Echoing Scotland’s year of Stories, the 2022 Festival ran with the theme of Stories. This inspired a diverse range of topics to appear across our programme, such as family, resiliance, personal growth, wildlife and landscapes, poverty and trauma, the environment and out effect on it, and Stirling’s history and built heritage. We partnered with a large group of artists, photographers, and experts to deliver talks (in person and online), exhibitions, and workshops.

Emerging from the pandemic, we were excited to be planning a festival that would bring people together again. Our theme of Flow emerged to echo Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waterways, and sponsorship from Event Scotland allowed us to deliver an exciting programme of events, exhibitions and talks. One positive coming from the pandemic was that many people had embraced technology to access events, and we were able to move several events onto Zoom. This allowed speakers to dial in from across the globe – Scotland, England, Italy, Romania and Tasmania, which in turn allowed us to grow our international audience and following.

During 2020 Stirling Photography Festival did not run as planned, due to the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. The team rose to the challenge and with a fabulous group of photographers and partners, we moved our festival on line, running a series of Instagram Takeovers, Portfolio Reviews and a Kodak sponsored film photography competition.

After the success of our Stirling Youth Fest, our young creative team—with the support of our partners—were encouraged to run again in 2019. Fired up by all that was happening politically and environmentally, we developed the theme of Hope and Passion. Running a successful Crowdfunder, matched funded by Stirling Council’s Invest in Stirling initiative, the team curated an exciting programme of events designed to provoke discussion and inspire a creative response. Broadening our reach beyond Stirling we worked for the first time with Stills of Edinburgh and Street Level Photoworks of Glasgow. Building our local following we also drew an audience from as far afield as Inverness, Newcastle, Holland and Germany.

To celebrate Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018 our community responded to a call out for a Summer project to plan, curate and run a festival—Stirling Youth Photo Fest. With support from the European Championships cultural fund, our young creative team worked with partners across the city and photographers with close contact to Stirlingshire, to run talks and workshops on a range of topics decided by the young team. Topped off with an exhibition on the theme of Our Place and with contributions from photographers from across our community, works were shown in an exhibition trail across the city—in shops, galleries, hotels and cafes. This was the beginning of a wonderful project!