ARTWORKS from a much-discussed photography exhibition celebrating women can now be viewed in an online gallery after indoor shows were forced to close prematurely amid the second lockdown.

The third Photo Oxford Festival embraces the feminine, with the theme Women and Photography – Ways of Seeing and Being Seen.

The festival is produced by local charity Photography Oxford, with the hope of bringing images from across the world to the city.

In response to the theme, the Oxford Photographers Group (OPG) submitted images for selection by photography curator Katy Barron.

The images are exhibited in a virtual gallery on the festival website, with artists including Wendy Aldiss, Thomas Capon, Kirk Ellingham, Paul Freestone, Kazem Hakimi, Rob Judges, Thomas Nicolaou, Martin Stott, Paddy Summerfield and Patricia Baker-Cassidy.

Ms Baker-Cassidy, the group coordinator, said: "OPG is an informal collective, meeting fairly regularly, until Covid-19 struck.

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"The festival theme generated a group discussion – even some dissent.

"What emerged was an exciting mosaic of individual responses, all sharing a humane vision, many created in collaboration with the subjects."

More than 1,000 photographs were submitted by artists from all over the world.

Those on exhibition are the top 20 images selected by a crowd vote, while another 20 were also selected by an expert panel of judges.

Among those are photos by Oxfordshire photographers Caroline Seymour, Claire Francis and Pip Bacon.

One of the most interesting pieces at the exhibition is by fine art photographer Ms Bacon, who took this skilful portrait of a mother breastfeeding her newborn.

Most of the exhibitions are now available to view online at www.photooxford.org.