‘Sorry About That’ © Mikael Buck
Set up by industry insiders, Offspring Photo Meet is a world-class portfolio review – and a way to enrich the photo-community
“It’s so beautiful, I’m really happy and proud,” says Mimi Mollica of Offspring Photo Meet, the portfolio review he dreamt up a decade ago, and co-founded with Twenty Twenty agent Frede Spencer. Mollica is a well-established photographer, known for his books Terra Nostra and Moon City, and he and Spencer founded Offspring Photo Meet with a panel of peers, including curator Monica Allende, designer and commissioning editor Johanna Neurath, and former BJP editor Simon Bainbridge. It’s the secret to the event’s success. A grassroots project set up by insiders with decades of experience in photography in the UK, it offers access to both industry contacts and a lively community.
This year Offspring Photo Meet takes place on 07 and 08 May, and includes figures such as Matthew Beaman, photography director of Monocle and Konfekt Magazine; Emma Bowkett, Director of Photography at FT Weekend Magazine; and Fiona Shields, Head of Photography at The Guardian News and Media Group. It also features individuals who are less known but equally important behind-the-scenes, including art buyers from some of the UK’s biggest ad agencies. Appointments are also available with picture editors from the international press – less famous in the UK, but equally important in the field.
“Not everyone knows everyone, and not everyone reads the biographies properly!” Mollica smiles. “But photographers can get in front of people who can offer career-changing opportunities. We have crafted a group of photo experts who range from the editorial and to the commercial spectrum – we have advertising agencies, production agencies, curators, gallery directors, photo editors, publishers, book designers and writers. Basically, if you look at me as a photographer, in one day I could put my work in front of people that are extremely relevant in the business.”
“If we make our environment buzzing, constructive, intellectually-challenging, thought-provoking, and still fun, we all live in a better world.” Mimi Mollica
All who attend have their work published in a gazette made by Newspaper Club, and for three individuals there’s special recognition in the Best Portfolio Awards, voted by all the reviewers. In 2025 these were won by Alice Poyzer, Mikael Buck, and Stu McKenzie, and in previous years they have gone to now well-established image-makers such as Max Miechowski, Thomas Duffield, and Monica Alcazar-Duarte. Poyzer, Buck and McKenzie were invited to discuss their work earlier this year in a special event with Naoise O’Keeffe, the freelance photo editor and director of Hot Potato.
And events and socials are an important part of the Offprint Photo Meet mix, which this year includes a talk by photographer Niall McDiarmid. Again, Mollica’s personal experience of photography and the photo-community has helped shape this aspect of the programme. As he points out, portfolio reviews can be a good place to meet industry professionals and deals can and are struck there. But often it’s about setting up longer-term relationships with peers, which can be enriching in other ways. He points to his experience with making the book Terra Nostra by way of an example.
“I had the idea and I did a ton of research,” he says. “I read a lot of books on the Sicilian mafia. Then I pitched the work to the FT and they commissioned me to go to Sicily to make work; eventually they published the story, and I then embarked on a seven-year journey to develop it. Throughout those seven years, it was essential to show the work to fellow photographers and editors and receive honest feedback, both positive and negative. It helped me shape the thing until eventually, I sat down with Dewi Lewis, and he said ‘Yes I want to publish this’. I had to go through all the stages, from idea to development to the realisation of a book. and all of them were very important.”
To this end Mollica is thinking about adding another element to Offspring Photo Meet, in which image-makers present their work on stage, “a kind of live editing session, peer-to-peer”. This sense of community also informs Mollica’s approach to running Offspring Photo Meet. All those who help out at the event also access free sessions; these volunteers are also paid, “and I only pay myself when possible!”. The event isn’t a business and doesn’t turn a profit; for Mollica, running it is about something less tangible.
“I like to be amongst people,” he says. “I like to have a drink with friends and colleagues, have a laugh, speak about photography, and hear about photography. I think that if we make our environment buzzing, constructive, intellectually-challenging, thought-provoking, and still fun, we all live in a better world. So we don’t wake up depressed or squashed because it’s challenging out there, we wake up in a world that is pleasant.”
Offspring Photo Meet takes place on 07 and 08 May at The Art House, 30-36 Pritchards Road, Bethnal Green, E2 9AP https://photomeet.org