The world's longest-running photography exhibition, the Royal Photographic Society's International Photography Exhibition (IPE), is back for its 167th edition, and it's more technically adventurous and socially charged than ever. With a success rate of less than 1%, getting a place in IPE167 feels like getting into an Ivy League university. But this isn't just a competition; it's a celebration of the world as it is, captured by photographers who pay very close attention. This year's exhibition showcases a diverse range of photographic approaches, from 19th-century wet-plate collodion processes to motion picture film and thermal imaging. The themes are anything but comfortable, reflecting the charged social and political climate of photography today.
Two award recipients stand out. Marcy Palmer's 'Seeds of Strength and Resilience' uses botanical photography to explore the history and contested future of reproductive rights. Her images, printed on delicate Japanese Kozo paper and highlighted with gold leaf, depict historical herbal abortifacients, symbolizing hope and the art of kintsugi. Léa Chen's 'The Stars That Don't Look Back' weaves family archive photos, historical events, and Taiwanese literature to document the private memories of three generations of women navigating colonial trauma and everyday life. Her work aims to help viewers find inner peace in the safety net women have woven through history.
Beyond these winners, the exhibition features a stunning array of photographic approaches. Abbey Hepner's portrait of Jane, a third-generation resident of the erased Colorado uranium town of Uravan, uses wet-plate collodion, a process more commonly associated with the 1850s. The plates were washed with water from the river that still flows through the buried town, creating a powerful connection to the town's history. Siân Cann, a visually impaired photographer, created her 'Retinopathy Forest' series by decaying Polaroid photographs in saltwater and post-surgical eye drops, mirroring the visual disturbances of her own condition. Attilio Fiumarella's 'Swimmers' gathers over 100 people in the drained pool of Birmingham's Grade II*-listed Moseley Road Baths to protest its threatened closure. Thomas Mandl's '5 Superheroes' depicts kids displaced from eastern Ukraine, wearing homemade superhero costumes, standing in the rubble of a roofless ruin during a project trip with NGO ArtHelps.
In an era when everyone with a phone thinks they're a photographer, IPE167 serves as a reminder that photography isn't just documentation. It's a powerful language for saying what needs to be said. The exhibition, which attracted over 65,000 visitors last year, will reach a larger audience than most art photography ever does. After London, it will tour to Taunton Museum and the Royal Geographical Society, ensuring that these remarkable photographs will continue to inspire and provoke thought long after the exhibition ends.
