Photo Conversations

Photo Conversations is a photography exchange project that brings students from different cultural and geographical contexts into dialogue through image-making. Conceived and led by artist and lecturer Vera Hadzhiyska, the project connected Photography students from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and Hongik University, South Korea.

Students were paired to create an ongoing photographic dialogue taking place between January and April 2026. One participant initiated the exchange by sharing an image from their surroundings, which their partner responded to with a photograph of their own. The dialogue continued in turn, with each image becoming a prompt for the next. Through this visual conversation, students offered glimpses into their everyday environments, cultures and perspectives. The exchange revealed unexpected connections across geographical and cultural distance, creating opportunities for dialogue, curiosity and mutual learning through photography.

The project reflects the theme Feedback Loop through its cyclical process of action and response. Each photograph is shaped by the image that comes before it, while at the same time influencing what follows. Meaning develops through exchange rather than through a single authorship, with photographs being interpreted, translated and reimagined through another person’s perspective. In this way, photography becomes a shared space for communication, where images do not simply represent individual experiences but create an evolving dialogue between people, places and cultures.

Cover image credit © Kwangbom Hong