Brighton Photo Biennial

Venues across Sussex Saturday, October 4, to Sunday, November 2

Photographer Simon Faithfull worked with marine biologists to make an artificial reef as part of the sixth Brighton Photo Biennial.

He sunk a boat off the south coast and fitted five cameras to the vessel to capture and relay images back to land as it transforms into a home for marine life.

Director Celia Davies says the project reflects the sixth Brighton Photo Biennial’s theme: Communities, Collectives and Collaboration.

“I wanted to create a biennial which I thought was timely in photography at the moment, which is people working together to make work,” she says.

“Recently, there has been a real resurgence of people working as collectives, so we wanted to show a collection of those as part of the biennial.”

She is keen to point out the programme is driven by subject matter as much as camera clicks.

Referring to this year’s biennial, she adds, “the most interesting thing around photography is to do with people working with people from outside their realms of experience and with different expertise. Which is where Faithful’s sinking of fishing boat the Brioney Victoria to produce an underwater installation fits in. Not only will cameras transmit the images to Fabrica in Duke Street, Brighton, but videos and pictures will also be beamed to Calais and Caen in France.

“It produces a project which doesn’t sit in a gallery but in a more public space – in this case at the bottom of the sea – which has a different impact,” adds Davies, who hopes the 2014 visitor numbers surpass the 100,000 people who saw the work in 2012.

With events programmed for the first time in Lewes, Bexhill, Ditchling and Eastbourne, she’s got every chance of achieving it.

Visit www.bpb.org.uk/2014