AN outdoor photography festival is coming to three of Swindon’s parks next month.

The exhibition, called Photo Swindon 2021, has been put together by Swindon-based Jennifer Berry and features a collection of works by internationally acclaimed and award-winning documentary photographers.

She and partner Jon Buckett came up with the idea in lockdown last September as something that would give people inspiration." We thought it could be a lockdown event which we could make really safe but it has taken eight months to plan,” she said.

“The theme is togetherness, so being in sync. We have all been in lockdown, all together and in sync, but it’s also about how the photographers are in sync with their work.”

Each photographer's work, displayed in huge frames, will tour the Town Gardens, Queens Park and the GWR Park, spending around 10 days in each location.

The free event will run from July 1 until October with the backing of South Swindon Parish Council.

Jennifer added: “It will be in three different parts of the town so it will be different in each place because of the demographic. The touring nature is unique as we haven’t found anything like that in the UK yet.”

“Usually exhibitions are in museums or galleries. Anyone can come for free so they can really enjoy superb pieces of work and really enjoy looking at the documentary story. It will give people an insight into documentary photography.”

The three photographers are award-winning British photojournalist and filmmaker Jason Florio; Martin Parr, a documentary photographer with over 100 books published and award-winning photographer Sanne De Wilde.

The original idea was to have five photographers exhibit over five months with fifteen framed works but it had to be scaled back due to lack of funding from the Arts Council, she explained.

Coun Neil Hopkins said: “I’m delighted we’re able to present this organised in our parks. It’s not happened before so it will be very interesting to see how people react and how that varies in different parts of the town so everyone is able to participate.”

For two weeks in October, from 5 until 17, photography students from New College will exhibit their work in the Town Gardens.

Neil added: “We haven’t done photography before in the park so we want to encourage as many people as possible because it’s an innovation of the arts and the use of our outdoor spaces. Especially with more people using the parks due to lockdown and combined with the arts, it will benefit the community.”

“Having established it this year, we’re hoping it will get bigger and continue next year.”

Find out more at Photo Swindon on social media.