Bystander is a collective of nine photographers with members from England, Ireland, Wales, Germany and Sweden. Bystander was formed whilst studying at the University of Brighton, UK and it's members aim to encourage, support and promote each other and the wider photographic community.
What we do
Since working as a collective we've been exploring the limitations of traditional documentary photography and how we can approach the genre from a more contemporary, conceptual view point. We have become interested in the 'new document' – a new approach to image making connected to both recording and aesthetically expressing.
Issues of identity, nationality, culture, and the experiential are starting points for considerations enlarged to a social-cultural context.
The work of the individuals within our collective is united by an adherence to this concept. Some members choose to juxtapose these ideas with a more traditional approach to documentary photography, whilst others engage more with the constructed image within an existing space.