Friday Round Up - 23 January, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up Chobi Mela opens in Bangladesh, two historic exhibitions in Melbourne, the winning entries in Getty #RePicture and Alexia Sinclair's new work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Festival:
Chobi Mela - Bangladesh

The 8th installation of Chobi Mela, Asia’s first and largest photography festival, opens today in Dhaka, Bangladesh and runs until 5th February. This year’s programme, with the theme of “Intimacy,” features more than 30 photographers from 22 countries. 

(C) Denis Dailleux

(C) Jana Romanova


(C) Jannatul Mawa

(C) Malcolm Hutcheson

(C) Max Pinckers

(C) Nepal Picture Library

An initiative by Drik Picture Library and supported by the South Asian Media Institute, Chobi Mela combines “big name” artists with lesser known and emerging, presenting a comprehensive selection of exhibitions, talks and workshops.

A key feature of Chobi Mela is the exhibitions that are mounted on rickshaw vans, which travel around Dhaka City literally taking photography to the masses.

Festival Director, Shahidul Alam, who is also founder of Drik and a renowned photographer in his own right, says, “It is time Bangladesh began to take pride in itself. We are now a role model in the world of photography. The world is looking up at Bangladesh. The nation needs to respond”. 

(C) Paolo Patrizi

(C) Yusuf Sevincli

(C) Abdollah Heidari

(C) Anwar Hossain

This year’s festival is curated by Munem Wasif, ASM Rezaur Rahman and Tanzim Wahab with guest curators Salauddin Ahmed and Mahbubur Rahman.

Until 5th February
Various venues and locations
For more information visit the Chobi Mela website

Exhibitions: Melbourne

Bohemian Melbourne

Liz Ham, Vali Myers in her studio in the Nicholas Building, 1997

Bohemian Melbourne shines a light on the city's cultural bohemians from 1860 to today, tracing individuals who have pushed against convention in their lives and art, from Marcus Clarke, Albert Tucker and Mirka Mora to Barry Humphries, Vali Myers and Nick Cave. The exhibition, which is currently on at the State Library of Victoria, features photographs, artworks, books including artists' journals and multimedia presentations. Well worth the visit. 

Mirka Mora in her studio, 1978 © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive

Nick Cave, 1973 (C) Ashley Mackevicius & National Portrait Gallery 

(C) Albert Tucker, Self-portrait with Joy Hester, 1939

Bohemian Melbourne
State Library of Victoria
Swanston Street, Melbourne
Until 22 February

Dreams and Imagination: 

Light in the Modern City

(C) Mark Strizic - 1967 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

In "Dreams and Imagination: Light in the Modern City" curator Melissa Miles has selected a diverse range of artists and images through which to explore what she terms “the myths that surround light in the history of Australian photography”.

Miles, who is an Associate Professor at Monash University, has come to this exhibition through her larger research project into Australian light and photography. In ‘Dreams and Imagination’ it is the urban space and how photographers have responded to the changing modernist city, which draws Miles’ focus. Artists include Max Dupain, Mark Strizic, Olive Cotton, Arthur Dickinson, David Moore and Harold Cazneaux with works dating from 1920s through to 1971. Many of these images are important documents in the visual history of Australia and it is rare to have the opportunity to inspect these treasures at leisure.

(C) Mark Strizic

(C) Max Dupain

(C) David Moore

Dreams and Imagination: Light in the Modern City
Monash Gallery of Art
860 Ferntree Gully Road
Wheelers Hill
Until 1 March

Competition Winners:

Getty #RePicture

Australian photographer Ben McRae has taken out second place in Getty Images inaugural #RePicture competition for his image #RePictureFamily. McRae was one of more than 2500 photographers from 85 countries who entered the global competition that is premised on "challenging how we look at the world and exploring how we can change the paradigm around stereotypical imagery currently used to describe people and communicate concepts". US photographer Braden Summers took out the top prize for his image "All Love is Equal" (see below).

(C) Ben McRae

(C) Braden Summers

To see more visit the #RePicture site here

New Work:

Alexia Sinclair - Art of Saving a Life



Australian photo-media artist Alexia Sinclair is known for her penchant for historical figures so it comes as no surprise that her latest artwork for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s project Art of Saving a Life, is situated in 1796. In this work Alexia celebrates the invention of the first smallpox vaccine discovered by Dr. Edward Jenner. You can see the behind-the-scenes video here and watch how Alexia painstakingly creates this image right down to growing the flowers she needed! 

Friday Round Up - 12th September, 2014

This week on Friday Round Up the festival season continues with Unseen Amsterdam Photo Fair opening next Thursday. Read Alison Stieven-Taylor's interview with Fair General Manager Sasha Stone about the new developments for 2014. Also this week new exhibitions for Melbourne and Sydney and the first exhibition in Australia of Don McCullin's work opens soon.

Fair:
Unseen Amsterdam

Last year while I was in Amsterdam, I interviewed Sasha Stone the General Manager of Unseen Amsterdam Photo Fair (pictured below). Now in its third year, Unseen is dedicated to showcasing new and emerging photographers alongside more established artists. With the emphasis on new and “unseen” works, this year more than 60 photographic artists will show work never before shown anywhere, including online.

Photography is a space that is constantly evolving. As a photography commentator, and scholar, I believe Unseen is one of the industry events that acts as a barometer for contemporary photography and as such, it is as much an example of what’s happening now, as it is a prediction of what’s to come...(Read the full interview under Feature Articles at the top of the blog).

Exhibitions: Melbourne

Robert Ashton – Into the Hollow Mountains
A Portrait of Fitzroy 1974

I saw this exhibition last week. There is something nostalgic about this series of photographs that make them more than just a record of the time. Perhaps it is the familiarity of this suburb; Fitzroy is an iconic inner Melbourne enclave and its rich history maps the migration of Melbourne – here blue-collar workers, indigenous Australians, migrants and artists converged. Yet there was still a sense of community within such diversity. People said hello on the streets or nodded their head in greeting. There was time to stop for a chat at the Milk Bar. Neighbours knew each other by name and if they didn't "mate" or "luv" sufficed. Pubs like the Builders Arms and Champion Hotel were local watering holes and there were always stories to be told.

There is one photograph that epitomises, for me, what Fitzroy was like back then; the Greek women sitting outside a house on kitchen chairs surveying the street (above). This image took me back to the days when I rented a house in the area. Even though it was the mid-80s, every afternoon I would see my elderly migrant neighbours out on the footpath with their chairs and radios. It always gave me a sense of being part of a village, rather than living as an addendum to a big city. They were the neighbourhood watch; nothing got past them. And they were always happy to give the "girlie" a toothless grin and offer me a seat or a pickled onion!

The ability to induce personal reactions, to make us think of times gone by, to wander the streets of inner Melbourne before there were mobile phones, gridlocked traffic, and gentrified homes, this is the power of Ashton’s images. “Into the Hollow Mountains” is a really wonderful exhibition, one that will resonate with all, regardless of whether you have personal knowledge of Fitzroy or not. For it is in the spirit of humanity that this story is told. 

All images (C) Robert Ashton

Until 27 September
Colour Factory
409-429 Gore St


Fitzroy

Tom Evangelidis – Façade

In contrast to Ashton's black and white images are Sydney photographer Tom Evangelidis' dramatic exhibition of large format photographs that features iconic architecture from some of the world’s most visually stunning cities including Prague. Hanoi, St Petersburg, Sofia, Istanbul and Havana.

Havana

St. Petersburg


Moscow

Shot over a ten-year period, Evangelidis says his large format photographs “are not romantic, stylised commercial representations of architecture but rather community streetscapes complete with the aberrations and flaws travel photography would typically avoid”.

There is also a beautiful high-end photography book of the same name available.

Until 27 September
Edmund Pearce Gallery
Level 2, Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Melbourne

Exhibitions in Brief: 

Melbourne:
Unsensored 14 - Group Show
Collingwood Gallery
292 Smith Street
Collingwood

Sydney:

Miki Nobu Komatsu – Light Moods South
Until 27 September
Stanley Street Gallery
1/52-54 Stanley Street
Darlinghurst

David Manley - Ambivalent Structures
Until 28 September
Black Eye Gallery
3/138 Darlinghurst Road
Darlinghurst

Exhibition: For Your Diary

Don McCullin – The Impossible Peace
State Library of NSW
Opening 27 September

Friday Round Up - 20 June, 2014

This week on Friday Round Up last chance to see two fantastic exhibitions in Sydney, World Refugee Day in Melbourne and a new exhibition at Monash Gallery of Art explores the notion of 'the road'.

Exhibitions: State Library NSW
Ends 22 June

(C) Phillipe Lopez - World Press Photo 2014

This weekend is your last chance to see two exhibitions currently showing at the State Library of NSW in Sydney - World Press Photo and Sydney Morning Herald Photos 1440.

I saw both of these exhibitions at the State Library, which is a brilliant setting for these large scale shows. Viewing the works with me were high-school students who had the opportunity to learn about the images and their makers, as well as a large cross-section of the general public. While I was there  a steady stream of people moved through the exhibitions, and many left via the bookshop. Clearly there is a market and an audience for quality photography in this country and it was heartening to see such attendance.

Sydney Morning Herald Photos 1440 

(C) Nick Moir

With 1440 minutes to the day this exhibition presents photographs taken by Sydney Morning Herald photographers in the course of their daily jobs. When this show went up all of the exhibiting photographers were in the employ of Fairfax Media, the Herald's publisher. With the recent decimation of the photography department at the Herald, these former staffers are now swimming in the overcrowded freelance pool while the Herald takes its images from agencies. More cost-cutting measures marking the continued demise of original, quality content made even more depressing by the exhibition's narrative that reinforced the important work that these photographers do in capturing unique views of Sydney and its people. 

(C) Anthony Johnson 

(C) Jenny Evans

(C) Kate Geraghty 

World Press Photo 2014
I really admire the way the World Press Photo (WPP) exhibitions are presented. With clear information panels that support the large scale images the WPP is all encompassing. Having viewed many of these winning images on screen it was fantastic to see them in reality and to gain an understanding of scope. John Stanmeyer's winning photograph (below) was even more impressive in print. While this photograph has attracted controversy, for me it speaks volumes about the world today, our reliance on technology and above all, our will to hope. 

(C) John Stanmeyer


(C) Alessandro Penso


(C) Julius Schrank

Until Sunday 22nd June
State Library of NSW
Sydney

Screening:
Beyond Borders
MAPgroup 

(C)Silvi Glattauer

On Sunday at 12noon on the Big Screen at Federation Square the film 'Beyond Borders' will be aired as part of the activities to celebrate World Refugee Day. 'Beyond Borders' is a collaborative project with refugees and asylum seekers and members of the MAPgroup; MAP stands for Many Australian Photographers. 

“Beyond Borders presents an alternative view around some of the issues relating to asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. The topic of asylum seekers and refugees dissects our community, yet few of us have met, befriended or shared stories with people in the unenviable position of having to seek asylum in another country. If we believe Australia is the sum of all her parts, we as citizens all benefit from knowing more about this topic and about the people in this position" - MAPgroup. 

(C) Ponch Hawkes

(C) Naomi Herzog

(C) Joseph Feil

(C) Joyce Evans

(C) Juanita Wilson

(C)Silvi Glattauer

MAPgroup members involved with the 'Beyond Borders' project include Silvi Glattauer, Julie Bowyer, Tobias Titz, Ponch Hawkes, Morganna Magee, Nicole Marie, Joseph Feil, Andrew Chapman, Naomi Herzog, Jenny Hodge, Jim McFarlane, Helga Leunig, Juanita Wilson, Julia Millowick and Joyce Evans.

World Refugee Day
Sunday 22nd June
Beyond Borders screens 12noon
Federation Square
Melbourne

Exhibition:
The Road - Group Show

(C) Micky Allan

The ‘road’ has long been the subject of artistic expression, a symbol of the physical and allegorical paths we follow. In this group exhibition featuring eight artists - Micky Allan, Virginia Coventry, Gerrit Fokkema, John Gollings, Tim Handfield, Ian North, Robert Rooney, Wes Stacey - the archives of the Monash Gallery of Art have been mined to uncover works taken in the 1970s and 1980s. These photographs examine the meaning of the road in modern Australian life through the exploration of the relationship of photography and the experience of road travel.

MGA Curator Stephen Zagala says, "The road has often provided Australian photographers with a means to an end, whether a landscape or a picturesque community in some distant part of the country. But as this important exhibition shows, during the 1970s, the road took on a whole new meaning for Australian photographers. It provided a space for innovation and experimentation, and also a photographic reconsideration of Australian life."

(C) Wesley Stacey


(C) Tim Handfield

The exhibition features Wes Stacey's visual travelogue of the trips he made in the early seventies around Australia in a Kombi. "The Road" also includes John Gollings’s monumental, ten-metre long streetscapes of Surfers Paradise Boulevard from 1973, and Robert Rooney’s iconic Holden park, featuring Rooney's Holden parked in 20 different locations across Melbourne. "The Road" also features work by "two of Australia’s most important feminist photographers, Micky Allan and Virginia Coventry, who both challenged many of the gendered assumptions about the road, automotive travel and Australian life during the ‘70s and ‘80s".

Opens Saturday 21st June at 3pm

Until 31 August
Monash Gallery of Art
860 Ferntree Gully Rd, Wheelers Hill
(Melbourne)