Photography graduates bring pop-up reading room to Bristol Photobook Festival

Two graduates from Falmouth’s online master’s in Photography are hosting a reading room at this year’s Books on Photography (BOP) Festival, an annual celebration of the photobook format held in Bristol.  

BOP is led by the Martin Parr Foundation and The Royal Photographic Society each October, bringing together a wide range of photobook publishers, artist talks, exhibitions, book signings and other events across the city.  

Falmouth graduates Emma Davies and Philippa James are behind ‘Women and the Photobook’, a pop-up reading room project designed to amplify voices that have long been neglected due to embedded biases in the publishing industry and photobook media.  

Inspired by 10×10 Photobook’s anthology What They Saw, the reading room will be set up at the Paintworks Event Space across the festival weekend and will offer a curated selection of photobooks by women, highlighting their diverse contributions to the medium. It will be a welcoming, hands-on event where visitors will be able to sit, browse the books and chat to one another. 

The idea for the project came to Emma and Philippa during their time studying Photography MA (Online), as module leader Colin Pantall explains: “Philippa and Emma first became involved with ‘Women and the Photobook’ through a live brief on the Collaboration and Professional Locations module I run on the master’s. During the module they were mentored by Russet Ledermann, editor of What They Saw. Their energy, engagement and willingness to commit time and resources led to them creating a reading room of photobooks by women at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, one of the highlights of the Oxford Photo Festival.  

He continued: “Further engagement led them to create their own ‘Photobooks by Women’ events, which has resulted in reading rooms in London and now Bristol. Philippa and Emma are a shining example of how hard work, networking, and personal vision can lead to success in a highly competitive field.” 

Emma told us: "Our reading room celebrates the diverse contributions of women, challenging industry biases and offering a more inclusive narrative of photographic history. The module from which this project stemmed encouraged us to engage meaningfully with both the industry and our chosen communities. Come and see us in Bristol – we would love to chat!”  

‘Women and the Photobook’ is open to the public as part of BOP from 19-20 October at the Paintworks Event Space in Bristol.  

Find out more about Photography MA (Online)