uk @nativebiotauk @ayesha_jones @louis_little @eaclauristonfarm @grampiangraziers @ionaleepoetry @streetlevelphotoworks @gogrowwithlove @blackrootz__ @zenaedwardspoet @photofringe @wharmleyregen @katefoxwriter @nephotonetwork

A huge thank you to Zula Rabikowska (@zula.ra ) who has been sharing her work with us over the past five days as part of her FORMAT Portfolio Reviewers Choice Award. Check out more of Zula's work on her website zulara.co.uk. Don't miss Zula's project 'Becoming Herstory' in the Creative Category of the @worldphotoorg at Somerset House until 4th May, as well as @re.thinking.eastern.europe in the Discovery exhibition @photolondonfair from 14 to 17 May.