transfotografia 2011 and hervé dorval

Last week saw the opening of this year's edition of the Transfotografia International Photography Festival.

This edition's theme, 'The North', is featuring the work of photographers from Poland, France, Belgium, Canada and the United States.

The focus is on the similar social, cultural, and heritage changes taking place in these northern societies. Eight authors will present their photographic stories in five separate galleries around Gdańsk and Sopot.


The festival is on until the 30th November at Galeria Pionova, Galeria Zpap, Galeria PiTiPa, Stocznia Gdańska and Zatoka Sztuki.

photography © Agata Kruszewska

I attended the first exhibition opening at Galeria Pionova in Gdańsk, where the work of two French photographers, Hervé Dorval and Antoine Bruy, is on show.

It's a really great double volume, industrial space, in an adapted former boiler room. The evening was a success with a good turnout of guests, a great exhibition, and a yummy feast of sushi and Japanese plum wine.

I particularly enjoyed the work of Hervé Dorval, Les mutations du paysage / Changes in the Landscape. According to Dorval "Architecture is the reflection and heritage of a society, a culture, a civilisation". His haunting black and white photographs depict an almost sad beauty of a bygone era of industrial Northern France.

Photography by Hervé Dorval

Text © Agata Kruszewska