Ilkley Camera Club members were invited to share their perspectives on the town - reimagining the familiar and offering a fresh, often surprising lens on this beloved place, all from an unexpected exhibition space.

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Presented in response to the festival theme "Ilkley: Best Place to Live," The Good River is Benjamin Statham’s quiet, deeply personal journey along the River Wharfe - a meditation on place, identity, and a body (of land and of self) in flux.

Ilkley has been named the best place to live in the North of England. This exhibition gently asks: by what measure, and for whom? Shot in black-and-white, these photographs offer a quiet, deliberate encounter with Ilkley’s iconic landscapes and its lesser-seen, everyday rhythms.

Part of the festival’s exploration of "Ilkley: Best Place to Live," this project began not with a grand concept, but with something simple: helping out the local pet shop and scratching a creative itch. For Rob, there was no plan — just a desire to make and to connect. Over time, something more meaningful took shape.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Ilkley and District Good Neighbours, photographer Charlie Swinbourne was invited to meet, witness, and document the people at the heart of its work. The resulting exhibition, Lifted, brings together twelve portraits of the clients and volunteers - capturing moments of care, connection, and community.

OTB’s Photography groups made up of adults with learning disabilities were invited to share their favourite things about Ilkley — offering their unique perspectives through the lens of everyday beauty, and belonging.

Set against Ilkley’s moorland paths and historic countryside, Walking Among Cultures traces quiet encounters between land and identity. Chitan photographs people of diasporic heritage walking on the moors — not as conquerors, but as caretakers, present not to claim, but to witness and be witnessed.

This exhibition does not aim to soften discomfort. It does not decorate, distract, or romanticise. These black-and-white portraits of the Gypsy and Traveller community are stripped of folklore and aesthetic tropes. What remains: people. Faces. Surfaces. Stories.

Responding to the festival’s theme, Faces of Bradford: Then and Now explores Ilkley’s place within the wider Bradford district. Through tender photographic portraits, Laura creates a visual dialogue between time, identity, and place - capturing the lives and contributions that shape this region.

Found by chance in a charity shop, a bundle of postcards addressed to “Phyllis Clarke” spans over five decades (1951–2003). Each card reveals affectionate notes, mundane updates, distant holidays, and familiar handwriting. Through assembling these fragments, Zoe reconstructs an imagined life — a quiet tribute to memory and presence.

A showcase of shortlisted entries from our Young Photographer Competition, celebrating the creativity and vision of emerging talent.

Tinker Gallery will feature a selection of works from all exhibiting artist between Sunday the 13th of July and Wednesday 16th of July