TOM PILSTON/STEFANIA DISTANTE: the necessity of photography | 15 April – 27 April 2026

Elwes Gallery: Tom Pilston – The Longest Siege: Sarajevo 1993
Elwes Lawn: Stefania Distante – Growing Together (2025)
15 April – 27 April 2026

Talk and Q&A: Monday 20 April, 5.00pm-6.30pm

Elwes Gallery presents two exhibitions of photographs. Both photographers are concerned with portraits of people but in very different contexts: Stefania Distante has spent time with a group tending a community garden in Gloucester, and Tom Pilston documented citizens affected by the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War in 1993.

On Monday 20 April, 5.00pm-6.30pm Stefania Distante and Tom Pilston will each give a short presentation on their photographic practices and will take part in a Q&A chaired by Elwes Gallery curator, Sarah Bowden, where we will explore time, co-creation, and ethics amongst other subjects. Gather in Elwes Gallery at 5.00pm. The discussion will take place in lecture theatre TC014. The event is free-of-charge but ticketed – please book your place here.

Stefania Distante is an Italian-born social documentary photographer who studied MA Photography at the University of Gloucestershire.

Tom Pilston is a photographer and lecturer in Photojournalism at the University of Gloucestershire.

Image: Stefania Distante’s photographs of Growing Together participants