The Beginnings

In 2008 a group of interested Augusta, Georgia-based volunteers came together to present a photography festival inspired by D.K. Bhaskar's vision to “create an international event to attract visitors to Augusta, educate the camera-using public, and encourage the creative spirit.”

After the warm reception for the first three-day Augusta Photography Festival, the steering committee decided the Festival should be a longer, biennial event, repeating every even numbered year. The additional time allows the festival to expand with more exhibits, workshops, a competition, and other events.  In 2011, the Augusta Photography Festival, Inc. incorporated as a non-profit educational organization and was given a tax exempt 501(c )3 designation by the IRS.

Vision

Photography has become the art of the people, a medium in which nearly all dabble and a few excel. In a city where art has been the soul of our existence, as exemplified by James Brown, the Augusta Photo Festival can become a part of an ongoing effort to build on the image or our beautiful region and tap the ocean of skills in the people who live here. The festival is a chance to bring the beauty of Augusta to the surface, as well as to import the beauty of the world. The festival gives us a way of speaking beyond words, in the international language of visual arts, and to create a collaborative approach to developing our artistic community. We envision the festival as something that would reach out to make it a cultural event that not only provides images for us to see, but provides images that can help reshape our world.
- Bhaskar Krishnamurthy (D.K. Bhaskar)