Bridging photography, fashion and art, the fifth edition of the Photo Vogue Festival will take place from November 12th to 22nd online. Through their new website, the organization aims to reach a broader audience as the global pandemic keeps thousands of us quarantined at home. However, for those living in Milan, open air physical exhibitions are being held at the Giardini di Porta Venezia since October 30th.
This year, there are two main exhibitions: All in This Together, a showcase of thirty photographers from an open call examining our present times, and In the Picture – Shifting Perspectives in Fashion Photography, displaying the work of and curated by Nadine Ijewere, Alexandra von Fuerst, Ruth Ossai and Camila Falquez.

The first exhibition displays works of photographers “that collectively create a hymn to love and hope, a sense of community, and of solidarity and empathy,” the organization explains. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, art has been a way to cope with reality as well as escape it, or as Photo Vogue puts it, “When normality crumbled, art and its fleeting and extemporaneous nature became a gift.” In this exhibition, we can find works by Bettina Pittaluga, Andras Ladocsi, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Nick van Tiem, Myles Loftin, Leonard Suryajaya, or Emma Hartvig, among others.

In the second exhibition, the focus shifts to the work of four female photographers who merge art, photography, fashion and politics. The festival defines them as “contemporary socially conscious fashion photographers” because they belong to a new generation of artists “whose aesthetics are a hybrid of genres, and are themselves a driving for for change.” Tackling issues like race, womanhood, gender or community, Camila Falquez, Ruth Ossai, Alexandra von Fuerst and Nadine Ijewere envision a new way of creating, being and representing.

In addition to the exhibitions, Photo Vogue also organizes a programme of live talks from November 19th to 22nd, which will invite experts including Munroe Bergdorf, Bettina Rheims, Nathan Jurgenson, Precious Lee, Floria Sigismondi and Aaron Philip, among others. With them, the audience will be able to learn more about photojournalism, fashion photography, Black voices, the evolution of representation, or the impact of social media on professional photography.
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Portrait of Amber (Founder of Hairfree Life), 2020 © Alexandra Von Fuerst
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Sonia & Neïla © Bettina Pittaluga
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Oliver and Richard from the series ​BELOVED - "habibi"​ ​© Imraan Christian
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Eyes of Many, 2018 © Amber Pinkerton
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Artemis Duffy, Brooklyn 2020 © Camila Falquez
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Nina Ricci SS20 © Nadine Ijewere
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Yasmina Atta, Hackney London UK 2020 © Ruth Ossai
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At my garden 1 © ​Isabelle Wenzel
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Zewdi, Yabsra and Ehiopia, Lock Down Day 42, from the series Looking out from within​ © Julia Fullerton-Batten