New photography festival exploring health and identity coming to Skegness and Lincolnshire coast

REMEDY Photography Festival will run from June 1 to 30, bringing together photographers from across the UK whose work focuses on some of today’s most important social and cultural issues.

Supported by Arts Council England, the festival will feature exhibitions, artist talks and workshops across Lincoln, Skegness and Sutton-on-Sea.

Among the highlights for the coast is an exhibition at the Embassy Theatre showcasing Norfolk photographer JA Mortram’s long-running project Small Town Inertia.

Meanwhile, Seaview Colonnade will host exhibitions and public workshops exploring autism and lived experience.

Across the wider festival, work will tackle themes including chronic illness, neurodivergence, infertility, gender transition and representations of sickness through photography.

Festival organisers say many of the projects have been created in close collaboration with people sharing their personal experiences.

Other featured photographers include Emil Peltola, whose work documents life with ME/CFS while bedbound, and acclaimed socially engaged photographer Anthony Luvera, whose work will be displayed at Lincoln Central Library.

Lincolnshire photographers including Tom Martin, Poppy Bellamy and Tobias Beach Wyld will also feature in the festival programme.

A festival weekend taking place from June 19 to 21 at the Barbican Creative Hub in Lincoln will include free artist talks, presentations and discussions exploring photography, ethics and health.

Workshops will also take place across the county, including guided photography walks and wellbeing sessions in Sutton-on-Sea led by photographer and educator Sam Atkins.

As part of the launch, REMEDY is also offering a £5,000 commission for a UK photographer to create a new project exploring health, identity or lived experience.

The festival is curated by Jeremy Jeffs and Marion Sander in partnership with cultural organisations and community groups across Lincolnshire.

Organisers say the festival aims to encourage conversations around illness, care and identity through photography and creative storytelling.