Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 28th April, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up it's all about the Head On Photo Festival in Sydney. Part one of a two part feature kicks off with my top picks for the festival's featured exhibitions, but there are so many shows that there is sure to be something to appeal to every visual style. Next week I'll be blogging from the opening weekend.

And tomorrow my interview with Markus Klinko, about his amazing exhibition Bowie Unseen, undoubtedly one of this year's Head On highlights, is in the Australian Financial Review Weekend.

Special Feature:
Head On Photo Festival - Sydney
5 - 28 May, 2017

The annual Head On Photo Festival is a week away from kicking off with another spectacular line up of exhibitions, workshops, talks and other events including a debate with photographers from around the globe, and moderated by myself, on the question "Does photojournalism facilitate or counteract 'fake news'? Click here to register. It's free!

Get ready to have your mind blown. This year's Head On Photo Festival program rocks!

Exhibitions - My Picks

Juli Balla - Where the sidewalk ends

This stunning series by Hungarian-born Juli Balla features extravagant staged scenes that draw on street photography from the 1950s through to the 1970s. 

Their filmic aesthetic is reminiscent of Gregory Crewdson’s work, although Balla has a distinct European sensibility in her visual signature. 

Each tells a unique, compelling story. 

Visually engaging and meticulously designed and executed, these are fabulous images that capture the imagination. 

(C) All images Juli Balla

Venue: Olsen Annexe
74 Queen Street
Woollahra
Opening May 6th at 2pm

Also opening at Olsen Annexe at the same time is Australian photographer Tim Georgeson's ethereal series Oracles. 

(C) All images Tim Georgeson

  

Dina Litovsky – Meatpacking 

In this series Ukrainian-born Dina Litovsky, who has lived in New York since 1991, shows us another side to the city’s meatpacking district. Transformed at night into what she calls “a microcosm of sexual politics,” this former working class district was once populated with fetish houses and gay bars.

Now it is a mecca for those flocking to new fashionable nightclubs, which attract young single women looking for romance.

These girls who place themselves on parade hoping for Mr. Right, outnumber the opposite sex creating an environment in which competition is rife, giving new meaning to the idea of 'meatpacking'. 

Litovsky doesn’t make any moral judgments, rather she captures scenes as they unfold, the industrial setting making for a startling background to the painted and stiletto-heel clad throngs of women hoping to be the ‘one’.

(C) All images Dina Litovsky

Venue: Head On Photo Festival Pop Up QVB Forecourt, Sydney.

Maggie Steber - The Secret Garden of Lily LaPalma

This is a very personal series of photographs, which Maggie Steber says "was made in the shadows of a dark side of me that, as of late, I have begun to re-explore. Without meaning to make them so, these photographs reveal my fears and private memories, all the things that are wrapped up in a human life. In The Garden there is danger and beauty in a wild jungle that grows unfettered. The photographs are a documentation of my subconscious and imagination, often posing as something entirely unrelated and recognised only by me. They are created spur of the moment. I go from the gut. I don’t want them to be perfect because reality isn’t perfect; it’s messy, and the imperfection of these spontaneous moments reflects what I’m after.”

In addition to the exhibition, Maggie, who is a multi-award winning photojournalist, photo editor and curator, is holding a workshop for a limited number of extremely fortunate photographers. If you want to “Walk on the Wild Side with Maggie Steber” there are still a few places left. Don't miss out.

(C) All images Maggie Steber

Venue: AD Space - UNSW Art & Design

In Brief: 

Two Australian Photojournalists - Brian Cassey and Michael Amendolia

Based in Far North Queensland, Brian Cassey, who was born in London, but we've claimed him as our own, has been shooting since he was a lad. A multi-award winner, Brian has covered sports, news and features and shares a selection of his life's work in this exhibition at Juniper Hall. 

(C) All images Brian Cassey

Michael Amendolia is another super talented Australian photojournalist who is best known for his work with the late Fred Hollows, whose pioneering efforts to bring sight to those in third world countries is one of the most remarkable humanitarian stories of the past century. In this exhibition Michael shares some of the images taken over 25 years documenting this marvellous work. His work is on show at Head On Photo Festival Pop Up QVB Forecourt. 

  

(C) All images Michael Amendolia

To find out more about Head On Photo Festival and to see the full program head over to the website. 

Friday Round Up - 30 September, 2016

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up it's all about the second edition of the Indian Photography Festival in Hyderabad.

Feature:

Indian Photography Festival Hyderabad

(C) Dina Oganova

Spread across the city of Hyderabad, the capital of the southern Indian state of Telangana, the Indian Photography Festival (IPF) presents a comprehensive programme. This year's festival is curated by leading Indian Photographer Amit Mehra, and features panel discussions, artists talks, workshops, open studios, book launches and portfolio reviews. 

Founder and Director of the Festival Aquin Mathews says, "We live in a world of visual clutter as millions of images are taken and uploaded into the internet every day; people should know what is good and bad photography and IPF is the best place to learn and see what is good and bad. Photography has been democratized with the advent of digital technology and mobile phone cameras and more people have access to photography and enjoy it these days. We have made the event free to the public as photography has got a wider reach."

The exhibition programme features a host of photographers including legendary Indian photojournalist Raghu Rai, as well as Prashant Panjiar, Mahesh Bhat and Swapan Parekh. The international contingent includes photojournalists Ron Haviv (VII) and Michael Robinson Chavez (Washington Post), Australian Nick Moir, and fine art photographer Claire Rosen. Plus the Asia Pacific Phonebook Archive from Melbourne will also have a range of books from the region on display.

A Selection of Key Exhibitions:

State Art Gallery: 
The Lost Rolls by Ron Haviv

The Alexia Foundation/ Aaron Vincent Elkaim's 'Where The River Runs Through: Life in the Amazon Dam Boom'

Birds of a Feather - Claire Rosen

Stories of her Own - Smita Sharma, Anushree Fadnavis & Saumya Khandelwal

(C) Anushree Fadnavis

(C) Saumya Khandelwal

Drought in Telangana - Satyanarayana Gola

Awaiting the Rain - Michael Robinson Chavez 

Fragments of a spinning rock - Kaushal Parikh

Weather - Nick Moir  

Sebastian Cortes 

Belief - Natan Divr

Selected exhibitions at various venues:

The Longing of the Others - Sandra Hoyn 

At Goethe Zentrum

Head On Landscape & Portrait Prize from Australia

(C) KristianTaylor-Wood - Portrait Winner

On show: JNAFAU, Masabtank

Dialect & Dialogue - in the bylanes of Hyderabad - a group show of 29 photographers from Hyderabad

On show: Sardar Mahal , in the lanes and by lanes of Laad Bazar around Charminar, Chowmohalla Palace

About The IPF: a Not-For-Profit initiative of Light Craft Foundation and Telangana Tourism, IPF is an international photography festival, showcasing a wide range of photography across all genres from portraits and landscape through to photojournalism to fine art by emerging and leading photographers from India and around the globe. 

For more information on the IPF programme visit the links:

Speakers, Workshops, Programme and Exhibitions

Until 9 October

Various venues

 

Friday Round Up - 23 October, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up another eclectic selection of images - Tom Hussey's Reflections, Emilio Fraile's eWaste in Ghana, Stephen Mallon documents NYC's solution for used subway cars, the extraordinary natural vistas of China's Gansu Province and cinematographer and naturalist Feodor Pitcairn's Primordial Landscapes reviewed.

Photo Essay:
Tom Hussey - Reflections


American photographer Tom Hussey has created this wonderful series of images where the subject looks back on their life through the reflection of their younger self in the mirror. Hussey came up with the idea for the series after talking with an 80-year-old World War II veteran who told Hussey that he couldn’t believe he was so old, as he still felt like a young man. Hussey and his team scouted for believable doubles to pose as the younger self. While ageing is something that happens as a natural part of time’s passage, these redolent, meditative images give us all something to think about.

(C) All images Tom Hussey

Photo Essay:
Emilio Fraile - The Fate of Electronic Waste
In March this year Spanish photographer Emilio Fraile travelled to Accra, Ghana's largest city to document the lives of those eking out a living on the electronic dump at Agbogbloshie. This area used to be a wetlands and is now considered one of the most polluted places on earth. Fraile says thousands live "in this hell" and put their health at risk through exposure to toxic chemicals and metals as they strip down this eWaste, much of which arrives on large container ships.

(C) All images Emilio Fraile


Photo Essay:
Stephen Mallon - Next Stop Atlantic

(C) Stephen Mallon

(C) Stephen Mallon

From this (above) to the images below in 5 and 10 years respectively

Photo courtesy viralforest.com

Photo courtesy viralforest.com

New York photographer Stephen Mallon spent three years working on this series which documents the disposal of used subway cars in New York City. These subway cars are stripped and then dumped into the Atlantic ocean, a practice that has seen more than 2500 cars submerged in the past decade. These subway cars are used to build underwater reefs along the US’ eastern seaboard, which creates new habitats for marine life and also is worth an estimated $200 million annually to the US economy in coral. 

(C) Stephen Mallon

(C) Stephen Mallon

(C) Stephen Mallon

(C) Stephen Mallon

Photos:
China's Gansu Province
These photographs are of the Dramatic Landscape of China’s Gansu Province in northwestern China as reported by Alan Taylor for The Atlantic. You can see the full story and more images here.

Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park
(C) Wang Song / Xinhua Press / Corbis

Chen Yonggang / Xinhua / Corbis

Flowering rapeseed plants blossom in a field in Minle, Gansu
SIPA Asia via ZUMA Wire / Wangjiang / Corbis

Salt harvest
Wang Jiang / Imaginechina / Corbis

Terrace Crops
Sheng Li / Reuters

Book Review:
Primordial Landscapes: Iceland Revealed
Feodor Pitcairn with Ari Trausti Guðmundsson

(C) Feodor Pitcairn Primordial Landscapes: Iceland Revealed powerHouse books

In recent times cinematographer and naturalist Feodor Pitcairn, who is 80 years old, has given up shooting underwater films, and turned his attention to terrestrial landscapes. He’s embarked on several expeditions to Iceland to capture the natural beauty of one of the most romanticised places on the planet. These photographs come together in a new book from powerHouse Primordial Landscapes: Iceland Revealed. (You can read the full review and see more of his exquisite images by clicking on the Book Reviews tab at the top of the blog.)