It's time to announce the six selected participants for the free Kranj Foto Fest 2024 Mentorship Program "In Memory (of): Socially Engaged Photography with Jošt Franko”!
Tine Bohinc, Tadej Dolinar, Ajda Justin, Tinkara Petrič Milič, Ela Zdešar, Patricija Zupanič
With this grant, the mentees will receive guidance to advance and complete their projects and deepen their understanding of socially engaged photographic practice. They will also have the opportunity to exhibit their series developed during the mentorship at the festival in 2024, in a hands-on collective process for their exhibition preparation!
“I’m immensely looking forward to meeting and working with the chosen authors and their great projects in the making.” – Jošt Franko
Congratulations to the selected artists, and we are looking forward to having you in Kranj.
Jošt Franko
In Memory (Of): Socially Engaged Photography with Jošt Franko
Kranj Foto Fest is proud to introduce its inaugural Mentorship Program, in line with our commitment to cultivate a dynamic platform for photography in Kranj, where photographers can connect with others, expand their knowledge, and develop and exhibit their works.
Leading our Mentorship Program is the Slovenian visual artist and photographer, Jošt Franko, whose practice is focused on long-term narratives surrounding displacement, migrations and marginalised communities. Franko brings a wealth of experience and insight to this mentorship program.
The Mentorship Program Kranj Foto Fest 2024 In Memory (Of): Socially Engaged Photography with Jošt Franko aims to assist participating artists in advancing or completing their projects, and to deepen their understanding of socially engaged photographic practice. We invite applicants interested in documentary and/or socially engaged visual practice to apply for this free program by 31st March 2024.
Six participants will be selected to receive this grant, and applicants must be visual practitioners who are Slovenian citizens or foreigners with permanent residence in Slovenia, aged 27 or younger.
All sorts of visual expressions and techniques are welcome in the mentorship, but emphasis will be given to the way stories are communicated and related to the social practice.
“Through six sessions spread over three months, we will aim to create a space and platform, through which projects of participants will be created, discussed, expanded, furthered and/or finished, and think how photographic practice can act as an agent of empowerment, visibility and collectivity. Each of the sessions will involve reflections on the proposed reading and in-depth discussions on the ongoing projects.” – Jošt Franko
About Jošt Franko
Jošt Franko is a photographer, visual artist and educator researching migrations, forced displacement, workers’ rights, counter narratives and communal deliberations of precarious lives. Using photography, text, fieldwork and collaborations as a form of engagement with social issues, his artistic practice focuses on the many lost, unspoken or unheard narratives of displaced communities in the Balkan Peninsula.
Franko is the 2023 recipient of The Aftermath Project, TED Fellowship, multiple Pulitzer Center grants and has won the honourable mention from the Documentary Essay Prize awarded by DUKE University. His work has been exhibited internationally in museums and festivals, including the New York Photo Festival, Finnish Museum of Photography, Museum of Modern Art Klagenfurt and Museum of Contemporary Art Ljubljana +MSUM. He holds a master’s degree from Goldsmiths and is a PhD candidate at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Exhibition at Kranj Foto Fest 2024
As a significant outcome of this program, the six participants will have the opportunity to show their projects developed during the mentorship in a group exhibition as part of the official program of Kranj Foto Fest 2024.
Guided by Jošt Franko and the festival director Fernanda Prado Verčič, participants will actively co-curate their exhibition. This hands-on collaborative process of editing, curating and producing the exhibition will offer a great opportunity for the participants to engage deeply in every step of exhibition preparation for the festival platform.
Project Review with VID Foundation
Kranj Foto Fest has partnered with VID Foundation for Photography to offer to the six participants of the mentorship program the opportunity to engage in an one-hour online Project Review session with the VID Foundation founder, Bertan Selim.
During this session, which will happen in May, Bertan will offer valuable insights into the participants’ developing projects.
VID Foundation for Photography is committed to untold visual stories from the Balkans through a grant-making scheme and mentorship programs. They support visual storytellers that expose often unseen, relevant, social issues from the Balkans. The VID Foundation aims to bring excellent and compelling visual stories from the Balkans closer to the broader European context.
Jošt Franko
Six participants will be selected to receive this grant, and applicants must be visual practitioners who are Slovenian citizens or foreigners with permanent residence in Slovenia, aged 27 or younger.
Duration:
- The program consists of six meetings, each lasting 6 hours, spread over three months: 12th and 26th April, 10th and 24th May, and 7th and 21st June, all from 1 pm to 7 pm. The specific hour can be agreed upon later by all participants and the mentor, according to the majority’s availability.
Location:
- Kranj, Slovenia.
Participant Requirements:
- Applicants must be 27 years of age or younger by the application deadline.
- Participants must be Slovenian citizens or foreigners with a permanent residence in Slovenia.
- Applicants must have an ongoing photographic project aligned with socially engaged practices or the ability to start one during the mentorship program.
- By applying to the mentorship program, participants acknowledge the commitment to attend classes in the city of Kranj on agreed-upon dates. Online participation is not accepted.
- Transportation expenses to and from Kranj, to the masterclass location, are the responsibility of each participant.
Apply with:
- your short bio (250 words or less),
- a letter of intention/project proposal (500 words or less), which clearly states the intention of the project, the stage of it (if you have already started working on it), and how this mentorship program can help you create or finish it,
- a sample of a photographic series (ideally related to the intention of this mentorship program), between 6 and 15 photos in JPG format. Single images should not exceed 500 kB.
- Your application should be sent in Slovene or English.
- Save all images and texts in only ONE ZIP file under the title Name_Surname. Send this ZIP file to the email info@kranjfotofest.org by 31st March 2024.
- The primary language of this mentorship program will be Slovene.
What Kranj Foto Fest offers:
- a mentorship program provided free of charge for six participants,
- coverage of exhibition production costs,
- exposure at the official program of Kranj Foto Fest 2024.
Fee:
- The mentorship program will be provided as a grant to six selected participants, with no participation fee required.
Who Hosts the Mentorship Program?
- The mentorship program is hosted by Photo Dialogue, the organiser of Kranj Foto Fest.
- The organiser reserves the right to cancel this activity in part or in full.
Deadline to apply:
- By 31st March 2024 at 23:59 (GMT +1).
Send your application to info@kranjfotofest.org
Jošt Franko
Kranj Foto Fest
Kranj Foto Fest is an annual festival of contemporary photography that was established in 2021 with the goal of transforming Kranj, Slovenia, into the epicenter of photography in this part of Europe.
The festival was founded to exhibit, promote, support, and develop works by Slovenian and international photographers, as well as to build a strong and lasting platform for contemporary photography.
By bringing together both young and established artists from around the world, we aim to turn the city of Kranj into a vibrant hub for contemporary photography. Our focus is establishing a platform for dialogue among photographers, students, curators, educators, photography enthusiasts, and the local community.
SPONSORS 2024
PARTNERS 2024
ORGANIZER
