Showing posts with label european photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label european 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 12, 2015

Friday Round Up - 12 June, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up - the third annual Portrait(s) Festival opens in Vichy, France, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale launches its annual fundraiser, and Yellow Korner's June Pop Up Galleries with Serge Ramelli.

Photos of the Week:


Road melts in New Delhi Heatwave May 2015
(C)Harish Tyagi/EPA


Migrants gather rain water, Myanmar June 2015
(C) Soe Zeya Tun/ Reuters

Festivals:

Portrait(s)
Vichy, France
12 June - 6 September
The third annual Portraits Festival kicks off today in Vichy, France, with a stellar line up. Here's a sample of what's on offer. See full program here

Bruce Wrighton - At Home
In 1988 American photographer Bruce Wrighton died at the age of 38 leaving behind an extraordinary series of portraits taken in the small town of Binghampton, in New York State, where he lived. These portraits capture ‘the disinherited of America,’ anonymous citizens who came across Wrighton's path. Around 30 of these portraits are on show at Vichy. Wrighton's work sits amongst some of my favourite street photography. 









Kourtney Roy - Self-Portraits
Another favourite photographer is Canadian Kourtney Roy whose series of self-portraits tackle the issue of female stereotyping. In these highly stylised, almost cinematic images, Roy poses as the pin-up, air hostess and beauty queen amongst others, exposing the farcical notion of the perfect woman.










Alejandro Cartagena - Carpoolers
Dominican photographer Alejandro Cartagena’s series Car Poolers documents thousands of Mexican workers as they cross Mexico City on their daily commute. Using the same framing for each image, Cartegena’s series evokes the monotony of this daily grind. 





There are also works by Mat Jacob, Elliott Erwitt, Ronan Guillou and Martin Schoeller on show amongst others. 


(C) Ronan Guillou

(C) Mat Jacob 

(C) Martin Schoeller


Annual Fundraiser




This year the Ballarat International Foto Biennale will be held from 22 August - 20 September in Ballarat, 90 minutes from Melbourne. 

At the annual fundraising event for the Biennale, to be held Sunday 12 July, 150 prints from 150 photographers will be up for grabs. Buy a red dot for $125 and select your image. If you can’t attend on the day, you can select online. Photographs have been donated by Australian and international artists to help the Festival raise funds. Visit the website for all the details

Sunday 12 July
Gallery Eleven40
1140 Malvern Road
Malvern (Melbourne)

Yellow Korner POP Up Galleries
This month Serge Ramelli and his epic black and white works of Paris and New York are in focus at the Yellow Korner Pop Up Galleries - check out the website for details.