PAUL Wombell was invited to open Hereford Photography Festival in 2003.

Photographer, author and a key player on the UK's photography scene, he's now back to direct the annual event - the longest-running annual photography event in the UK.

His career includes a decade running The Photographers Gallery in London and eight years as director of The Impressions Gallery in York, but last year he and wife Tricia took a year off to visit photography festivals across Europe.

"I realized the importance of festivals in bringing people together, presenting good work and creating debate," he said.

"Event culture has become really important and we take in little bits of information in this way. There's something quite unique here but the festival must have local support.

"Hereford is difficult to get to but it has established a tradition of developing photography and there's a range of ideas I'd like to pursue from this amazing, beautiful location which is both intimate and unique."

Used to promoting the festival from his base in London, Paul has come armed with ideas to secure its future - ideas which must have impressed the festival's board of trustees.

He aims to get at least one, key living photographer to come to the festival each year, which his contacts should facilitate. However hard previous administrators have tried, putting Hereford into people's diaries and on to their maps has been tough. Paul brings with him the fruits of urban networking and, although the post is full time, he is spending some days working from the Crafts Council office in Birmingham and at meetings in London, Newport and Cardiff.

"I intend to bring in favours and sell Hereford and its interesting quirkiness," he said.

"In a small way I'll be an ambassador for the city. The future of the festival is intimacy and focus."

For 2006 he'll maintain the venue structure which he inherited but is looking towards temporary buildings as being key to the development of the festival, using the Frieze art fair which takes place in London's Regent Park as inspiration.

"Hay Festival is obviously a beacon, but there are others," he said.

Another key development for the festival is to bring in a local element, showing archives from the city's records office on subjects close to the city's heart, like agriculture.

"If we don't show them, who will?" he said.

"It's about taking something local with an international theme then creating a debate. There are social, political and cultural issues which are all relevant to a rural community and photography has a role in that.

"There's lots of important work to be done...giving the festival a more distinct brand and having more sophisticated thoughts on marketing the event."

So Now Then - a compendium of 14 leading photographers' work - which was launched at Hay this year, forms the basis for this year's festival. Nine of the collections included in the anthology of cutting edge, contemporary photography will be shown .

"We're expecting 400 people to turn up for the conference on October 10," he said. "I want people to feel like photography has taken over the city."

l Paul is encouraging people with archive photography to contact the festival office on 01432 351964. For details of this year's festival visit www.photofest.org. The exhibitions run from September 30 to October 28.