Friday Round Up - 24th April, 2015

This week Friday Round Up focuses on the 6th edition of Sydney’s Head On Photo Festival, which is Australia’s largest photographic event. Head On opens next Friday 1st May. Today's preview features some of the international shows included in the Featured program. Next week it’s the Aussies turn.

Feature:
Head On Photo Festival

John Malkovich as Andy Warhol from Sandro Miller's exhibition 

Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich: Homage to Photography Masters 

exclusive to Head On Photo Festival

The Head On Festival Hub
The biggest innovation this year is the introduction of the Head On Festival Hub, a central location in the heart of Sydney where photographers can mingle, and everyone can participate in exhibitions, screenings, talks and workshops over the first ten days of the festival. This is a fantastic idea and will make it much easier for visitors to see a host of diverse exhibitions in the one venue. I'm looking forward to checking it out, along with other exhibitions I've earmarked as must sees - check out my selection below.

Festival Director Moshe Rosenzveig says, “The Hub is where you can drop in, talk about photography, and see photography. It provides the opportunity to have a social interaction with a whole lot of people”.

Located in Sydney Lower Town Hall the Hub will host nine of the Featured Exhibitions for the festival as well as screenings, artist talks, and workshops. Talks will be held during the day at lunchtimes to encourage city workers to drop in. Screenings will run constantly throughout the day.

The Hub is also the venue for the opening of the Festival on 1st May where the winners of the Head On Photo Awards, which are the flagship of the Festival, will be announced next Friday. This year there are five categories - the coveted Head On Portrait Prize plus Landscape, Moving Image, Mobile, and the new category for 2015, Student.

There’s also a program of talks, workshops and masterclasses including:

Italian photographer Alessandro Penso masterclass - Using Photography for Social Change: From Concept to Completion – click here for details

Ben Lowy, Marvi Lacar and Michael Robinson Chavez – Creating and Packaging Your Visual Story – click here for details

Sandro Miller (Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich) will present on how to shoot portraiture - click link for details  

Panel discussion at the Hub on Sunday 3 May 4.30-6.30pm – Staying Relevant as a Photography Professional. Panelists are Jim Dooley, from Alexia Foundation, photographers Sandro Miller, Matt Willis, Alessandro Penso, Daniel Schuman, portfolio expert Sally Brownbill and Alison Stieven-Taylor.

The International Exhibitions - My Pick

Between Heaven and Earth - Shunzan Fan 

Chinese photographer Shunzan Fan seeks to capture the importance of the dreamscape. In this series Between Heaven and Earth he features staged pictures of everyday people who pose in front of 'their dream'. Shot in black and white and then manually coloured, these images cross cultural boundaries to show that all of us have hopes and dreams no matter our circumstance or nationality. 

Until 16 May
Stanley Street Gallery
1/52-54 Stanley St
Darlinghurst

Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to Photographic Masters - Sandro Miller 

Diane Arbus Twins

American photographer Sandro Miller has created an amazing collections of photographs paying homage to some of the great photographers of the past century. Enlisting the help of his friend, actor John Malkovich, Miller has painstakingly recreated iconic images such as Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, John Lennon and Meryl Streep. This is an extraordinary collection. Don't miss it.

Richard Avedon Beekeeper


Dorothea Lange Migrant Mother


Annie Liebovitz John and Yoko


Annie Liebovitz Meryl Streep


Herb Ritts Jack Nicholson


Bert Stern Marilyn Roses

28 April to 17 May
Black Eye Gallery
3/138 Darlinghurst Rd
Darlinghurst 

You can read my interview with Sandro Miller in today's Australian Financial Review 

Iraq Perspectives Windows - Benjamin Lowy 

Shot between 2003 and 2008 through the window of a Humvee in Iraq, Lowy's images capture fragments of daily life giving an insight into a world where war and violence is not the only story. 

1- 17 May
aMBUSH Gallery
Level 3, Central Park,
28 Broadway,
Chippendale

1in20 - curated by Marvi Lacar 

1in20 is a project US photographer Marvi Lacar began last year with her husband photojournalist Ben Lowy; a mental health initiative born of her own journey with acute clinical depression. 

1in20 is aimed at educating and destigmatising mental illness through creative storytelling and the exhibition consist of a series of Instagram posts, complete with captions and reader comments. Contributions are from those who have dealt with the gamut of human experiences from depression and suicide to sexual abuse, PTSD and the loss of a child. Adding an interactive element, visitors to the exhibition are invited to add their own comments to the prints. 

Cara Anna

Echosight

Erin Mencher

Maurice Decaul

Kerry Payne

1-10 May
Sydney Lower Town Hall
Head On Festival Hub
483 George Street
Sydney

The Driest Seasons: California's Dust Bowl 

- Michael Robinson Chavez 

California is in the grip of crippling drought. In the Central Valley, which is home to an agriculture industry worth billions towns have run out of water and farms have been abandoned as fields lay parched. Chavez’ series, shot over 12 months, examines the effect that this historic drought is having on the people who work the fields and run the farms. 

Until 31 May
Customs House (level 2)
31 Alfred St
Circular Quay

In Brief:

Alessandro Penso - Lost Generation

at Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Naoto Ijichi

Tokyo Gardens 

at The Japan Foundation Gallery 

Sebastian Liste - The New Culture of Violence in Latin America presented by the Alexia Foundation at The Hub 

VII Photo – Smile
at The Hub


(C) Alexandra Boulat

(C) Ashley Gilbertson

(C) Franco Pagetti

(C) Gary Knight

Jonathan May - Desert Ink 

at GAFFA 

Gohaf Dashti – Iran 

at ACP

Head On Featured Exhibitions - to find our more see the website here

Head On Photo Festival

1-31 May

Sydney - various venues

Friday Round Up - 27th February, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up new exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, a big shout out to Daniel Berehulak and his win in POYi Awards and Alexia Foundation announces its 2015 grant winners. Also 2015 Head On Photo Festival extends the closing date for award entries until 8 March.


Exhibitions:
Melbourne

Peter Milne -Juvenilia

 

Boys Next Door first photo session after Rowland joined, Nick’s bedroom, Caulfield, c1978
For those who lived it and for those who wished they had, Peter Milne’s Juvenilia celebrates many of the artists who were part of the vibrant, zany and ridiculously creative alternative music scene in Melbourne from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.

“Warm, intimate, surprising and already displaying the great compositional skills, originality and humour for which Milne is known, these images offer an unprecedented peep… at a milieu of people who went on to play pivotal roles in Melbourne’s burgeoning cultural scene,” says co-curator Linsey Gosper of Strange Neighbour Gallery. 

Anita Lane


Rowland S Howard and Genevieve McGuckin, St Kilda rooftop, 1977 

Polly Borland


Rowland S Howard

Milne’s black and white images portray the intimacy that only comes with the trust of friendship. Photographs in this exhibition include early shots of Nick Cave’s band Boys Next Door, hanging out in Cave’s bedroom at his parents house. There are also a number of images of the late Rowland S. Howard, along with Mick Harvey, Polly Borland, Tony Clark, Anita Lane and Blixa Bargeld amongst others.

27 February to March 28
Q&A with journalist Michael Dwyer and Peter Milne
Thursday 5 March, 5.30 - 8pm.

Strange Neighbour
395 Gore Street
Fitzroy

(C) All photos Peter Milne

Michael Williams - Chromophobia 

“Since the early 1980s I have been fixated with the dynamic and often intrusive presence of colour within public and personal environments,” says Australian photographer Michael Williams who uses flash to “isolate elements, accentuate colour and forge a direct momentary relationship with my subjects”. 

Colour Factory Gallery

March 5-28
409-429 Gore St
Fitzroy

(C) All images Michael Williams

Sydney
Bookmarked - Stills Gallery

Diedre Brollo

Celebrating the photobook in all its forms, Bookmarked features everything from hand made books to slick, offset publications from a diverse group of artists including Diedre Brollo / Danny Digby / Stephen Dupont / Anne Ferran / Chris Fortescue / Nicholas Jones / Sarah McConnell / Trent Parke / Louis Porter / Madeleine Preston / Kurt Schranzer/ Teo Treloar as well as a selection of books from the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive. 

Danny Digby

Nicholas Jones

Trent Parke

Exhibition: 4-28 March

Stills Photobook Fair - Saturday 7 March, 11am to 5pm

Artist Talk with Stephen Dupont Saturday 7 March, 3pm

Stills Gallery
36 Gosbell Street 

Paddington

Congratulations:

Daniel Berehulak wins Photographer of the Year, again!

Daniel Berehulak/ Getty Images Reportage

This week the POYi Awards were announced and Australian freelance photojournalist Daniel Berehulak took out top honours (again) this time for the amazing work he did on the Ebola outbreak. Daniel is one of the most inspiring, hard working and compassionate photographers I know. Absolutely thrilled that he has been recognised for this important body of work. I'm interviewing Daniel about his POYi win, so look out for my story in the coming weeks.  

Alexia Foundation 

2015 Grant Recipients Announced

Paolo Marchetti - The Price of Vanity - Professional Grant

Italy, Milan in September 2014, caiman skins exposed during the most important showroom in the world, called "LINEAPELLE." Thousands of workers are coming to this event from all over the world. Paolo Marchetti

Poland, Village of "Biala Wies" close to Grodzisk Wlkp. Here inside the company “Nutrex” one of the most important intensive breeding of minks in all Poland. Here the conveyor belt where the mink are transported from one building to another. In the background the bodies without mantles are stacked in a large container, after being processed. Paolo Marchett

Italian freelance photojournalist Paolo Marchetti is this year’s recipient of the 2015 Professional Grant from the Alexia Foundation. He will receive $20,000 to pursue his long-term project, The Price of Vanity, an exploration into the brutal world of intensive breeding farms that are used to produce skins and furs for the high-end fashion industry. Paolo, who is incredibly passionate about this project, was stunned with the news of his success. “This is terrific news for me, this is incredible. I am so grateful to the judges,” he said.

This is powerful and important visual storytelling. Next time you are looking to buy an animal skin or fur garment, remember the brutal methods in which these skins are obtained and the horrible ending to these animals' lives. Is it worth it?

Colombia, Puerto Giraldo, two hours from Barranquilla.The puppies are moved to larger tanks and with different characteristics, depending on the size and health emergencies caimans. Here in the photo, some caimans of about 70 cm. inside a tank where it is regularly paid an antibiotic estimate (the blue liquid), to ensure the occurrence of serious infections. Paolo Marchetti

Colombia, Puerto Giraldo, two hours from Barranquilla.Thousands of caiman skins stretched out in the open after the first cleaning process and salting on the farm.The skins of breeding "Repticosta" are intended to Eastern Market, the skins will be exhibited here in Singapore within 20 days. Paolo Marchetti

Michael Santiago - Stolen Land, Stolen Future - Student Grant

The recipient of the 2015 Student Grant is Michael Santiago for his project Stolen Land, Stolen Future. The grant will further his documentation of the lives of African-American farmers who have fought to acquire and maintain land across the USA, despite facing extreme difficulties. Michael will receive full tuition to study at the Syracuse University London Program amongst other prizes. 

Farmer James McGill’s Duroc and Bluebutt show pigs need to have daily exercise to keep their physique looking strong so they will please the judges at the annual Kern County Fair. Michael Santiago