The sixth Fast Forward: Women in Photography conference

Beyond The Canon: Exhibiting, Curating and Collecting Photography by Women 

October 10-12, 2025

Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń, Poland 

The conference is open to public and free to attend.

The Key notes by:

Marie Robert, The Head Curator of Photography and Cinema at the Musée d’Orsay, France

Val Williams, Professor of History and Culture of Photography at London College of Communication, UAL, UK

Fast Forward: Women in Photography together with University of Nicolaus Copernicus in Toruń announces the Polish edition of the Fast Forward conference Beyond The Canon, which is organized in partnership with Vintage Photo Festival, and supported by UCA, Karen Knorr Studio and from the budget of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region.

The sixth Fast Forward conference that will take place in Toruń, Poland explores the (hi)stories of women in photography with a particular reference to how women’s work is curated, exhibited and collected by museums, institutions, festivals, galleries and individuals. We are interested in the curators, the collectors and the photographers and through this inspiring conference intend to make a unique contribution to the study of women in the field of art by looking in detail about how exhibiting and collecting photography works. 

For years photography was considered as a mediocre medium by the art world, its museums and galleries. Towards the mid 1990s the position of photography in the art world started to change and today it has become the “hot topic” of the global art field with works being exhibited, bought and sold at the highest prices and shown in the most revered exhibition spaces. What place has women’s photographic work taken in this booming business? How have women provoked new discourses concerning the limitations/problems of the canon? How have women been exhibited, collected and conserved?

The conference will include exhibition and collection visits over a three-day period including two-day conference and one day visiting the exhibitions of the Vintage Photo Festival held in Bydgoszcz, Poland. We will also visit the conservation centre of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

The conference is organized with the support of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, the Vintage Photo Festival, the British Council in Poland, the University for the Creative Arts and Karen Knorr London Studio.

Organizing Committee:

Professor Anna Fox (Fast Forward / University for the Creative Arts)

Maria Kapajeva (Fast Forward / University for the Creative Arts, Estonian Academy of Arts)

Dr Katarzyna Gębarowska (Vintage Photo Festival, University of Nicolaus Copernicus)

PROGRAM

Friday, October 10th

8:50 – 9:00 Welcome by Anna Zekin-Kompanowska, the Director of the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Rachel Launay, Director of the British Council, and Katarzyna Gębarowska, Director of Vintage Photo Festival

9:00 – 9:10 Welcome and Key Note introduction by Anna Fox

9:10 – 10:10 Key Note by Marie Robert: Women photographers no longer scare us. A look back at ten years of practice in France

Panel One: Herstories Renewed 

10:10 – 10:15 Introduction to the Panel One by Iro Katsaridou

10:15 – 10:35 Marta Ziętkiewicz: Women about Women: Female Art Historians and Establishing Her Stories within Polish History of Photography

10:35 – 10:55 Catalina Pérez Meléndez: Cataloguing the canon: the public life of photobook production by women in Mexican university libraries

10:55 – 11:15 Alexandra Moschovi: Reframing Herstories: Institutionalizing Women’s Photographies in Greece

11:15 – 11:35 Alexandra Gow: Representing Women and Non-Binary People in the Photography Collection at National Galleries Scotland

11:35 – 12:00 Panel One Discussion, chaired by Iro Katsaridou

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch break

Panel Two: Reclaiming The Bigger Picture 

13:00 – 13:05 Introduction to the Panel Two by Anna Fox

13:05 – 13:25 Nelly Ating: Behind Bars and in Front of the Camera: Winnie Mandela’s Photographs in Public 

13:25 – 13:45 Clare Freestone: Reclaiming Yevonde

13:45 – 14:05 Federica Muzzarelli: Re-writing and valorizing the work of Italian Feminist Photographers. The case of Wanda and Marion Wulz in the Alinari Archive of Florence 

14:05 – 14:25 Claudia Holgado Chacon: Re-signifying the history of Julia Chambi López: the first Andean-Peruvian photographer 

14:25 – 14:50 Panel Two Discussion, chaired by Anna Fox

15:00 – 16:00 Opening of the exhibition “Inter” by Basia Sokołowska at the University Museum 

Panel Three: Troubling The Archive

16:00 – 16:05 Introduction to the Panel Three by Dr Wiktoria Szczupacka

16:05 – 16:25 Charlene Heath: Archiving the Unruly: Institutional Stewardship of Women’s Photographic Work

16:25 – 16:45 Linda Bertelli: The future perfect as the time of images: Archival and memory practices for the photographs of Rivolta.Femminile

16:45 – 17:25 Uta Hanusek: The loss of the artwork meaning. A case study of the research and conservation and preservation of one of the Zofia Rydet’s experimental photographic cycle – ‘Transformations’

17:25 – 17:50 Panel Three Discussion, chaired by Dr Wiktoria Szczupacka

18:00 – Opening of the exhibition “Unseen Legacies: Rediscovering Lotte Jacobi and Janina Gardzielewska”, curated by Katarzyna Gębarowska, at Centre of Conemporary Art Toruń

Saturday, October 11th

Panel Four: Women Empower Women

10:00 – 10:05 Introduction to the Panel Four by Katarzyna Gębarowska

10:05 – 10:25 Sigrid Lien: Listening to the voices of the past: The transformative potential of a forgotten photography collection

10:25 – 10:45 Raffaella Perna: Exhibiting and Promoting Italian Women’s Photography: The Donata Pizzi Collection 

10:45 – 11:05 Antonina Gugała:A good profession for a woman. Celina Osiecka and her Photography Studio 

11:05 – 11:25 Liana Ivete Žilde: Material and Collaborative Histories: Reexamining the Archive of Latvian photographer Ina Stūre 

11:25 – 11:50 Panel Four Discussion, chaired by Katarzyna Gębarowska

11:50 – 12:00 Coffee break

12:00 – 13:00 Key Note by Val Williams: Paper Histories: Building the Val Williams Archive 1972 – 

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch break

Panel Five: Collaborative Adventures

14:00 – 14:05 Introduction to the Panel Three by Maria Kapajeva

14:05 – 14:25 Sonja Thomsen & Meg Jackson Fox: Between Archive and Inheritance: Collaborative Approaches to Recovering Hazel Larsen Archer’s Photographic Legacy 

14:25 – 14:45 Candice Jansen, Cynthia Mavuso & Gille De Vlieg: Coming Together: DRIEFONTEIN’s Activists, Images & Archival Ways

14:45 – 15:10 Panel Three Discussion, chaired by Maria Kapajeva 

15:10 – 15:30 Coffee break

Panel Six: Curatorial Dilemmas

15:20 – 15:25 Introduction to the Panel Six by Anna Kornelia Jędrzejewska

15:25 – 15:45 Xiyue Yan: Kanojotachi: Japanese Female Curators and Feminist Solidarity since the 1990s 

15:45 – 16:05 Susana Lourenço Marques: What they saw / What we see. Women photographers in Portugal (1860–1920)

16:05 – 16:25 Jenny Brownrigg: Curatorial dilemmas: How to shape the differing narratives of 20th century women social documentary photographers in Scotland through exhibition making as a research tool 

16:25 – 16:45 Baiba Tetere: Rūta Ināra Sniķeris and the Representation of Latvian Women Photographers in the USA During the 1990s

16:45 – 17:05 Katarzyna Gębarowska: Absent Legacies. Reframing the Forgotten Archives of Lotte Jacobi and Janina Gardzielewska

17:05 – 17:30 Panel Six Discussion, chaired by Anna Kornelia Jędrzejewska

18:00 – Opening of the exhibition “The Jacobi Family – Pioneers of Photography in Toruń”, curated by Katarzyna Pietrucka, at the District Museum

19:00 – Opening of an exhibition “In-Between” by Maria Kapajeva, Elisabeth Ransom, Masha Pryven, Ania Ready, curated by Jacek Świderski and Anna Fox, at Wozownia Gallery

Sunday, October 12th

10:00 Meeting at the hotel Nicolaus (Toruń) and departure by coach to Bydgoszcz 

11:00  Arrival at the Gallery of Modern Art, department of the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum Bydgoszcz 

11:05 Welcome by Anna Kornelia Jędrzejewska, Director of the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum 

11:10 Guided tour of the main exhibitions of The 11th Vintage Photo Festival at the Gallery of Modern Art by director of Vintage Photo Festival Katarzyna Gębarowska and Matthias Harder curator of A Dual Gaze Helmut Newton x Alice Springs exhibition 

12:30 Presentation by Anna Kornelia Jędrzejewska, Monika Kosteczko-Grajek, and Anna Nadolska: Recalled from Oblivion. Women Curators and Photographic Collections in The Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz 

Short bios of all participants can be found HERE.