Guerrilla festival no-photo2024 is highlighting the unseen work of Palestinian photographers in Gaza

By Cherine Fahd, University of Technology Sydney

No photos of the war. No photos of its victims. No mention of the hundreds of photographers who have died taking them. We are a group of activists and artists who believe the future will be shaped by those who can see it. We stand together against the forces that refuse to let us. The future is being shaped by art festivals that choose what we see. Hiding behind the pretty face of diversity, while refusing to see the genocide.

This arresting public statement accompanies a series of large-scale street posters called no-photo2024. The anonymous artists and activists behind no-photo2024 are highlighting the exclusion of Palestinian photographers from the PHOTO 2024 festival, now showing in Melbourne.

The no-photo2024 posters are strategically placed near PHOTO 2024 venues. Their aim is to highlight the contradiction of excluding the atrocities captured by Palestinian photographers in Gaza.

PHOTO 2024

Although the organisation behind PHOTO 2024, Photo Australia, calls itself “apolitical”, the festival has built its reputation by promoting and commissioning politically charged works by First Nations, African, Middle Eastern and LGBTQI+ photographers. Big names from previous festivals include Hoda Afshar, Christian Thompson, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Hayley Millar Baker, Broomberg and Chanarin, Mohamed Bourouissa and Aziz Hazara.

The festival commissions new work for outdoor projects and through an open call process invites submissions from artists and photographers worldwide. Applications are assessed by an international jury of leading photography and visual art curators. The festival also stages public programs and incorporates satellite events and exhibitions in collaboration with cultural, education, industry and regional partners.

The festival is well known for setting themes that promote photography’s role in challenging power. PHOTO 2021 explored the theme of “the truth” at the height of Donald Trump’s presidency, attracting projects focused on the reliability of photography in social media, fake news and AI. The program that year boasted supporting “First Nations truth-telling” and “the experience of whistleblowers who have spoken out for those whose voices were never meant to be heard”.

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