Welcome to the 2012 edition of the Guernsey Photography Festival.

This is our third year already and like children our festival is growing fast. The Guernsey Photography Festival is now firmly established as one of the best cultural events in Guernsey and is gaining a fantastic reputation abroad as one of the most exciting and high‑quality photography festivals in Europe. This is not a coincidence. This is the result of three years of dedication and hard work by our organising committee and the invaluable support of our sponsors and partners who recognise the importance and benefits of what this festival can bring to Guernsey.

For all these reasons I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the following individuals and companies who have made this third edition possible:

Organising Committee Members:

Amy Courtney, Anna Lisa Detassis, Vikki Ellis, Tim Holmes, Rob King, Caroline Mauger, Steve Molnar, Adam Prosser, Diana Rodriguez, Carl Symes and Piet Whitehorne. Plus all our volunteers.

Sponsors and Partners:

Mourant Ozannes, PPF Partners, Guy Hands and Terra Firma, Raven Russia, Cenkos, Guernsey Arts Commission and Guernsey Museums.

This year we decided to take you on an incredible journey; the journey of a variety of visionary photographers whose travels have had a profound impact on their own personalities. All of them, although very different from one another, have one aim in common: to understand better themselves and the world around them. All of our main exhibitors – Bruno Boudjelal, Ricardo Cases, Kiana Hayeri, Mark Power, Ivor Prickett, Klavdij Sluban and Anastasia Taylor‑Lind will be travelling over to Guernsey to discuss their photography in a series of talks during our opening weekend (24 – 26 May).

On top of the main exhibitions we are also presenting work by local organisations and photographers and for the first time a series of exhibitions and projections by up‑and‑coming photographers from all over the world who submitted their work to us. We received over 100 submissions and selected 15.

Another key component of the festival is our education programme, which aims to help children and adults to raise their levels of motivation, aspiration and self‑esteem through creative activities. Once again the festival is very proud to deliver workshops to five local schools and also to the Blind Association, the Alzheimer Society and the Guernsey Prison.

I would like to encourage you to discover the exhibitions, come to the talks, watch the projections, improve your skills at our workshops and take advantage of this unique opportunity to meet and discuss ideas both with the photographers and each other. This festival is yours.