Sea rescues and green revolution – southern Italy’s foremost photo festival – in pictures

Monopoli, south-east of Bari, is home to PhEST, an ambitious photo festival that sees dozens of exhibitions and events take over the old town and features artists from around the world working in different media

Sea Beach by Ismail Ferdous, at Palazzo Palmieri, a 16th century palace, revisits the photographer’s childhood holidays and takes a humorous and modern look at Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar beach. PhEST, the international festival of photography and art, is at various venues in Monopoli, Italy, until 3 November

Photograph: All Photographs: Marco Falcone

Displayed alongside the old harbour in Monopoli, are works by Jan von Holleben. In All Humans Be Cats, he photographs the children of the town in a collaborative process

During her residency with Artlab Eyeland, Lisa Sorgini documented the women and children contaminated by steelworks in Taranto, Italy

Soft Spot by Polish photographer Michalina Kacperak examines the complexities of her own life as the daughter of alcoholics

Photojournalist César Dezfuli displays his work Passengers, which features portraits of 118 people rescued from a boat in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya on 1 August 2016

Iraqi digital artist Nariman Darbandi creates evocative images inspired by western cinema tropes

Classic works by the great surrealist Man Ray are at the Charles V castle overlooking the sea

Bruce Eesly examines the narratives of the mid-20th century green revolution in agriculture in his AI-generated series New Farmer

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul hosts Fields of Sight, a collaborative work between Gauri Gill and artist Rajesh Vangad

Material World: A Global Family Portrait, is a project by Peter Menzel aiming to humanise the problems of population, environment and consumption on a global scale

The Ukrainian artist Polina Kostanda challenges reality and creates surreal imagery in the series Polly in Wonderland.Sarah Gilbert attended PhEST at its invitation