DIFFUSION FESTIVAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY
The second edition of Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography kicked off at the start of October with Looking for America which features over 30 renowned international and UK based photographers who investigate the status and meaning of the ‘American Dream’ spread over 20 exhibitions.
Taking place in existing venues and found spaces across Cardiff and beyond, the festival sees a month long programme of exhibitions, interventions, screenings, performances, events and celebrations in both physical and virtual spaces and places.
The festival includes works that look at darkness in all its forms, the hidden mining communities of central Appalachia and the American High School.
Image: Purity – © David Magnusson
Swedish artist David Magnusson (above) has photographed and interviewed young girls and their fathers who have participated in Purity Balls in Louisiana, Colorado and Arizona where young girls promise to “live pure lives before God” and to remain virgins until marriage whilst their fathers sign a commitment promising to protect their daughters’ chastity.
Image credit: Satellite Dish, Detroit, From/ Down. The Mean Streets, 2009 © Will Steacy
Image: Little Girl, Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee, 2014, From / I called her Lisa-Marie © Clémentine Schneidermann
The American road trip features in the work of Matt Wilson who uses expired and de-graded film stock to create images of a poetic, almost filmic sensibility, whilst Jack Latham‘s A Pink Flamingo takes us on a journey along the Oregon Trail – a route that has become part of American history and embedded itself in the dreams of those looking for something better on the horizon of somewhere else.
Alongside contemporary works there is also an opportunity to see a fascinating and rare archive of images that capture San Francisco street life in one particular year – 1964. This time capsule of images from civil rights parades to impromptu street portraits, were taken by veteran photographer Arthur Tress.
Image: Higher Ground – © Hillerbrand+Magsamen
