Nicola Paige at the Bright Festival of Photography. This image was taken at a photographic workshop with a vintage (Gatsby) theme, held in the Wandiligong Public Hall. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
Nicola Paige at the Bright Festival of Photography. This image was taken at a photographic workshop with a vintage (Gatsby) theme, held in the super-cute Wandiligong Public Hall. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
A Photography Festival In A Wine Region: BFOP 2025
By Campbell Mattinson.
Every year for the past nine years something remarkable has taken place in the Alpine Valleys wine region of north-east Victoria. It’s called the Bright Festival of Photography (BFOP) and it’s been such a success that every wine region in Australia should be on the phone to the organisers of this festival, and thereafter so to should the marketing teams at the City of Adelaide, the City of Perth, the City of Hobart and the city of everywhere else major in Australia. Indeed every charismatic town, country or otherwise, in Australia should be looking at what the BFOP has achieved organically over the past near-decade and, as they say in the classics, “have what they’re having”.
The Bright Festival of Photography, it must be pointed out, exists for the love of photography and for the love of photography only. The team who slave over its organisation, and the companies that pony up to participate, and the wildly enthusiastic people who attend, all do so because they love photography, real photography, engaged photography. That is, this is a festival for people who are, proud and loud, photography nerds.
But here’s the thing: because this festival is based on participation and on in situ workshops, what this festival does is attract 500 skilled photographers to a small country town for three days, and these 500 photographers then flood social media with quality content from the area for weeks (as they progressively process their images), and these 500 photographers then tell their photographic friends about the greatness of this festival and, more importantly, about the greatness of the Bright town and its north-east Victorian region, which in turn has helped elevated this town as a photographic-opportunity Mecca.
That is, this is a photography festival that is, as a by-product, incredibly effective as a promotional activity.
500 highly skilled photographers, all in your town at once, all pushing out high quality content, all for the love it.
And this is in a country town – Bright, near Porepunkah – which is a 3.5 hour drive from the nearest capital city (Melbourne). Imagine the scale that could be achieved in a more accessible location.
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Rider at Bogong Horseback Adventures at the Bright Festival of Photography. This image was taken near the towns of Mount beauty and Tawonga in north-east Victoria, near Bright. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
The BFOP doesn’t integrate with the Alpine Valleys as a wine region, it should be noted, though it would be great for the region’s wine if it did. While I was in the region I did visit the Mayford winery, camera in hand, and will publish thoughts from this visit shortly. But all photographers are hungry for photogenic situations, and what this festival does is create photogenic situations. In fact, (almost) everyone with a smart phone is hungry for photogenic situations; it’s a primary driver of the world-wide travel industry. There are small pockets of the wine industry who seem to ‘get’ that pre-made or easy-to-capture, effectively pre-staged photographic opportunities are good for business, because they self-perpetuate. In general though the wine industry leaves its photo-worthiness unpicked.
Imagine, for a second, a photo festival in the Barossa Valley, where dozens of skilled photographers are allowed to capture barrels being made at Yalumba or even at AP Johns. Imagine the free hit of publicity. Imagine setting up a portrait opportunity, with the lighting arranged just so, with Rocky O’Callaghan sitting in a rocking chair. You get the idea.
This year was my first visit to the Bright Festival of Photography. I went to three events only, plus Mayford. At each of these events I watched my fellow photographers, and the arranged scenes, and thought: this event is in a wine region by co-incidence only. But imagine if it wasn’t co-incidence and the wine industry was in it up to its neck. The opportunities would be immense.
For the record: the Bright Festival of Photography 2025 was held in October. Next year’s BFOP is already sold out. That is, people get home from this event and immediately book themselves in (and pay) for the following year.
Why? Because staged photogenic events and situations are magnetic.
(Assorted images from my time in and around the towns of Bright and Porepunkah below).
