Analog Festival Poster 2020
Festivals of any nature take many months of planning and organising. This one, not so long – more weeks than months. The idea came about during a conversation last December between two friends, both photographers. Graham Abbott (who now lives in Barrydale) and Johan Wilke. Johan died suddenly in July and partly as a tribute, Graham decided to go ahead with their dream of the festival and exhibiting some of Johan’s documentary and street photography with it.
With help from Jonathon Rees they started asking some of the country’s top photographers to take part, others have picked up on the event and volunteered work. Most photographers have moved to digital in the past 20 years, so they had to dig in storage containers and garages to find some of their hand-printed work from many years ago to exhibit. It takes a lot to get old photographers excited and the idea of an analogue festival has done just that, as the smell of the darkroom never really fades.