Photojournalism Now

December 06, 2013

Friday Round Up - 6 December

This week on Friday Round Up Edward Steichen on show in Melbourne and Antanas Sutkus in Paris, Yellow Korner Sydney, Ormond Gigli's Girls in the Windows book and an update from A Day Without News?

Exhibition:
Edward Steichen and Art Deco Fashion

In the exhibition “Edward Steichen and Art Deco Fashion” more than 200 original vintage photographs are showcased with various Art Deco fashion items from the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) collection. Edward Steichen was the primary photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue in the 1920s and 1930s and is said to have “transformed fashion photography to capture the sophistication of the newly liberated modern woman”.

All images courtesy Condé Nast Archive

Tony Ellwood, Director NGV said, “Steichen’s evocative images are regarded as among the most striking in early-to-mid-20th century photography and his fashion work in particular revolutionised the genre of fashion photography. This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to view such a large body of his work”. If you are a fan of Steichen's work, as am I, then this exhibition is a wonderful tribute to a true pioneer.

Until 2 March 2014
National Gallery of Victoria
St. Kilda Road
Melbourne

Exhibition: Paris
Antanas Sutkus - The Unpublished
The Russiantearoom Gallery (RTR) presents the world premiere of “Antanas Sutkus – The Unpublished”, an exhibition that features 35 photographs from the expansive archive of one of Russia’s most prolific and highly regarded photographers.

Throughout a career that has spanned decades Sutkus has turned his camera to the ordinary as well as the extraordinary. Sutkus’ archives contain more than half a million negatives and evoke humanity in all its guises. "I started taking pictures at the age of 13. When I put the paper in the developer for the first time, I saw a face appearing and I felt I was God,” says Sutkus.

He likens taking a photograph to sifting sand for gold. “You take a spade and shovel until you are completely exhausted…Sometimes you find a grain of gold in the first shovel, sometimes in the last. Sometimes all your efforts are in vain”.

All images (C) Antanas Sutkus

Curated by RTR’s Liza Fetissova, "Antanas Sutkus – The Unpublished” delivers a unique opportunity to discover a master at work.

6 December to 26 February 2014
RTR
42 rue Volta
75003 Paris

Gallery:
YellowKorner Sydney
In 2006 Alexandre de Metz and Paul-Antoine Briat, self confessed photography devotees, began YellowKorner with the objective of taking great photography to a wider audience by offering photographic prints at affordable prices.

Since their first gallery began in Paris the pair has rolled out the concept to more than 60 locations including Sydney’s Bondi Junction. YellowKorner carry photographs from iconic photographers such as Man Ray and Dorothea Lange through to new talent. They also publish portfolios and carry limited edition high-end prints and books. You can buy prints in the gallery or online.

YellowKorner Sydney
Shop 5026, Level 5
Railway Station Bondi Junction

Book:
Girls in the Windows and Other Stories

In a career that spanned more than 40 years American photographer Ormond Gigli shot thousands of images and was widely published in titles such as Life, Paris Match, Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post and Time. But the photograph for which he is remembered is “Girls in the Windows” an extraordinary image that has stood the test of time to become an iconic image of New York in the 1960s.

The large Brownstone building which features in the photograph was opposite Gigli’s home in New York. When he learned that the building was slated for demolition he decided to photograph it before the wrecking balls swept it aside in the name of progress. He was given permission on the proviso that the wife of the demolition supervisor could be in the photograph. He had 24 hours to organize the women and his props and one hour to shoot.

Gigli began his career in 1941 working as a photographic assistant in New York. He was 17 years old. When America entered the Second World War Gigli joined the Navy as a photographer. By the time 1950 rolled around “I was living the life of a starving artist in Paris…and it was a beautiful place to be,” he said. But it wasn’t long before he was shooting for Life magazine and from then his career took off.

Recounting his first meeting with Life in Paris Gigli said the editor asked him, “If I give you an assignment, will you give me what I ask for? I said yes, as long as I could inject my own thoughts into the picture”. “Girls in the Windows and Other Stories” is proof that Gigli never compromised on his unique visual signature.

Of his most enduring image Gigli said in an interview earlier this year, “I have a big print of it up on my wall. I still smile whenever I look at it, even after all these years”.

Published by powerHouse Books New York
All images: From Girls in the Windows: And Other Stories by Ormond Gigli, published by powerHouse Books.

A Day Without News? – Update

Less than twelve months after the campaign, A Day Without News? (ADWN) was launched on the anniversary of the death of Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik in Syria (22 February 2012) the team reports another fantastic achievement.

Here’s a missive from ADWN’s Aidan Sullivan, Vice President Photo Assignment, Editorial Partnerships and Development Getty Images:

“Since we launched the A Day Without News? campaign in February this year, we have been instrumental in achieving two important goals.

On 26 November the UN General assembly adopted resolution on journalists’ safety. This is a significant and important step towards ending impunity and follows on from an earlier success this summer.

As a result of our meetings with both the UK and US UN Security Council missions urging them, during their respective presidencies of the council, to adopt a motion to discuss the protection of journalists and debate the strengthening of resolution 1738, the UN Security Council held an open debate on the protection of journalists on July 17, 2013. A Security Council Report stated:

This was the first time the Council considered this issue in a separate meeting since the adoption of resolution 1738 on the protection of journalists on 23 December 2006. . . A key issue for the Council is whether further steps can be taken to enhance implementation of resolution 1738 and improve protection of journalists on the ground. . .

‘It appears that the idea of having a meeting on the protection of journalists initially came from the UK. For practical reasons it preferred not to schedule such a meeting during its own presidency in June and therefore proposed it for July instead.’

We are proud to have played a part under the guidance of Sir Daniel Bethlehem and to help The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch in their continuing efforts.

And the new Resolution as of 26th November -

UN General Assembly adopts resolution on journalists’ safety.

The General Assembly resolution condemns all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers in both conflict and non-conflict situations and underlines the important role played by all news providers by stating that “journalism is continuously evolving to include inputs from media institutions, private individuals and a range of organizations that seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, online as well as offline.”

It also underlines states’ obligations to prevent violence and to bring perpetrators to justice, by urging “Member States to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists and media workers, to ensure accountability through the conduct of impartial, speedy and effective investigations into all alleged violence against journalists and media workers’ falling within their jurisdiction, and to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice and to ensure that victims have access to appropriate remedies.”

Finally, it “invites the relevant agencies, organizations, funds and programmes of the United Nations system to consider identifying focal points for the exchange of information about the implementation of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, in cooperation with Member States under the overall coordination of UNESCO.”

To find out more about ADWN? Visit the website here.

November 29, 2013

Friday Round Up - 29 November

This week on Friday Round Up Sean Gallagher heads to India, three new exhibitions for Melbourne - Bill Henson, Guy Vinciguerra and Melbourne Now, Alison Stieven-Taylor's feature interview with Barat Ali Batoor this year's winner of the Nikon-Walkley Photo of the Year Award and more.

Photo Project:
Sean Gallagher - Toxic Development: Pollution in India

Sean Gallagher is one of the most respected photojournalists covering environmental issues today. He’s embarked on a new project with the aid of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to document the effects of pollution in India from both an environmental and social perspective.

In my opinion toxic waste, and particularly e-waste, is one of the greatest threats we face in the Digital Age and Gallagher’s unique visual insight and his erudition bring focus to this grossly under-reported issue. You can follow his work at Project Live – India!

Exhibition:
Guy Vinciguerra – Metropolis

I first came across Italian-born photographer Guy Vinciguerra’s work at this year’s Ballarat International Foto Biennale with his exhibition of photographs shot in China, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as part of his ten year exploration of the Silk Road.

In his new exhibition opening at the Colour Factory next week Vinciguerra presents a series of monochrome images of Tokyo and its inhabitants in the series “Metropolis”. Of this series he says he wanted to “draw attention to the restraints that are imposed on us, those we impose on ourselves and the universal absurdity of life”.

(C) All photos Guy Vinciguerra

Metropolis
5 December 2013 to 25 January 2014
Colour Factory Gallery
409-429 Gore Street
Fitzroy (Melbourne)

Exhibition:
Bill Henson – Untitled 1985/86

Currently on show at Tolarno Galleries in Melbourne is a selection of works by renowned Australian photographic artist Bill Henson. These photographs feature both portraits and landscapes and give an insight into the breadth of his oeuvre and his talent to create photographs that are like painterly still lifes. This is a rare opportunity to see the works of one of our truly great artists in his hometown.

Bill Henson
Untitled 1985/86
Until 14 December 2013
Tolarno Galleries
Level 4 104 Exhibition St
Melbourne

Award:
Barat Ali Batoor – Walkley Award Winner

Earlier this year I interviewed a young Afghan photojournalist about his extraordinary photo essay – the Unseen Road to Asylum – which documented his flight from Indonesia to Australia on board a boat that sank at sea. Last night in Brisbane (Australia), Barat Ali Batoor, who is now settled in Australia, accepted the inaugural award for Photo of the Year and Feature/Photographic Essay in the 2013 Nikon-Walkley Awards for Excellence in Photojournalism. Congratulations! To read my feature interview with Batoor, please click on the Feature Articles tab at the top of this blog.

Photo Essay:
Denis Sinyakov – The Changing Face of Russia

Photographer Denis Sinyakov’s photo essay – The Changing Face of Russia - shows a country unsuccessfully grappling with the influx of low paid labour from Central Asia and a declining “native” population. Many new residents are illegal migrants who have fled from their homelands of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan where there is a high rate of unemployment and the economic outlook dismal. Sinyakov says these immigrants are “despised by most natives” creating a volatile atmosphere in a country that is still reeling from the collapse of the Soviet empire and the economic fissure that continues to divide the country.

Sinyakov was one of 30 people arrested in September at the Greenpeace protest on Artic oil drilling. He was released from jail in St. Petersburg on 21 November.

Sinyakov released from jail

Exhibition:
Melbourne Now

More than 400 artists and over 250 artworks, installations and photographs comprise a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria - Melbourne Now – which is on until March 2014.

Reportedly curated to reflect the “complexity of Melbourne and its unique and dynamic cultural identity” Melbourne Now presents a diverse range of creative pursuits, but I have to say I am somewhat disappointed that the photographic line up features what could be termed “the usual suspects” and there is nothing very “new” or "now" about the content. From a curatorial perspective the net could have been thrown wider to encompass cutting edge concepts, experimental works and photographic art being created by lesser known artists.

Melbourne Now
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and NGV International

Until 23 March 2014
Free Entry

November 22, 2013

Friday Round Up - 22 November

This week on Friday Round Up Melinda Gibson talks about photobooks, Peter McConchie releases Fire and the Story of Burning Country, Angkor Photo Festival's 9th Edition, Cross Projections in Sydney, FotoEvidence calls for submissions and more.

Book:
Peter McConchie – Fire and the Story of Burning Country

Australia is a continent beset by climate extremes. In summer our cities, which are fringed by dense bushland, become tinderboxes. As the scrub dries out the fire season begins and residents in heavily treed areas live with the constant fear of bush fires.

Each year we wait for the next bush fire disaster. In February 2009 Black Saturday took the lives of 173 people in the state of Victoria. Last month in New South Wales bush fires ripped through the Blue Mountains destroying numerous homes.

But while fire is met with fear in modern society, Australia’s indigenous people have lived in harmony with fire and used it to manage the land for millennia. The use of fire in this vein is the central focus of a new book “Fire and the Story of Burning Country” by photographer and author Peter McConchie.

In Fire and the Story of Burning Country McConchie aims to dispel the myth that fire is to be feared and is only destructive. Through stories told by the indigenous elders and community leaders of Cape York in Australia’s far north, McConchie presents a unique view that shows how fire can be used to the benefit of the land and its people.

Dr. Don Hankins, a specialist in fire ecology/pyrogeography, Indigenous land management practices and conservation of Indigenous cultural practices supports this theory stating, “Where Indigenous fire is applied to the landscape it yields a mosaic of positive outcomes from resilience to growth. Where Indigenous fires have been removed from the landscape devastating bushfires are more common, as are their impacts on people and whole communities”.

McConchie has a long history of working with Australia’s indigenous population with the intent of not only documenting their unique culture, but of taking their story to a wider audience. It is through the exchange of knowledge that we will create greater understanding of how one of the oldest cultures in the world has survived in one of the harshest continents. Fire and the Story of Burning Country is a welcome addition to that body of knowledge.

Published by Cyclops Press

To purchase the book click here

Talking Photobooks:
Melinda Gibson

Last night at Edmund Pearce Gallery in Melbourne UK photographic artist Melinda Gibson spoke about the evolution of the photobook. Gibson has published two books, which have received wide acclaim – The Photograph as Contemporary Art, a deconstruction and reimagining in photomontage of Charlotte Cotton’s 2009 book of the same name, and her latest Miss Titus Becomes A Regular Army Mac released at this year’s Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam.

L-R: Daniel Boetker-Smith from the Asia Pacific Photobook Archive (the hosts of the talk), Dan Rule, Melinda Gibson and Heidi Romano.

In a discussion led by writer and bookshop owner Dan Rule, and photographic artist Heidi Romano, Gibson spoke to a small, but dedicated audience about opportunities that self-publication have delivered the photo-artist. Gibson talked of performative qualities, limited editions and handmade creations. She said that inviting the reader to engage with the book, whether through the requirement to cut open pages, unwrap covers or reassemble content, takes the photobook beyond the bookshelf or the coffee table. It is in this space that the photobook itself become the piece of art.

Gibson, who was one of the jurors at the Unseen Photo Fair photobook awards this year, says the democratisation of photobooks has resulted in more photobooks being published than ever. “Everyone can make a book, but because of that there is a lot of rubbish out there,” says Gibson. “Photographers need to think about the best context for their work and it isn’t always a book. Narrative and editing are critical to making a photobook that works. You really need to think about the book and what you want to do because books last forever and if it’s shit….” well you get the idea.

Visit Melinda's blog here

Award:
2014 FotoEvidence Book Award – Open Now
Applications are now open for the 2014 FotoEvidence Book Award. This year the jurors are Ed Kashi, Marcel Saba, Mikko Takkunen, Regina Monfort and Svetlana Bachevanova.

The 2013 FotoEvidence Book Award winner was Robin Hammond for his work, Condemned, which exposes the atrocious conditions that those with mental health illnesses in Africa suffer.

Robin Hammond

From the FotoEvidence website:

"The annual FotoEvidence Book Award will recognize a documentary photographer whose project demonstrates courage and commitment in addressing a violation of human rights, a significant injustice or an assault on human dignity. The selected project will be published in a book, as part of a series of FotoEvidence books dedicated to the work of photographers whose commitment and courage create an awareness of social injustice.

The Book Award winner and up to four other selected finalists will be exhibited on the FotoEvidence web site and at a gallery exhibition in New York City during the fall of 2014.

FotoEvidence is founded to continue the tradition of using photography to draw attention to human rights violations, injustice, oppression and assaults on sovereignty or human dignity wherever they may occur.”

Applications close 15 January, 2014. For more information click here

Festival:
Angkor Photo Festival

Now in it’s 9th Edition Angkor Photo Festival is the longest running event of its kind in Asia. This year the Festival attracted more than 1000 submissions from 75 countries. Curated by Françoise Callier, Program Coordinator, this year’s program features more than 130 photographers, the majority of which are from Asia. Exhibitions are mounted indoors and outdoors in venues throughout the city and there is an evening projections program also.

(C) Vlad Sokhin Restavek
Each year two of the evening projections are in the hands of guest curators. The 2013 guest curators are Shahidul Alam, Director of Chobi Mela Bangladesh and Jean-François Leroy, Director of Visa pour l'Image.

Shahidul Alam by Alison Stieven-Taylor

In curating his evening projection program Alam was looking for the “fun” in photography. Entitled ‘Seeking Humour Seriously,’ Alam says “We sit up straight when being photographed. Make sure our hair is looking right. In selecting ‘subjects’ for photography, my students choose from themes ranging from ‘drug addiction’ ‘prostitution’ or ‘child labour’. The more adventurous ones go to war zones. Photography is a serious business. What we photograph are ‘matters of consequence’. We might collectively put up V signs, or smile when being photographed. Even our frivolity is guided by norms of conduct. In our justified attempts to be taken seriously, we place barriers upon our craft, that seriously limit our ability to explore the social space. Once the photography is over, both photographer and subject can get back to being normal. Our imperfect world with all its unpredictability, its serendipity, its quirks and most importantly its humour surrounds us again. We breathe. We let go. We live.

There is another more ‘serious’ aspect to this behavior. Humour, satire and irony are wonderful instruments to not only express mirth, but also to critique, dissect and tease out subtleties of human emotion. Its playfulness allows a proximity that is difficult to achieve otherwise. Being less ‘serious’ it is capable of making statements far more provocative than would be tolerated in conventional spaces. It puts us off guard making us more receptive. Being ‘fun’ gives it a license that can be both powerful and effective. Like the child talking about the emperor’s clothes, the obvious but unstated can be tabled, where otherwise one might stay silent. ‘It was only in jest’ find cracks in our armoury that heavier weaponry would find impenetrable.

In the end it makes us laugh, reflect, perhaps ponder. A worthwhile act in itself” - Shahidul Alam.

In addition to the exhibitions and screenings is the workshop program. This year the professional workshop leaders are Andrea Star Reese, Antoine D’Agata, Kosuke Okahara, Patrick De Noirmont, Sohrab Hura and Suthep Kritsanavarin. They will lead a group of 30 young Asian photographers. There is also the annual “fun-filled” Anjali Children's Workshop for children of Anjali House, an NGO in Siem Reap providing food, shelter and education to under-privileged children.

Angkor Photo Festival
9th Edition
23-30 November
Siem Reap Cambodia

For more information visit the website

Exhibition Competition:
Sophot.com

Sophot.com is a website focused on promoting social documentary photography. The Sophot.com 2014 exhibition contest is now open for submissions. Two winners willb e afforded an exhibition at Fait & Cause Gallery in Paris in June and July next year. For more information visit the website

Screenings:
Cross Projections - Sydney

(C) John Ogden

“Now in its 10th year, Cross Projections is a multi-media, cinematic screening of personal works by photographers. Work practices encompass social documentary and fine art photography, photojournalism, teaching, critique and exhibition.

Cross Projections grew out of the desire of photographers to maintain control over the presentation of their work and to showcase their stories to peers and the wider community. As a group we aim to give voice to unheard stories and promote ethics and social commentary in contemporary photographic culture.” Roslyn Sharp and Amanda James, Cross Projections Producers.