Showing posts with label american photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label american photography. Show all posts

July 10, 2015

Friday Round Up - 10 July, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up - Generation '74 at Arles, Eastern Europe under the Lens at ACP, the launch of Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women and #Dysturb holds workshop in Sydney.

Photos of the Week:
Child Labour 1908 and 2015


Lewis Hine 1908


Reuters 2015

Exhibition: Sydney
Ex & Post - Eastern Europe Under the Lens
Group Show

Andrej Balco, Pezinok from the series Suburbs 2005-2006

Curated by Sári Stenczer and Krisztina Erdei this group exhibition features works from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Germany and Slovakia. The exhibition explores the aftermath of the collapse of socialist systems in Eastern Europe, the impact on individuals and communities and how those nations are seeking to define cultural identity. 


Rafal Milach, Baranovichi Sasha, the best welder of the Republic of Belarus

Until 16 August
Australian Centre for Photography
257 Oxford Street
Paddington

Book:
Generation ‘74


I really love everything about this book – the concept, the photographs, the text, the production. I saw Generation ’74 when I was at the Auckland Festival of Photography in May and soon it will be on my shelf, after making the journey to Australia all the way from Lithuania.

Generation ’74 features 11 photographers born in 1974. But it’s so much more than a collection of images from a bunch of 40 year olds. Each chapter features a single photographer and begins with a photograph from their childhood followed by 10-12 pages of their work. At the end of the book there is an insightful Q&A also. 











Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction by one of the photographers and the book’s publisher, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas who is also the director of KAUNAS PHOTO festival.

What do these 11 photographers have in common apart from the year they were born in? Well, quite a lot actually. Today, every one of them is well known in their respective countries and beyond. Some are globally renowned and celebrated figures of photography, but before they became what they are now, they too experienced some historical milestones. They were turning 15 in the year when the Berlin wall came down; the guys from the ‘Eastern Bloc’ were between 16 and 18 years old when their countries regained their independences; and they experienced the expansion of the European Union in 2004 when they were in their thirties. “Generation ‘74” accommodated the Internet and digital photography at a mature age, without having discarded the fundamental ideas about life and photography. They all have created long-term projects based on the notion that the world has been transitioning from analogically unique to uniformly global. Their attitude towards taking pictures is imprinted by a sense of civic, social, and individual duty to make honest statements about their countries of origin, residence and those they visit on project trips. Their photographic works do not pretend to be fashionable, flashy, and are by no means superficial or glossy. Instead, they are humane, thoughtful, bitter, ironic, humorous, critical, and they are resonating with what people feel deep down, rather than say out loud.

Photographers in Generation ‘74: Simon Roberts (UK), Nick Hannes (Belgium), Kirill Golovchenko (Ukraine/Germany), Przemyslaw Pokrycki (Poland), Tomáš Pospěch (Czech Republic), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas (Lithuania), Vitus Saloshanka (Belarus/Germany), Gintaras Česonis (Lithuania), Borut Peterlin (Slovenia), Pekka Niittyvirta (Finland), Davide Monteleone (Italy).

To find out more or to order Generation ’74 click here

If you're in Arles at the moment, you can get your copy at Cosmos Books.

New Prize:
Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women

$5000 Photography Prize
$1000 People’s Choice Award


Migrants working on railway 1960s

This newly instituted prize celebrates Maggie Diaz, an American photographer who arrived in Melbourne in 1961 with a one-way ticket, five dollars in her pocket and more chutzpah than the photographic community had seen. Undeterred by the male dominated industry, she successfully established herself as a commercial photographer and went on to shoot for some of the major advertising agencies.

But her passion was photographing Melbourne’s artists, actors and those she came across on the street. Often she’d roam the city after dark with her Rollie capturing a visage of Melbourne that few saw. Her signature is found in the use of available light and her ability to find that evocative moment in everyday happenings. 


Beach Boys


Radio 3AW mobile studio 1960s
Maggie is now 90, and it is only in the past decade that her vast oeuvre has come to light through the work of her long-time friend and her curator, Gwen de Lacy. I was fortunate to interview Maggie a few years back and it was a privilege to hear her stories. She’s a sassy dame, a straight shooter and we had a lot of laughs.

The Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, which is sponsored by Guilty Films, is designed to encourage female photographers to keep pursuing their passion. The winner will be announced on 3 September at Brightspace Gallery in St. Kilda when the Maggie Diaz Projects exhibition opens. Judges for the inaugural prize are Naomi Cass, Director Centre for Contemporary Photography, noted photographer Ponch Hawkes and Ballarat International Foto Biennale Director Jeff Moorfoot.

To find out more about the prize click here 

Workshop:
#Dysturb at ACP


Benjamin Petit © 2014#Dysturb continues its association with the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) after taking over its Instagram feed recently. On Saturday 18th July photographers Madelena Rehorek and Tamara Voninsky will run a one day workshop at ACP focusing on reportage skills and social engagement. Visit ACP for more information on its Photocise program and details on how to register for #Dysturb's workshop. 

July 03, 2015

Friday Round Up - 3 July, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up - photo essays by David Guttenfelder and Charles Ommanney, exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney and Photography Visionaries in review.

Photo Essays:
Both the New York Times and Washington Post are investing in original photojournalism and creating dynamic, interactive online stories. Check out two recent stories featuring the work of National Geographic's David Guttenfelder and Reportage by Getty Images' Charles Ommanney.

Illuminating North Korea
New York Times
Photographs and Video by David Guttenfelder









Photographs by Charles Ommanney





Book Review:
Photography Visionaries
Mary Warner Marien 



“The enemy of photography is convention, the fixed rules of ‘how it’s done’ - László Moholy-Nagy 1895-1946

This is one of the many quotes in this wonderful edition that has fast become one of the most important reference books on my shelf. Beginning with Eugéne Atget and ending with Liu Zheng, Photography Visionaries features 75 of the most influential photographers throughout the medium’s history.

Photography Visionaries is a book of revelations, as one cannot know all the works, even of the masters. That’s what’s so exciting about this book, the fact that you learn something new, even if it is a small detail, like Berenice Abbott took Atget’s portrait in 1927. Or that Imogen Cunningham's pregnant nude, which evokes feminist values was taken in 1946. Or that Margaret Bourke-White’s photographs of the Louisville Flood of 1937 speak of racial issues as much as economic and environmental. The book encompasses the breadth of photographic genres from documentary, street photography, and photojournalism to fine art.


Ernest Cole


Frances Benjamin Johnston


Geraldine Krull


Gordon Parks

European and American photographers dominate, but there is also representation from Japan, China, India, Russia, Latin America and Mexico as well as South Africa. Each chapter features an individual photographer, with a short overview, career timeline and a handful of pictures. My only wish is that there could have been more photographs from each, but then the book would have taken on encyclopaedic proportions.

The production values of the publication are first class and photographs in both colour and black and white have been exquisitely reproduced. The design layout makes it easy to navigate. There is also a valuable ‘further reading’ section at the rear. 


Graciela Iturbide


Josef Koudelka


Mario Giacomelli

Peter Magubane

Standouts include Alexander Rodchenko (Russia), Lisette Model (Austria), Walker Evans (US), Nacho López (Mexico), Mario Giacomelli (Italy), Daidõ Moriyama (Japan), Frances Benjamin Johnston (US), Carrie Mae Weems (US), Santu Mofokeng, Ernest Cole (South Africa) and Lui Zheng (China). But in all honesty every photographer included has produced some truly brilliant work and getting to know a little of their story is enlightening.

“All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” Richard Avedon (1923-2004)

Photography Visionaries
Laurence King Publishing

Exhibitions in Brief:
Melbourne

Buddha's Robes
Tobi Wilkinson






2 July - 1 August
Colour Factory Gallery
409-429 Gore St
Fitzroy

Sydney
Aquaticus - Group Show

Photographic artists Annabelle Gaspar, Graham Shearer, Toby Burrows and Michaela Skovranova come together in this group exhibition through a shared interest in water.


(C) Toby Burrows - Soliloquy


(C) Toby Burrows - Soliloquy

(C) Toby Burrows - Soliloquy


(C) Michaela Skovranova 


(C) Annabelle Gaspar


(C) Annabelle Gaspar


(C) Graham Shearer

Until 12 July
Blackeye Gallery
3/138 Darlinghurst Rd,
Darlinghurst

June 26, 2015

Friday Round Up - 26 June, 2015

This week a look at three incredibly powerful photo essays including Arnau Bach’s seminal work, Suburbia, plus Bruce Gilden hits the Paris Metro, Australians on show at PhotoIreland and Auckland Festival of Photography’s inaugural charity auction.

Photo Essays:
Japanese American Internment Survivors
Paul Kitagaki Jr


During WWII more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned in camps in the USA. Dorothea Lange, amongst others, photographed many of those detained in California. Photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr’s family was amongst them. 70 years later he has revisited those original photographs, tracking down others pictured and where possible shooting them in the same location as the original images. Kitagaki also interviewed his subjects about their experiences. It’s an emotional series that reminds us the human toll of war extends far beyond the battlefields to impact those who through their ethnicity are fated to be called enemies. To see more images and read the full story visit Mother Jones


Dorothea Lange also photographed Kitagaki’s family. Above, his grandparents Suyematsu Kitagaki and Juki Kitagaki are with their children, Kimiko (11yo) and his father Kiyoshi (14yo) in Oakland, California. They were interned in the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah in 1942.Below: In this photo Paul Kitagaki Jr. (far right) is pictured with his father (centre) and aunt Kimiko (second from left) at the same location as the original photograph.




Above: This iconic image by Dorothea Lange features 70-year-old Sakutaro Aso and his grandsons Shigeo Jerry Aso and Sadao Bill Aso. They were deported from California in 1942. Bill (below right) told Kitagaki, "When I look at the picture, I can see my grandfather realized that something terrible was happening and his life was never going to be the same again. That was the end of the line for him”.


Shigeo Jerry Aso and Sadao Bill Aso (C) Paul Kitagaki Jr


Above: Helene Nakamoto Mihara (left) and Mary Ann Yahiro (center) taken by Dorothea Lange in San Francisco 1942. Both girls ended up in Topaz Internment Camp in Utah. Mary Ann, pictured on the right below with Helene, and her mother were separated and never saw each other again.  


(C) Paul Kitagaki Jr


Girls in Justice
Richard Ross
“Been here two months for a violation. They make me take out all the studs they can. But the one in my throat and in my cheeks are implants. I ran away from placement. It was a group home with 65 kids in Critinton, Orange County.” 15 year old.

American photographer and academic Richard Ross has been working on his long term project to document the juvenile justice system in that country for the best part of a decade. After photographing detention centres in more than 30 states Ross has no doubt the system is failing these kids. He hopes his photographs can shine a light on the plight that a growing number of American teens face. 


“I should be a sophomore but I have no credits for school. The last grade I completed was eighth. My mom visits. She isn’t a parent; she’s a teenager in a parent body.” 16 year old.

Girls make up the largest number of juvenile detainees in the system and some are as young as ten. Ross, who is a professor at the University of California, has published a second book on the project - Girls in Justice - that specifically focuses on this group. Many are in detention for minor offences, and carry the scars of emotional and physical abuse often at the hands of their families. Others have nowhere else to go.

Ross photographs the girls to obscure their faces. “If you see a face, you can say, ‘well, I’m glad that’s not my kid. But if the face is obscured, it could stand in for anybody’s kid,” he says. 


“I was four months when I first came in the system. My mom didn’t have a house; she lost it. I’m here with my sister, but my sister’s now with a foster family. If it works out, she gets to stay. But she told me it’s not gonna work out and she’ll be back to see me.” 11 year old. 


“They took me from my mom at age 12 because she’s had drug problems. She was beating me, and I was molested by her friends. I think I was born in Asheville, North Carolina, but at this point I don’t really live anywhere.” 15 year old.

“My mom is deceased. Drug overdose. I stayed with my auntie until I was 11 in Compton. She was abusive, verbally and physically. I went to maybe 15–20 foster homes.” 16 year old.

You can see more of Richard Ross’s work on juveniles in justice on the website Juvenile in Justice
Read the full interview with Ross at Slate.com

Suburbia
Arnau Bach



(C) Arnau Bach


(C) Arnau Bach


(C) Arnau Bach


(C) Arnau Bach


(C) Arnau Bach


(C) Arnau Bach
Spanish photographer Arnau Bach spent four years photographing the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the most populated, and poverty stricken areas of Paris. Here 1.5 million people live in close quarters. Unemployment and crime are high and hope for a better tomorrow faint. On his website Arnau says, “This work seeks to reflect on the lifestyle of youth in these ghettos: their gregarious existence and their love for hip-hop culture, the lack of opportunity and the absence of social services and recreational facilities which leads them to stay idle in the streets. Beyond the harshness of their social codes, youth culture rebels as an act of resistance against of a present where they don’t have much to gain and even less to lose.”

To see more of his work click here

Bruce Gilden
Paris Metro


Through October, RATP, the world's fifth largest public transport company will feature photographs by Magnum Photos' Bruce Gilden in 16 of its subway stations. The theme of the exhibition is urban mobility in the five cities where the RATP group operates: Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Manchester, New York and Paris. Gilden’s 41 photographs will be on display in multiple locations totaling nearly 300 images. 












All Photos: (C) Bruno Marguerite RATP

PhotoIreland
Dublin

(C) Katrin Koenning

Australians have a strong presence at this year’s Photoireland which kicks off on 1st July in Dublin for a month. Melbourne’s Katrin Koenning continues her European tour with an exhibition of new works; the Australian Centre for Photography presents Island - Australia a group show curated by Claire Monneraye that features a range of genres from street photography to documentary and fine art with works by Markus Andersen, Katelyn Jane-Dunn, Charles Kasprzak, Kristian Laemmle-Ruff, Jesse Marlow, Raphaela Rosella, Chris Round, David Maurice Smith, Juliet Taylor and Wouter Van De Voorde and; the Asia Pacific Photobook Archive will also present a selection of books from its collection. To find out more visit the Festival here  

Auckland Festival of Photography
Charity Auction


On Tuesday 30th June, the inaugural Auckland Festival of Photography Charity Auction will be held at 6.30pm at Webb’s at 23-25 Falcon St Parnell. You can bid on photographic works by emerging and established New Zealand photographers. There’s 55 photographic works up for grabs. Check out the catalogue here.