About Us
photoILKLEY is Ilkley's first and only photography festival and grassroots celebration of photography’s unique power to connect, to question, and to see the world anew.
Every place holds stories! Quiet ones, proud ones, overlooked ones. photoILKLEY was born from the belief that photography has the power to bring them to light.
Our Story
Founded by Andreea Chitan, a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and creative producer, photoILKLEY is Ilkley's first festival dedicated exclusively to photographic art. What began as a spark of an idea grew into a grassroots celebration that spills across the whole town - from galleries and cafés to community spaces and a disused phone booth at the train station. Andreea moved to the UK from Romania and made Ilkley her home. Her practice explores care, memory, displacement, and belonging, questions that sit at the heart of the festival itself.
The festival is shaped by a passionate team of image-makers with a deep connection to this place and its people.
Benjamin Statham is a photographer of people, place, and landscape, driven by a love of the outdoors and a restless curiosity about contemporary life. Living with ADHD, he experiences the world through a mind that constantly seeks out connections as a way of making sense of things, yet that pursuit coexists with lingering uncertainty and a lifetime of feeling "other." It is this vulnerability that shapes his work. His images probe the fluid nature of memory and time - how both can distort, soften, or recast the stories we tell ourselves and the world we inhabit.
Mark Waddington brings a background in television production at the BBC to his photographic practice. Drawn to the experimental and expressive, he works with medium format film and alternative processing techniques, often incorporating natural materials into the presentation of his work. His approach is slow and mindful - returning to the same subject across repeated visits, layering observation with care.
We are proud to collaborate with Niamh O'Hearne, a freelance portrait photographer and emerging creative voice who brings natural energy, fresh perspective, and a gift for connecting with people through the lens.
photoILKLEY is grounded in a simple but powerful idea: that photography can connect people, spark conversation, and deepen our relationship with the places we live. It's a space where established photographers and first-time camera holders sit side by side, where challenging work meets accessible spaces, and where the act of really looking becomes a shared experience.
