Ffoto Cymru 2026 – Paula Pedrosa: The Living Nature of the Stone-dead
2/10/2026 – 31/10/2026
Rhagolwg / Preview:
Dydd Gwener 2il Hydref, 7yp
Friday 2nd October, 7pm
Gallery open Wednesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm
Oriel ar agor Dydd Mercher – Dydd Sadwrn, 11yb – 5yp
The Living Nature of the Stone-dead is an ongoing photographic and research project by Brazilian photographer and researcher Paula Pedrosa, exploring the relationship between geological time, extinct life and the contemporary landscape.
Beginning with Brazil’s rich paleontological and geological heritage, Pedrosa’s photographs move between fossil sites, geological formations, landscapes, museums, scientific collections and laboratories, alongside the many ways prehistoric life is reconstructed and imagined today. Fossils and geological formations sit alongside replicas, models and other contemporary representations of prehistoric creatures, revealing how our attempts to understand and reconstruct the past are themselves part of the present.
Bringing together scientific research and photographic observation, the project deliberately unsettles the boundaries between science and fiction, nature and culture, fact and imagination. Geological matter carries vast histories within it, while museums, scientific practices and popular imagery continually reactivate those histories through human curiosity, interpretation and developing knowledge. The seemingly inert “stone-dead” becomes unexpectedly alive.
Pedrosa invites us to look at the landscape through the perspective of deep time, a scale in which human history becomes a brief moment within a much longer story of transformation, extinction and renewal. Her photographs draw attention to things that are already around us, but which we may pass without noticing, such as traces of ancient life embedded in landscapes, buildings and everyday environments. By pointing her camera towards these overlooked details, Pedrosa makes the familiar newly visible, encouraging us to see the world and the immense histories contained within it differently. The work reveals the vastness, complexity and unknowability of the natural world, prompting questions about our place within forces and timescales that extend far
beyond human experience. What might these ancient histories reveal about our relationship with the natural world, and how might they change the way we understand our present and imagine our future?
About Ffoto Cymru 2026
Ffoto Cymru is Wales’ international photography festival, bringing together artists, photographers, communities and audiences across the country for a month-long celebration of contemporary photography and image-making.
Taking place from 2–31 October 2026 across 17+ locations throughout Wales, Ffoto Cymru 2026 will bring together exhibitions, events, talks, workshops and opportunities to connect with photography in new and unexpected ways.
There’s More to Life
This year’s festival explores the theme There’s More to Life — an invitation to look beyond the everyday pressures of productivity, progress and constant acceleration, and to consider different ways of being, creating and connecting.
Through photography, Ffoto Cymru 2026 explores the possibilities of alternative futures: ways of working and living that value care, curiosity, creativity, community and imagination. The festival asks how we might make space for play, reflection, belonging and new perspectives in a changing world.
Bringing together artists from Wales and beyond, Ffoto Cymru celebrates photography as a tool for storytelling, questioning and imagining — creating spaces where different experiences, ideas and conversations can come together.