Stirling Photography Festival is bringing the work of two iconic photographers to Stirling with exhibitions and talks taking place across the city until the end of September.
The festival will be headlined by Jill Furmanovsky, renowned music photographer responsible for many iconic portraits of rockstars across the decades, who recently photographed the Oasis 2025 reunion tour, and fashion photographer + filmmaker Fabrizio Gianni, who began his career as an assistant director on Sergio Leone’s 1966 classic The Good The Bad and The Ugly, before shooting for various fashion magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and GQ.
Furmanovsky’s exhibition Rebels and Renegades can be seen at the Tolbooth arts venue in Stirling city centre, until 27 September. Fabrizio’s exhibition Fab! A Life in Cinema and Fashion Photography runs until Wednesday September 30 at the Macrobert Arts Centre, on the University of Stirling campus.
Development of the Festival
Stirling photography Festival was founded by creative director Janie Meikle in 2018, with the aim of supporting local photographers, collaborating with new photographers, organising exhibitions and talks, and partnering with a wide network of different venues across Scotland. The festival is entirely volunteer-run, supported by partnerships with venues like the Tolbooth and the Macrobert, and sponsorship from local business.
Festivals have been running since 2022, each centred around a specific theme. The 2026 festival is centred around the theme of Journey. Aside from the two headliners, the festival encompasses a wide range of photographic genres and styles, ranging from documentary to portraiture.
The festival will feature an exhibition celebrating the 45th anniversary of Strathcarron hospice, the Royal Photographic Society’s documentary photography awards, a new multi-art project, combining poetry and photography in a ‘poetry path’ around Airthrey Loch, and many more. The lineup of free events and exhibitions will run through August to September, and details and tickets can be found on the festival website.
Rebels and Renegades
If you are interested in attending an exhibition, I would absolutely recommend Rebels and Renegades. I previously saw some of Furmanovsky’s work in Glasgow, displayed alongside another music photographer, Shelia Rock. I was more familiar with Furmanovsky’s shoots that capture the punk music scene of the 70s, but her exhibition in the Tolbooth displays a wide range of her work, from live concert photography of the 70s, to her studio-based 80’s portraiture.
Furmanovsky captures all elements of music photography, from backstage dressing room candids of Joy Division, The Clash onstage, mid performance, and striking colour portraits of 80s icons Siouxsie Sioux and Boy George. The exhibition also features collage-posters of different material from Furmanovsky’s archive, which give an impression of not just the individual musicians she was photographing, but the wider scene she was interacting with and documenting.
Featured Image Credit: Jill Furmanovsky