By Nigel Powlson

FROM dramatic images of Marilyn Monroe, via pictures shot by David Lynch to people walking the streets as human exhibition boards, the next Format photography festival aims to capture imaginations in Derby and well beyond.

Format 2009 will be the third citywide festival to put photography in focus but will the first to have Derby's new arts centre Quad as a hub for all activities.

It will launch on March 5 and end on April 5 and will feature exhibitions, performances, conferences, film screenings and much more at venues across Derby. Around 80,000 visitors are expected.

This year's theme is photo-cinema and will include exhibitions by internationally successful movie directors David Lynch and Wim Wenders, as well as top photographers from around the world. Movers and shakers from the industry will be on hand to offer advice and everyone with a digital camera will have a chance to take part.

Quad curator Louise Clements explains: "We want to build on previous festivals and to establish Format as a biennial event taking place every other year in March/April time.

"The theme of photo-cinema is very much one of the current trends in contemporary art. A lot of photography work draws on the ideas of film directors and they in turn are influenced by photographers. David Lynch, for example, is influenced by photographer William Eggleston.

"In Quad we also have the advantage of an arts centre that mixes film and art but it's a citywide festival so it's about more than just Quad. But Quad is a pivot and has added greatly to what we can do. We now have a well-resourced centre as an information base – even for just for practical things like booking tickets it's a great advantage."

It's unlikely that you will be able to miss Format as the festival will be taking to the streets as well as being staged at venues like the Museum and Art Gallery.

"You can't help but bump into it," says Louise. "There will be images on the BBC Big Screen and roaming exhibitions with people wearing digital photo boards and going out onto the streets. There will be projections in Westfield and Sadler Gate will come alive with photography. It's a challenge to put art works in non-gallery spaces and it will make it an adventure to explore the city and discover the art .

"We also have a major exhibition in St Werburgh's Chapel. Argentinian photographer Eugenia Ivanesevitch takes frames from films and prints them as photographs and cuts out the figures and makes sculptures from those.

"We also have some huge hitters in the festival. You can see David Lynch's photographs in Quad and there will be a Wim Wenders display in the museum. There will be new work from Hannah Starkey and William Eggleston plus pictures of Marilyn Monroe on the set of her last film in exhibition from the Magnum photography archives in Quad's Box.

"We want the festival to speak to the international world and to the people on the ground in Derby. We want it to be accessible and fun."

To submit a picture you simply sign up at the website, upload a photograph on one of five themes such as "road trip" or "photo story in five frames" and the pictures will all be exhibited on line.

The best ones submitted will be put through to the Format Premier section and used on the Big Screen, in the Quad cinema, on other digital screens around the city and the very best ones will be put into a small book.

You can submit pictures from thsi month until the end of the festival.

Louise says: "It's something fun to take part in for everyone and also a real challenge.

"Most people have photos from a journey they can fit into a road trip theme.

"Or you could dress up as a film star or take a pic of a friend that looks like John Travolta. Anyone can send in a picture and have it exhibited."

To find out more about all festival events go to wwww.format festival.com.

SUBMIT YOUR PICTURES

WITH cameras in mobile phones these days everyone is a photographers and organisers of Derby's Format festival want you to take part in this spring's major city event.

MobFormat is a strand of the festival that invites anyone with a digital camera to submit a picture on one of five given themes and then to see their work included in exhibitions.

Louise Clements, curator at Quad and one of the organisers of the festival, said: "The festival is for everybody and is looking at what is a very popular art form. Photography is central to many people's lives. Most people have a digital camera, whether on their phone or one for family holiday shots.

"A lot of curators say everyone can be an artist but that's often hard to practically imagine when people say they can't draw or can't paint but photography is a democratic medium and we want to try to get everyone involved and interested in what we are doing.