Friday Round Up - 9 August

This week on Friday Round Up Luke Hardy's 'karaoke' opens in Sydney, one week until the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, the final instalment in tIMpAGE Unseen - Cuba, Éditions Bessard’s Zine Collection available online, and essential reading for those interested in the continuing shifts in the print media world. Have a great weekend wherever you are.

Exhibition:

Luke Hardy – karaoke

Photographic artist Luke Hardy has used the definition of the Japanese word karaoke – “empty orchestra” – as a metaphor through which he explores more complex themes of self and identity in his latest exhibition ‘karaoke,’ which opens tomorrow in Sydney at Arthere.

Here the act of singing along to popular tunes in front of strangers in public bars takes on new meaning, moving beyond the simplistic notion of bravado and self-gratification to reveal a world that is also filled with longing and doubt.

Hardy, who began his career as a documentary photographer, has successfully transitioned into the world of photographic art, but in this photo essay his documentary narrative skills are evident as he captures the nuances of those who perhaps use the “empty orchestra” as a soundtrack to their lives. 

Shot in Thailand over the past decade at varying intervals, Hardy’s ‘karaoke’ while not intentionally anthropological certainly has threads that position it in a certain period of time - the desire to be in the spotlight, if only in a dimly lit bar in the middle of the night, reading lyrics from a video screen and singing along to another’s song is a phenomenon that didn’t exist before 1970 when the word ‘karaoke’ was coined.

Hardy’s ‘karaoke’ collection is somewhat conceptually different to his more ethereal and mystical work that draws on “Japanese legends and romantic ghost stories,” but he says these karaoke photographs “nagged at me and so I decided I had to do something with them”.

Harbouring a fascination and love for Japanese culture it is not surprising that Hardy’s first experience of karaoke was in Japan during a visit in the early 2000s. In Japan karaoke is a highly sociable activity, where often the audience sings along, friends encourage each other and there is rowdy applause. In contrast the Thai karaoke scene suggests a more solitary pursuit and it is this theme that sparked Hardy’s imagination.

“I was surprised that there wasn’t the social atmosphere I’d experienced in Japan. In Thailand people wait to sing their song and they don’t respond to others. Sometimes people will sing to empty rooms and often it is to older types of pop songs that used to be popular. They’ll sing with their backs to the room facing the TV screen or sit with a microphone at the bar.” 

In these images Hardy began to see connections with his other photo essays that explore the “idea of becoming something from what you are doing…that threshold between the real and imagined self. I started to wonder about what was going on with someone in their heart and their head, what made them want to go to karaoke, some every night, others to multiple bars in one night”.

He says this collection captures a “state of mind, the vicarious experience of what the song might be about, the experience of being a pop star” all of which feed into the notion of “becoming”.

One of the most poignant aspects of ‘karaoke’ is that Hardy has chosen to also feature photographs that are counterpoints to the public displays of the karaoke singers allowing the viewer to journey with a subject as he travels home and falls asleep, wasted, and alone. 

But these images are also at times playful and the use of subtitles written across the photograph in both Thai and English evoke a sense of irreverence and toy with the banality of the lyrics of popular love songs. Also Hardy’s “rhyming colour schemes where some images are biased towards purple and violet, and others blue or green or red” come together as visual verses and choruses that like their musical counterparts, tell a story.

Luke Hardy’s exhibition “karaoke” opens tomorrow at Arthere in Sydney’s Redfern. 

All images (C) Luke Hardy

Karaoke
Opening event: Saturday 10 August 2-5pm
Showing until 17 August
Arthere
126 Regent St, Redfern (Sydney)
Wed - Sat 12-5pm or by appointment


Links: 

Arthere

Luke Hardy

Festival:
Ballarat International Foto Biennale - One Week To Go

If you are heading down to Ballarat for next weekend's opening of the 5th instalment of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, put these two events in your diary:

John Cato Retrospective and Book Launch 
Saturday 17th August
3pm-5pm
Mining Exchange, 12 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat 

Check out Alison Stieven-Taylor’s interview with filmmaker Paul Cox, co-curator for the John Cato Retrospective, in tomorrow’s Weekend Australian Magazine (10 August). 

Paul Cox portrait by Marty Williams 2013

BIFB’13 Official Launch Party
Saturday 17 August
6:30pm
Mining Exchange
All welcome, free entry

For more information please visit the website here

More tIMpAGE Unseen – the Final Cuban Instalment

(C) Tim Page - Cuba

To view the final instalment of Tim Page's unpublished work from Cuba please click on the Tim Page link at the top of this blog. And stay tuned for more images to come...

Self-Published and Limited Editions Online 

AnzenbergerGallery, in Vienna, has launched an online bookshop, which stocks rare, self-published, signed and limited edition photography books. The site features Éditions Bessard’s Zine Collection, which includes works by Australian Max Pam. Check it out here

Worth reading:
Shifts Continue in the Print Media Market
The continuing upheaval in the print media market affects both textural journalists and photojournalists. In the past week three major titles have changed hands – Newsweek, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe with the owners of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times planning to split the company. Check out the links below for more information.

Washington Post Sold
New York Times Sells Boston Globe 
Newsweek Sold to IBT Media 
Tribune to Split into Two Companies

Enjoy the weekend. 

Friday Round Up - 2 August

This week on Friday Round Up a selection of exhibitions on show at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Tim Hetherington's Infidel on show in Amsterdam, the "quest" is on to find Australia's ten most iconic photographs, plus vital reading for street photographers, and the inspirational Giles Duley. Have a great weekend wherever you are.

Festival:

Ballarat International Foto Biennale
Opens 17th August

It’s only two weeks until the 2013 Festival opens in Ballarat, an hour’s drive from Melbourne. There are around 5000 photographs on show this year, and the vast majority of exhibitions are in walking distance of the Mining Exchange where a number of the core programme exhibitions will held.

There are 21 artists, local and internationals, in the BIFB Core Programme – here’s a peek at three:

Elisabeth Zeilon – Sweden
Passion Paris “I had the opportunity to spend a winter in Paris. Walking the gardens every day I was struck by the barren beauty of the frozen yet cultivated landscape. Over time I became curious about their inhabitants. Who were these silent women patiently awaiting? Some of the sculptures became my favorites. Their fate became my source for inspiration” Elisabeth Zeilon. 

Venue: THE MINING EXCHANGE
12 Lydiard Street North 

Guy Vinciguerra - Australia
Silk Road Stories, Pakistan









Venue: BALLARAT TRADES HALL
24 Camp Street

Youngho Kang – South Korea

99 Variations 
Another interesting take on the self portrait by this innovative South Korean photographer. 

Venue: THE MINING EXCHANGE
12 Lydiard Street North 

BIFB 2013 Collection Book
This year you can order a copy of the Festival’s “Collection” book from Blurb. This book features the photographs submitted for the Gala Fundraiser, all 126 of them. Check out the preview here. And visit the Festival's website here for full details.

Exhibition:
Tim Hetherington – Infidel 





If you are in Amsterdam check out the first exhibition of Tim Hetherington’s work to be held in that city. Presented by Foam, the exhibition Infidel comprises both still photographs and videos from Hetherington’s work in Afghanistan. Hetherington was killed in 2011 while working in Libya and the exhibition is testament to one of the world’s most respected photojournalists who gave his all as a visual storyteller.

On show in Amsterdam at Foam until 7 September, 2013 For more information visit the Foam website.
Images courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery New York.

What Would You Nominate as Australia’s Most Iconic Photograph? 

The Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) has launched the “Quest for Australia’s Top Ten Iconic Photos” taken over the last century. That’s a pretty tall order, and I am curious as to what the final list might look like. Melbourne photographer Marty Williams has suggested that the above image - Gears for mining industry, Vickers-Ruwolt, Melbourne 1967 - by German photographer Wolfgang Sievers should make the cut. I definitely agree. Sievers, who migrated to Australia in 1938, was a prominent figure in the Melbourne photography scene. Influenced by the Bauhaus era, Sievers became one of this country’s most noted industrial and architectural photographers and many of his works are held in public and private collections here and overseas. If you have a suggestion for the AIPP’s Quest you can email Paul Curtis here. You’ve got until 10th August.

Great Spirit and Great Idea
Giles Duley – 100 Portraits Before I Die 

Ben Okri by Giles Duley

British photojournalist Giles Duley (above) lost both legs and his left arm in 2011 when he stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device in Afghanistan. While he was in hospital recovering from his horrific injuries he says he challenged himself “with mental exercises. My favourite was thinking of portraits I wished I could do, creating a list of 100 people I most wanted to photograph”. His resolve and his courage are admirable as is the fact that he turned this idea into reality. Pictured above is author Ben Okri, photographed by Giles. Read more of his story on his blog here.

Street Photographers - Warning
French Court Bans Book and Fines Photographer 

A French Court has found photographer Yan Morvan guilty of using an image without the subject’s permission and has ordered Morvan’s book "Gangs Story" above, to be removed from sale. The image in question was shot decades ago, and although the subject is not recognisable, the Court found in the subject’s favour also fining Morvan €5000. This decision impacts all street photographers. You can read more here on the British Journal of Photography.

Friday Round Up - 26 July

This week on Friday Round Up an inspirational photo essay from David Butow "Seeing Buddha," an interview with photographer, filmmaker and publisher John Ogden about his bestselling series Saltwater People and Cuban master Raul Cañibano Ercilla's Retrospective on show in Sydney.

And on a personal note, today I received my University grading on my Honours Masters Thesis "Has the Critical Mirror Shattered - What is the future for professional photojournalism in the digital news age?" - a First Class Honours-High Distinction! I am deeply grateful to all the photojournalists, editors and industry professionals around the world who gave their time to answer my questions. What is the future? You'll have to wait for next year when the book comes out! Have a great weekend wherever you are.

Photo Essay:

David Butow - Seeing Buddha
This insightful, deeply moving photo essay from photojournalist David Butow documents the various Buddhist practices taking us from Bodhgaya in India where Buddha found enlightenment, to Japan, the US and Cambodia amongst other countries. These photographs evoke the sentiments of Buddhism – compassion, love and happiness in all living things. To see more of David’s work please visit his website here. 

(C) David Butow

Exhibition:

Raul Cañibano Ercilla - Retrospective

(C) Raul Cañibano Ercilla

Cuban master of photography Raul Cañibano Ercilla’s retrospective is on exhibition at 10x8 Gallery in Surry Hills Sydney from 31st July. A self-taught photographer, Cañibano has extensively documented his country, Cuba, with particular emphasis on the regional areas and communities in which he grew up. His tribute to Cuban farmers, “Tierra Guajira,” features black-and-white images that encapsulate the intricacies of national identity, and images from this series feature in the retrospective.

10x8 Gallery
31 July - 31 August
Level 5 / 56 - 60 Foster St Surry Hills

Book:
Saltwater People - John Ogden

Author and Publisher John Ogden

John Ogden’s second instalment in the Saltwater series, "Saltwater People of the Fatal Shore," is “a coffee table book with a sting,” says Ogden, or Oggy as he is known, as are all the books published under his imprint, Cyclops Press. The ‘sting’ in this instance comes in the historical commentary that was a feature of the first book and is expanded in the new edition. 

The waterways in Sydney are as much a social divide, as they are a physical divide. While the Northern Beaches are generally where the more affluent people settled, the shoreline that is traversed in "Saltwater People of the Fatal Shore" - from South Head to the Royal National Park – has a much more colourful history partly influenced by the fact that in the middle of this tract is Botany Bay.

“This book is a cracker,” says Oggy. “It is a fuller story than the one on this side (the Northern Beaches). There are more personalities with Botany Bay smack bang in the middle and all the stories that go with that”. For this edition Oggy unearthed thousands of photos, drawings and archival records. The book features his own photography as well as that of other professionals and he’s had tremendous fortune to uncover photographs that span generations.

As with "Saltwater People of the Broken Bays" the new book promotes reconciliation without being didactic. “That’s one of the main drivers for the book, to acknowledge the First People,” says Oggy who has a long history working with indigenous communities. In June last year he was the recipient of the Pauline McLeod Award for Reconciliation, presented by the Eastern Region Local Government Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum (NSW). The Award is in recognition of the books he has published - "Australienation, Portraits from a Land Without People," which raised significant funds for Indigenous health, and now the Saltwater set.

In "Saltwater People of the Fatal Shore" there is also an environmental thread to the story that is woven throughout and starts with the pristine waters of Botany Bay that were quickly turned to festering pools by the English. “The First People lived here for tens of thousands of years in a sustainable manner. The Europeans were rapacious. They didn’t only take what they needed, they went on a frenzy, and what was a Garden of Eden became a toxic waste area. When I look at it in the microcosm of 200 years of our history, you can see how much we have changed the land and it hasn’t always been for the good”. 

In the book he reveals a number of stories that if once known, are perhaps now forgotten. “The Aborigines in these parts were a canoe culture. They travelled as much by canoe as they did by foot using the rivers as highways. When their land was taken, to survive some worked on whaling and sealing boats. Even on the Third Fleet the majority of ships that brought convicts were whalers that had been converted. Later they were reconverted and crewed by Indigenous people from here and Africa and other parts of the world”.

He profiles several Aborigines who were amongst these early fishermen and tells of one man who was dropped off on an island with his team to kill seals. “This was a sub-Antarctic island and the ship was meant to come back for them, but they were forgotten. Two years later they were picked up by another ship. And people complain about work now,” he laughs. “You think you had a hard day? What about the day I had?” 

Saltwater People of the Fatal Shore is published by Cyclops Press.

Friday Round Up - 19 July

This week on Friday Round Up a retrospective celebrates the work of French photographer Raymond Cauchetier, a snapshot of the workshop programme for this year's Ballarat International Foto Biennale, and a feature article on environmental photographer Darren Jew who shows us the beauty of the underwater world. The article "Into the Deep Blue" is a timely reminder for those of us in Australia where there are moves afoot to mine in the area of the Great Barrier Reef, creating an environmental disaster for an ecosystem that is unique.

Retrospective:
Raymond Cauchetier 


1967 Cambodia

This year’s Salon de la Photo in Paris in November will feature a major retrospective of the work of French photographer Raymond Cauchetier. Born in 1920, Cauchetier spent his early career in Indochina, and can be considered one of the early street photographers. His work gained critical acclaim and in the 1950s he exhibited in Japan and the United States where his collection "Faces of Vietnam" became a popular touring exhibition.

Returning to his homeland in the late 1950s Cauchetier spent the next decade immersed in the world of cinema working in an era known as Nouvelle Vague. He shot for leading directors including Jean-Luc Goddard and was on the set of films such as Breathless (the photograph below of Jean Seberg and Jean Paul Belmondo is considered one of his most well known). But his love for Asia continued to draw him back to that part of the world throughout his career.


1954 Pierre Schoendorffer à Dien Bien Phu

A free spirit, Cauchetier was self taught and chose to shoot across a wide range of subjects depending on his interest at the time. Now in his nineties, this retrospective "Raymond Cauchetier: Flashback" is a fitting tribute to this French master. 

A BOUT DE SOUFFLE 

Jean Seberg and Jean Paul Belmondo

On the Champs Elysées 1959

The Salon de la Photo is one of the major photography events held in Paris in the month of November.

7-11 November
Porte de Versailles in Paris

All images (C) Raymond Cauchetier

Workshops:
Ballarat International Foto Biennale 

At this year’s Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB), an hour out of Melbourne, there is a host of workshops in which to hone your visual storytelling skills. Whether your interest lies in gritty documentary photography, streetscapes, architecture, landscape or fine art photography there's something to entice both amateurs and more advanced photographers. Here's a taste of what's in store.

Ballarat Exposed
Andrew Chapman and Noel Butcher (Australia)
18 August 

(C) Andrew Chapman

Travel Light, Learn to Write:
The secrets of modern photojournalism in the digital era
Roger Garwood (Australia)
17-18 August and 24-25 August


(C) Roger Garwood

Archery and the Art of Photography
Christine Rose Divito (Belgium)
19-23 August and 9-13 September 

(C) Christine Rose Divito

Architectural Photography Master Class with John Gollings (Australia)
7 September 

(C) John Gollings

Finding the Ethereal Within
Master Class intensive with Elizabeth Opalenik [USA]
4-7 September 

(C) Elizabeth Opalenik 

For more details visit the BIFB website.

Feature Interview:
Into the Deep Blue

with Australian Darren Jew

On the day I interview multi-award winning photographer Darren Jew he is preparing for a six-week trip to Tonga where he will photograph the migration of the humpback whales. He makes this pilgrimage every year, taking photographs for his own collection, and also hosting small groups of enthusiasts who get to swim with these majestic creatures, some of which, says Darren, are the size of a bus. 

Growing up in Queensland Darren has spent much of his life in the water, and with a camera in hand. His earliest memories of photography are around his father who was a radio technician on one of the Antarctic bases in the late 1960s. Darren recalls going through his father’s Kodachrome slides and being intrigued by “nature. I think that’s where my interest in the world and things other than in my own backyard, came from”.

In his youth he toyed with the idea of a career in science, but “scientists tend to specialise in one thing and I thought I would be bored, so I turned my attention to photography. I was partly influenced by Jacques Cousteau documentaries and figured that with photography I could still connect with nature and science on a cursory level and with greater variety”.

He undertook a two-year trade certificate in photography at Queensland College of Art and “graduated at the ripe age of 17 with a pretty good education in photography. I was highly employable (read: cheap) and my first job was in a film-processing lab”. It would take a few more years before he landed the dream job – working for the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service photographing the natural assets of that state.

“Luckily Queensland has some pretty cool underwater scenery with the Barrier Reef,” he laughs. “That was the first time I was really shooting underwater for work. If I went on a field trip and it included a place where I could go snorkeling or diving, I’d do that too.” After eight years of documenting the state, and honing his skills as an underwater photographer, Darren went out on his own in the mid-1990s.

“In the last decade I have been doing a lot of underwater work. My career has evolved from me being a nature photographer who took pictures of anything to do with nature, to an underwater photographer who also shoots nature. I shoot a percentage of tourism and advertising work also, but that is more a product of capacity rather than interest and desire, it’s part of the way I earn a living. As a photographer these days to do reasonably well you have to be a specialist. And specialising in underwater photography has become a niche for me as it offers me a bit of variety in terms of where my clients can come from”.

Darren says it is a tough market, even for someone who is established, and the imperative to stay at the top of your game is even greater given the number of people who are taking photos today in all genres.
“There are millions of average photographers out there. Prior to the digital boom there was a group of the professional photographers that got away by just being competent photographers because they had the technical capacity or a good work ethic and photographs were not being taken in the volume they are today. Really good photographers have always floated to the top, but now you need to be at the top of your game all the time, because the minute you drop the ball you are gone”. 

"Photography is always evolving and I’ve been lucky enough to see a really exciting time with the advent of digital. Now digital cameras are producing images that are way beyond what we could ever do on film, and that has presented new and exciting opportunities. I shoot pictures now underwater in very low light situations with great results, shots that I could never have contemplated even five years ago”.

Shooting underwater carries with it a whole raft of considerations that are unique to the watery environment. Outside of the gear you have to invest in, there are other barriers such as trying to photograph animals that may fancy taking a bite out of you, like Great White sharks. 

While Darren may love nature, he isn’t foolhardy. “I’ve never done any of this crazy free swimming with Great Whites,” says Darren who shoots from a shark cage. “Certainly all of the work I’ve done with Great Whites is probably the most exciting, adrenalin charged nature photography I have done. They are really big and very efficient and scary”. He shows me a photo of a toothy grin from a Great White. “This one bit my sync cable in half and left a big scratch on my dome port. I’ve had sharks grab the cage before and shake it and I’ve had a shark bite through the communication line on a deep dive”.

A deep cage dive is around 25-30m, but Darren also does cage work on the surface, and mid-water. “The time when the communication cable got severed and we lost contact with the surface, that’s probably the most interesting time that I’ve been in a cage. There are emergency procedures to get a lift bag to get you back to the surface, but to deploy that you have to get out of the cage, and if you have a cranky Great White shark swimming around who has just bitten through the cable and shaken the hell out of the cage, getting out of the cage is the last option. On this dive routines and procedures for loss of communication were followed well and everything was fine, but it is pretty interesting some of the things that go through your mind at that point,” he laughs.

“I do a lot of stuff mid-water where we drop the cage and get into the blueness and away from the surface and from what I see as the visually confusing bottom. But shooting mid-water is a waiting game, as often it seems the sharks are on the bottom or on the surface and to get them in mid-water you have to be patient.”

Patience is a must with the work that Darren does. Not only do the animals not perform on cue, there are other considerations including getting to the location and the weather. “I have been on trips where we’ve been out for four days and haven’t seen a shark until 3pm on the last afternoon. Other times the water will be too murky to shoot in or we’ll arrive in the middle of a jellyfish-spawning event. It is opportunistic work where you are at the mercy of nature. So when I am out shooting for a client, I also shoot for my own collections to make the most of the time and expense of getting there”.

He continues. “If we are shooting blue water animals like whales, or dolphins or turtles swimming around in various places within the water column, down deep or up near the surface or whatever, it’s quite difficult to do that on scuba. With scuba diving the ideal profile is to go down to the deepest point of your dive and then work your way back up to the surface over the course of the dive. Whereas a turtle might be on the surface now and then go deep and then go to the surface again. If you were to follow that animal with scuba gear you’d be risking your health and safety quite considerably. And with scuba you are limited to only two or three dives a day. So the blue water shots are often done on breath hold. All my whale work and the turtles, dolphins and sea lions, are all shot while holding my breath”. It’s a game of willpower and often Darren’s determination to get the shot impacts how long he can hold his breath.

But it is the complexities of the underwater shoot that keep him engaged. “It’s a difficult place to take pictures because to see these things under the water you have to be fairly close to them. Even in the clearest waters in the tropics you need to be within a few metres. That’s the thing I like most about it, it keeps your brain active, you have to think about a lot of things. It’s a challenge and I like a challenge”.

Darren hopes his photography will also help to spread a message for conservation, a subject that is close to his heart. “I want to communicate to people who don’t know about the ocean. I want them to see how amazing it is. I know that’s a broad brush statement, but for some people the ocean is a scary place. I’d like to think that they can look at my pictures and even if they are not an ocean fan, they can see some intrigue, and interest and marvel at some of the amazing things that live there,” he concludes.

Article by Alison Stieven-Taylor

All photos (C) Darren Jew