For over two centuries, photography has been used to capture the world around us. From its beginnings, it has been a tool for exploration, showcasing to viewers parts of the world that had previously been unreachable. 

As a medium, photography thrives off our desire to see more and to know more: an urge most of us now feed through our insatiable engagement with images on social media, where far off lands and people on the other side of the earth are reachable at the click of a button. In this globalised and highly digital moment, what does it mean to ‘journey’, and what unknown worlds does photography specifically allow us to see?

This edition of Belfast Photo Festival, we explore how artists in the contemporary moment are interpreting the idea of the ‘journey’ as a subject of art. The festival features projects that approach this centuries old preoccupation from new and surprising angles: from works that chart global surges in civil unrest; re-trace epic pilgrimages; explore the passage of time; map out unwritten histories; and chronicle journeys of self-discovery that look inward rather than out at the world. 

Riffing off of photography’s long history of capturing our world through images, this edition of the festival we follow photographers as they lead us on journeys through a variety of places, histories, and perspectives.