European Prospects: Visual Explorations in an Undiscovered Continent was a European Commission funded collaborative project which used photography and contemporary art to examine questions of identity and experience in an enlarged European Union. The core partners were Ffotogallery in Cardiff, Wales (Coordinator), Fotosommer Stuttgart e.V., Germany, the Lithuanian Photographers Association in Kaunas and Le Château d’Eau in Toulouse, France, all based in European cities that have undergone major economic and social transformation. The project offered a new space for European artists and cultural agents to share experience and practice, and achieve wider exposure in Europe for their work.

Critical to development of a pan-European network was to invite associate partners from other member states, including Europe-based curators, publishers and commissioners of photography, to participate in the portfolio reviews and curatorial juries for selecting artists for exhibitions, projects and residencies. They also presented at conferences and workshops, and used our online platform to publicise their own opportunities for artists. All activities involved multinational groups of people to create a new dynamic of collaboration leading to future cooperation projects, developing further synergies.

Ffotogallery presented the first European Prospects exhibition in May 2013. European Chronicles put forward a vision of contemporary Europe as experienced through photographic work reflecting personal, family and community stories. To further develop the European Chronicles exhibition strand, Ffotogallery focused its autumn and winter season 2013/14 on European Prospects’ related themes and presented solo exhibitions by Indre Serpytyte (Lithuania), Trine Sondergaard (Denmark), Paul Gaffney (Ireland) and Michal Iwanowski (Poland/Wales).

In August 2013, Fotosommer Stuttgart curated I See Europe! at the Kunstbezirk Galerie im Gustav-Siegle-Haus. The exhibition presented 32 European photographers taking a personal look at Europe as lived and turning their observations into a multi-faceted photo essay.  

The Lithuanian Photographers Association, Kaunas Department, presented the Celebrating Europe exhibition in September 2014 at Kaunas Photography Gallery and the Meno Parkas gallery. Work was selected from an open call promoted through the European Prospects website. All the artists shared their personal outlooks and observations about the way we live in an enlarged Europe, the footprints recent changes have left in the daily routines of people, as well as how all these viewpoints and thoughts are reflected through the artists’ personal vision.

In March 2015, Le Château d’Eau in Toulouse, presented Family/Family the last of the four major exhibitions initiated by European Prospects. The exhibition brought together four young artists, Ed Alcock (UK), Arja Hyytiäinen (Finland), Ilka Kramer (Germany) and Julien Magre (France), whose work spans from the staged to documentary narratives and explores the history of ‘family’ through photography.

An important dimension of the project was a series of artist residencies, symposia and publications, conceived to further boost opportunities for lens-based artists to meet curators, festival organisers and academics, exchange ideas and establish professional links.  Coinciding with I See Europe! Fotosommer Stuttgart hosted Centre and Periphery: or How to put Yourself on the Map (15 - 17 August 2013) which focused on issues around mobility and artist opportunities within Europe. During this three-day workshop artists and curators from around Europe debated questions around visual convergence in an increasingly mobile society and how to become more visible in Europe’s art-world. The event brought together 50 artists and cultural professionals from across Europe.  The Europa Re-Imagined symposium was organised by Ffotogallery in Cardiff, 6-7 March 2014, and offered an opportunity to discuss current trends in photography and platforms for photographers to share their work. Central to the symposium was also an exploration of photography's role in reflecting what it means to be European.

By turning our collective focus to the highly pertinent question of how European identity is evolving in the context of major economic, technological and cultural change, the project supported the creation and presentation of work offering new artistic perspectives to wider Europe, the audiences and professionals involved, and the EU’s Culture programme. Through its emphasis on a rich and developing online dimension alongside physical activities, European Prospects also broke new ground in the use of new media for the presentation and distribution of photographic work.