Urban Encounters is pleased to announce its eighth annual conference focusing on street-based urban photographic practices. As part of a wider programme of events around London exploring critical ideas addressing how ‘the street’ might be experienced, imagined, represented, performed and archived; Urban Encounters hosts a number of international artists, photographers, urbanists and academics concerned with theorizing, researching and creating visual work around street spaces.

The conference panels re-examine what is traditionally understood by the genre of ‘street photography’, an increasingly popular but also highly contentious and at times, problematic set of practices. Speakers discuss issues relating to aesthetics; the politics and ethics of street-work; notions of locality and flow; performativity, mediation and the disruption of ‘authenticity’.

This year’s conference opens on Friday 23 October, 18.30–20.00 with a keynote address by London based artist Rut Blees Luxemburg, whose large-scale photographic works explore the public spaces of the city. The keynote event is followed by a drinks reception to celebrate the opening of this year’s Urban Photo Fest. The keynote on Saturday 24 October is given by internationally acclaimed sociologist Saskia Sassen. Further speakers include Mitra Tabrizian, Julia Schulz-Dornburg, Vanley Burke  and Charlie Phillips.  The second day of the conference also includes a series of breakout seminars designed to encourage audience participation within research, theory and visual practice, which aim to build upon the conference presentations and audience discussions. Only one seminar can be selected. Please book for the whole conference by following the link on your chosen seminar.

Urban Encounters is part of the five day Urban Photo Fest programme supported by Openvisor, the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, Kingston University and Photofusion.