Friday Round Up - 16 August

This week Friday Round Up comes to you from the Ballarat International Foto Biennale which opens in Ballarat, an hour from Melbourne on Saturday 17 August. This is the fifth Biennale and there are more than 20 photographers exhibiting in the core programme. Showcased this week are two international exhibitions - Erika Diettes, Colombia and Francisco Diaz, Spain - and two from Australia - Vikk Shayen and Tony Hewitt. These exhibitions epitomise the diversity of work on show at the Festival. If you are in Ballarat don’t miss the John Cato Retrospective and book launch on Saturday at 3pm, and the official Festival opening bash Saturday 6pm, both at the Mining Exchange. See you there.

John Cato Between Sunshine and Shadow

A Documentary 

(C) John Cato

I had such a great response to my interview with filmmaker Paul Cox about his longtime friend photographer John Cato, which was published in the Weekend Australian last week (link below). Many readers commented that they wished the article was longer as they wanted to know more about Cato. Andrew Chapman and David Callow have produced a short documentary – John Cato Between Sunshine and Shadow - a beautiful story about a man who loved photography, nature and sharing his passion. You can watch it here and see the Retrospective at the Mining Exchange.

Click here for full story

Erika Diettes - Shrouds 
The Mining Exchange

Erika is a visual artist living and working in Bogotá. She uses photography to examine memory, sorrow, absence and death. Her most recent work Sudarios (Shrouds) has been shown with great success around the world and now comes to Ballarat.

Erika says of her work, “Many times, with my camera, I have been a witness of the moment when people have to close their eyes as they recall the event which divided their life into two parts. My decision to create Sudarios (Shrouds) comes from unanswered questions that came out of my previous series Silencios (Silences), which dealt with survivors of the Second World War who live in Colombia…To date, I have received the testimonies of more than 300 victims of the violence in Colombia. They have confided intimacies of this violence to me: not only its harrowing details, but the way they rebuild their lives and keep going despite what they have suffered.

"The women who serve as the models in Sudarios were first-hand witnesses of acts of horror. The intention of the series is to enable the spectator to observe the moment when these women close their eyes, with no other way to communicate the horror that they witnessed and the intensity of the sorrow they were subjected to”. 

(C) Erika Diettes

Tony Hewitt – Three of Sand, One of Cement!
Art Gallery of Ballarat 

Tony Hewitt’s work spans portrait, landscape and fine art photography. In explaining his exhibition “Three of Sand, One of Cement!” he says, “3 : 2 : 1 (is ) a very popular concrete formula - 3 part gravel, 2 part sand, 1 part cement. Amidst the chaos of urban development I am constantly fascinated and drawn to the elegance, purpose and beauty of its underlying structures. They form the physical foundations of not just where we live, but how we live; they are the ‘glue’ that binds us together. These materials and structures also reflect my childhood memories, of building blocks and construction sets, playgrounds and car parks, and the boundaries between where we find ourselves, and what we hope to become. From the enduring ruins of ancient castles, to the playgrounds of our youth, from corporate edifices to domestic dwellings, their symbolism, design, and presence reassures me". 

(C) Tony Hewitt

Francisco Diaz – The Lost Road
St Patrick’s Community Hall 

(C) Francisco Diaz

“The series The Lost Road is a meticulously produced cinematic narrative depicting four people on a mysterious journey in a car as they become lost,” explains Cuban photographer Francisco Diaz. “On this journey, they encounter many circumstances—loss of cell phone use; a hitchhiker; a deer in headlights; stray birds flying overhead and so forth—that allow their creeping sense of alienation to unfold. Will they change direction, thereby solving the mystery at the core of this journey? Each photograph in The Lost Road is a combination of elements taken from many different photographs. After developing the idea for an individual photograph, I shoot an array of pictures. I then cut out those elements I want to use and reassemble them into a completed photograph. The end product is a photograph that looks like it was shot as a single, coherent image”. 

(C) Francisco Diaz

“As I continue to conceptualise the series—the play of light and dark, the spatial formation and pictorial structure, the sense of colour and the cinematic/theatrical quality—I rely on a mix of pulp fiction illustrators like Malvin Singer, Rudolph Belarski and Rafael DeSoto, along with movie directors such as Hitchcock, Peckinpaw, Godard, Coppola, Boyle and Woo to provide inspiration for visual and narrative techniques. One of the reasons I use photography, is that it can give the viewer that “lo real maravilloso” sensibility”.

Vikk Shayen – Performanscape
Mechanics Institute 

(C) Vikk Shayen

Performanscape is the first exhibition at a photography festival for Singaporean-Australian photographer Vikk Shayen. A collaborative photographic project involving performance artists and theatre makers Performanscape “exposes the stunning landscapes found throughout Australia that remain hidden from those living in urban areas. It also draws attention to the diversity, craftsmanship and physical virtuosity of various Australian artists and designers”.

(C) Vikk Shayen

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale Core Programme features exhibitions by the following artists:

Australia
Terence Bogue
John Cato
Tony Hewitt
Sonia Macak
Meredith O’Shea
Vikk Shayen
Kara Rasmanis
Mark Ruff
Guy Vinciguerra

Internationals
Marrigje de Maar, The Netherlands
Francisco Diaz, USA
Erika Diettes, Columbia
Claudia Fahrenkemper, Germany
Ayala Gazit, USA
Russell Joslin, USA
Young Ho Kang, South Korea
Sheena MacRae, UK
Doc Ross, New Zealand
Hester Scheurwater, The Netherlands
Jackie Ranken, New Zealand
Elisabeth Zeilon, Sweden 

Hanging out on the Fringe

(C) Robert Imhoff

With more than 95 non-curated exhibitions forming the Fringe, it is almost overwhelming trying to work out which ones to see in the opening weekend, although if you live locally then cramming in all the exhibitions may just be possible throughout the Festival. A small taste of what’s on show – Melbournian Robert Imhoff’s “Prelude” drawing on an archive that spans more than 50 years (above), and Belgian photographic artist Wim De Schamphelaere’s “Meeting Africa” are two on Photojournalism Now’s “must-see” list. 

(C) Wim De Schamphelaere

Projections
This year’s Festival also features a range of projections – indoor, outdoor and window. More than 60 photographers and photographic artists feature in the projections loop that will be shown at various core venues throughout the festival. 

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale runs until 15th September. For more information visit the website here.

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.