Name: Public Images, Private Lives
Start: 2026-06-06T14:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-06-06T16:30:00+01:00
Location: Ulster Museum

Panel conversations unpacking the themes and questions raised by the work of Swiss artists Thaddé Comar, Sabine Hess and Nicolas Polli
About this Event

Join Belfast Photo Festival for two panel conversations with Swiss artists Thaddé Comar, Sabine Hess and Nicolas Polli. The first, hosted by Toby Smith, Belfast Photo Festival, considers photography, protest, surveillance and the politics of visibility through Comar’s work. The second, hosted by Savannah Dodd of the Photography Ethics Centre, opens out questions of intimacy, domestic life and representation through Hess’s practice joined by panelist Tereza Davtyan, a curator from :DDD Kunst House, Armenia.

Each discussion will bring the artist into conversation with invited panellists, creating space for wider perspectives on the social, political and ethical questions their work raises.

Schedule:

2:00pm - Doors

2:30pm - Opening welcome from Belfast Photo Festival

2:45pm - Talk 1: Thaddé Comar, hosted by Toby Smith

3:30pm - 3:45pm - Short break

3:45pm - Talk 2: Sabine Hess, Nicolas Polli and Tereza Davtyan, hosted by Savannah Dodd

Contributors:

Thaddé Comar

Sabine Hess

Nicolas Polli

Tereza Davtyan

Additional panellists to be announced

Artist Bios:

Thaddé Comar works between Lausanne and Paris. His photographic practice engages with protest, power and the circulation of images, often focusing on the tensions between visibility, repression and control. His work has been exhibited internationally, and his book ‘How Was Your Dream?’ was published by Mörel Books in 2022.

Sabine Hess is a Swiss-German photographer whose work often centres on intimacy, relationships and our connection with the natural world. Working across documentary, editorial and portrait photography, she has exhibited widely in Switzerland and internationally. Her recent book projects include ‘You Felt the Roots Grow’ and, with Nicolas Polli, ‘One Bed, Two Blankets, Eighty-Five Rules’.

Nicolas Polli is a Swiss photographer, graphic designer and educator whose work moves between publishing, photography and contemporary visual culture. He teaches at ECAL and founded CIAO Press in 2018. Alongside his independent studio practice, he works across editorial design and still life photography.