Photo Fringe 2024

Wes says: 'Though the series Snag was originally created as a tribute to my mother's passing, capturing both remembrance and melancholy, the subject matter within the images is flapping remnants of plastic caught in barbed-wire fences. Whipped violently by the wind, they were left shredded and lacerated but trapped nonetheless in the no man's land of boundary fences, neither here nor there, an emotional purgatory. Plastic will never decompose; instead, it breaks down into tiny microscopic pieces in perpetuity. Photography allows our emotions to become accessible and visible, enabling us to feel the sadness and urgency of the climate crisis and respond accordingly.'

The scenes that Wes is most attracted to are simple and ordinary. By isolating and elevating the ubiquitous and unseen, and aligning our perceptions with our emotions, Bell's photographs open into a landscape of tightly focused moments of intense engagements between humans and the natural environment. Attuned to the ambiguous and abstract nature of life, his photographs serve as multi-layered metaphors for melancholy, revealing issues of fear, pain, loss, and impermanence, as well as social injustice and oppression, while also embracing the healing journey.

Born and raised in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, Wes pursued a studio-intensive program at the Alberta University of the Arts, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography. After college, Wes embarked on a career in fashion photography, living and working in Milan, London, and New York. Three decades later, he left the fast-paced world of fashion photography and returned to Alberta. Today, he focuses exclusively on art photography, using his square medium format roll-film camera to photograph outdoors on location. His photographs have been exhibited internationally, including receiving the Bronze Award for the RPS International Photography Exhibition 160 in the UK.

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Photo Fringe invited artists to propose a single image to engage audiences and help us imagine a greener, fairer world. Artists were asked to respond to the question “How can photography make a difference to the climate crisis?"

The resulting outdoor exhibition of selected images by nineteen artists can be found on Brighton seafront next to the Upside Down House until 17 November 2024.

See all of the images together here

Created with funding from Arts Council England National Lottery Project Fund and the UK government and Brighton & Hove City Council through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. With print sponsorship from SAS Graphics.

Thanks to our judges Siân Berry, MP and Laura Summerton, Photography Manager, WaterAid.