April 26, 2013
Friday Round Up - 26th April
Alison Stieven-Taylor's story in March, "Death of a Festival" about the demise of Foto Freo, Australia’s most successful and longest running photography festival, hit a nerve with the directors of Australia’s other major photography festivals, namely Ballarat International Foto Biennale and Sydney’s Head On. Read the full story on this week's Friday Round Up.
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Photographic festivals are great but the problem I see is the lack of a sustainable secondary market for photography through auction houses. There has to be the perceived investment factor, i.e there is the potential for a return on ones investment. Its ok to like the work of up and comings and buy works one likes but the potential to be able to profit drives art investment. Even so called 'photographers' demonstrate ignorance when one drops the names of Cazneaux, Hurley, Kaufmann, Dupain etc. Without the foundation of art history photography in Australia is left mainly to the institutions. I recognise the success of Bill Henson, Tracey Moffatt, Helmut Newton, David Moore and more recently Trent Parke. Without international recognition which then places works beyond the average collector photography as an investment in art in Australia is unsustainable. There has to be a perceived value factor in supporting photography as an art from ground roots up. That comes from having a sustainable secondary market. Institutions know the value when auction houses dont and they love donated works but that does not encourage the market to flourish. Its no good photographers putting prices on their works which is not going to be reflected in a non-existent secondary market. So one might say what good are festivals without auctions to reflect potential for investment. Lets be capitalist about this and not exist in fairy land.
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