All Saints' Church Hertford

'Love and Hope' Hertford Photo Festival

Introduction

Hertford is set to host a major new cultural event in spring 2026 as Courtyard Arts together with All Saints Church and BEAM will host "Love & Hope", Hertford Photo Festival, running from 5th - 30th May 2026. This community-focused festival invites residents of all ages to explore the power of photography as a medium for connection, creativity, and shared expression.

The festival will transform Hertford into a vibrant visual arts trail, linking key cultural venues and inviting residents of all ages to take part in an open photography festival.

The Project

There are multiple strands to the project all of which you can access below.

• The Philosphy
• Where you can find the photos
• How you can participate
• Launch events to attend

The Philosophy

This festival originated from a simple but expansive idea that Love and Hope are not abstract ideals, but practices. They are ways of paying attention, of choosing care over indifference, and of imagining a future shaped by connection rather than division.

The project itself emerged through friendship. Conceived by the Reverend Canon Simon Cutmore, the Vicar at All Saints' Church in Hertford, and me Paul Morris, photographer, it grew from a shared desire to create something accessible that could genuinely bring the community together. Photography, which shapes my own way of seeing and creating, felt like the most universal language and art form. With its capacity to slow us down and focus our gaze, it became a powerful instrument for the project.

Hope appears in the festival's commitment to inclusion and emergence. The programme brings together photographers of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience, from established practitioners and to, perhaps, those exhibiting for the first time. By removing hierarchy, the festival aims to create conditions where confidence can grow and new voices can be heard. As organisers, both Simon and I felt that to make space for possibility is, in itself, an act of hope.

Where

Planned across four venues in Hertford, the festival site is intentionally dispersed. Photography will be displayed throughout the town, including Courtyard Arts Centre, All Saints' Church, the creative arts and culture venue BEAM, and Hertford Tourist Information Centre. By stepping beyond a single gallery, the festival positions culture as something shared and accessible, part of everyday life rather than set apart from it.

Participate

The festival's central strand is its engagement with local schools, working with young people using Polaroid cameras. Instant photography introduces a material relationship to image-making, something that is increasingly rare in the digital age. Each photograph is seen as singular and unrepeatable, asking for intention, patience, and trust. In the hands of young people, these small images become hopeful gestures - evidence that attention matters, that choices have weight, and that creativity can be shared.

Adults are also encouraged to take part.

Each person can submit up to 3 photographs on the theme of Love & Hope

Photos can be framed with D-rings and ready to hang or, preferably, mounted on card/board and foam board.

These should be delivered to Courtyard Arts on Saturday 2 May, 2026.

The festival imagines photography as a social practice rather than a solitary one. It seeks to create spaces where people gather, talk, and recognise themselves and each other. Love emerges through care for place and community; hope through the belief that shared creative experiences can still foster generosity, curiosity, and belonging.

Launch events

There are two main events: a private view at Courtyard Arts on Friday 8th May and a Community Festival Day on Saturday 9th in and around All Saints church.

Private View

FRIDAY 8TH MAY
Courtyard Arts
6pm - 9pm - Drinks + Nibbles
Music: Dear Wife

Community Festival Day

The day will run from 12noon - 6pm with Bar and Street Food Heroes.

Music Line-up:
Junkyard Dawg; Jugband; Test the Waters; Hardcore & Rubble; Why Not; Lewis Sycamore; Phoenix Jazz Orchestra; Strtles

Who we are

'LOVE AND HOPE' Hertford Photo Festival is supported by Courtyard Arts Centre, All Saints' Church, BEAM and Go Hertford, and runs between 5th and 30th May 2026.

Visit Courtyard Arts to take part, submissions by 2nd May 2026.

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