Think about the future: Porto's photography biennale imagines 'tomorrow today'

Portugal's second city Porto is fast developing a well-deserved reputation for creative photography. This summer saw another edition of its photography biennale, a pioneering show, dedicated to the power of image, both still and moving.

Entitled 'Tomorrow Today', the two month-long exhibition aims to spark discussion and action to create what a world people now, and not in some far off future according to Bienal’25 Fotografia do Porto co-curator Jayne Dyer.

"We have the artists working through photography to actually provide alternative visions of maybe the way the world is. And the artists are really working with very current issues from post-colonial legacy, in this edition, to migration genocide", says Dyer. "The issue really, of identity and gender, is all embedded in this particular biennale and the show is structured around four interconnected platforms allowing artists to work deeply with rural, local and urban communities."

Porto's photography biennale is a platform for study, exchange and experimentation as it encourages meetings and collaborations between artists, curators, government organisations and members of the public. Indeed, connecting people, is one of four key themes explored.

"The project was developed with the collaborative practice between artists, curators, communities, entities and (through) these collaborative practices the outcomes are plural visions, but with common purpose", explains Virgílio Ferreira, co-curator of Bienal’25 Fotografia do Porto. "These visions really highlight the role of art and culture as a driver for social and ecological transformation."

Lightseekers

Through the lenses of five contemporary artists from West Asia and South America, Lightseekers investigates political and spiritual revelations.

Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo, curator, of the installation said: "Photography is not any more, photography. I always think, and I have the idea that photography is not enough. Photographers today are about to tell stories, and stories are complex. And each story needs sometimes, archival materials, sometimes video, sometimes sound. So, the notion of photography has been now turned I will say into the idea of the image."

"So, the image itself could be a moving image, could be also a staged image. And then we could mix, some of them work with images. Some of them have their books present in this exhibition. You can and you are able to see their work as a publication and then, that work could also jump into the idea of the audiovisual, or the visual elements that you've been able to see."

Emerging artists have also been given a platform to ‘expand’ on experimental, inventive or activist ideas to combine academic and professional pursuits.

Among the new, young and bright artists is Sheung Yiu, an artist and researcher, who presented a climate change inspired piece entitled ‘Between Two Trees There Are Many Worlds’.

"It's about how, climate change induced ecological disaster is observed and experienced through different scales. So, on a micro scale, it’s the beetle and the tree; on the human scale, there's me in the forest experiencing the death of the forest. And on a larger scale, it's in terms of remote sensing and satellite imaging, how these technologies are helping us monitor and understand climate change."

The Extraterritoriality of Toxicity explores similar environmental themes, presenting research on the Douro river, its effects on humans and surrounding landscapes.

The project was partly produced by Britain's Royal College of Art as architecture student Charlotte Amos explained: "Even though these are very specific issues that are happening in this very specific region, they're also issues that can be extrapolated to all around the world, the toxicity and runoff and, contamination and who's responsible, which country when it passes over a border - those are problems that are happening all around the world."