The Photographic Nights of Selma Festival will celebrate photography as an art form, and join people from around the globe to exchange ideas and create friendships in Selma, Alabama. The inaugural festival will spotlight the photography of Selma native, Jerry Siegel, the guest of honor. Join us in building a new, beautiful bridge in Selma. Our world needs us to dream big and reach our dreams that allow us to walk hand in hand for common good.
The festival will expose a wide variety of high quality professional work, created by photographers near and far. People will have a chance to spend time with the artists to learn about their craft, the stories behind the work they create, and to build bonds of friendship. The intent is to have a mutual exchange of ideas in ways that invite us all to see how much we have in common when we choose not to focus on our differences. Art asks questions, and photography as an art form is a means by which creatives can express themselves, and provide a unique lens through which others can seek answers and reach new understandings.
Selma photo festival provides international exposure to photographers, young and old, whose work has not yet been fully discovered, and aims to inspire other photographers to submit their images to be considered for the next year’s festival. The format of this festival is a unique way to put people together in such ways as a documentary photographer showing their work next to a fashion photographer and allowing the artists and viewers a vehicle to come talk about the art, its meaning, and to discover more about each other. Winners of the festival will be given international exposure and be invited to travel to the festivals in France, as well as Morocco, and to exhibit work at Jasmine Hill in Wetumpka, Alabama.
Photographic Nights of Selma will shine light on the great community of Selma outside of the annual Bloody Sunday Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March, and have a positive economic impact through the visits of photographers and festival attendees from all over the world. Area youth will be inspired through the educational outreach programming as well as by seeing powerful art and learning from the festival photographers.
In the spirit of sharing and sitting at the same table, hosts of guest photographers are given a unique way to meet and get to know an artist, as they each learn about each other. In a part of our world known for its dreamers and the power of the change they inspired, the leaders of Photographic Nights of Selma invite you to witness the dream of this festival becoming a reality.