Photojournalism Now

October 11, 2013

Friday Round Up - 11 October

Friday Round Up is back this week with 2013 FotoEvidence Book Winner Robin Hammond's book launch and exhibition of "Condemned," conceptual artist Phillip Toledano's exhibition "The Absent Portrait," Michael Coyne's "X Factor" and an interview with Sydney documentary photographer Louise Whelan about her new book "New Settlers".

Book & Exhibition
Robin Hammond – Condemned

“Condemned: Mental Health in African Countries in Crisis” is the result of an exhaustive exploration over seven years by Paris-based New Zealand photographer Robin Hammond. Shot in nine African countries “Condemned” was the winner of the 2013 FotoEvidence Book Award and Hammond will be in New York for the launch of his book and the supporting exhibition which opens on 17 October at VII Photo Gallery.

“Condemned” is an incredibly moving story of those with mental illness who are struggling to survive in countries that are beset by conflict and hampered by failing infrastructures. My interview with Hammond and the full review of his book will appear in November.

Published by FotoEvidence, “Condemned” features 89 black and white images, as well as interviews with those suffering from mental illness and mental health workers. Svetlana Bachevanova, publisher of FotoEvidence, said “FotoEvidence is extremely proud to again be publishing a powerful and important work that gives voice and draws attention to the plight of some of the most vulnerable people in the world”.

Hammond is the winner of four Amnesty International awards for Human Rights journalism and has dedicated his career to documenting human rights and development issues around the world, with specific focus on sub-Saharan Africa. In 2011 Hammond won the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award. (All images (C) Robin Hammond)

For more details please visit FotoEvidence

Exhibition:
Phillip Toledano - The Absent Portrait

For a complete change in visual style, take a look at New York-based British conceptual artist and photographer Phillip Toledano's exhibition The Absent Portrait, which is currently on show at Edmund Pearce Gallery in Melbourne. This work premiered at the Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam in September (you can read my interview with Unseen GM Sasha Stone on the Feature Articles tab at the top of the blog or click here).

The Absent Portrait explores concepts of censorship, absence and suppression and builds on Toledano's work around socio-political themes. In creating this series Toledano was initially inspired by the images created by the common practice of Iranian censors to “black out” by hand with large black strokes the pictures of women on the commercial packaging of everyday goods.

In an interview with Time Toledano said, “When you take away the packaging and you have this figure that large, it takes on a kind of painterly aspect. You see the censor’s hand, the swirls of ink. It’s beautiful, but also very disturbing.”

“The thing about the series for me that’s important to get across is that, yes, it is about women and it is about the Middle East, but it’s also very applicable to all of us, because all of us in every country live in a system where reality is twisted — whether it’s by religion or by government, there’s a certain amount of torquing,” he concluded. (All images (C) Phillip Toledano)

Until 2 November
Edmund Pearce Gallery
Nicholas Building
2/37 Swanston St, Melbourne

Exhibition:
Michael Coyne – The X Factor

Michael Coyne is best known for his ground-breaking coverage of the Iran Iraq War in the 1980s, but Coyne has shot numerous assignments for international magazines over the past thirty years and published more than a dozen books on a wide range of topics.

Now his exhibition, the X Factor, is on show at Manning Clark House in Canberra until 1 November. The exhibition comprises a collection of images shot by Coyne over the past three years using Fujifilm’s X series cameras. (All images (C) Michael Coyne)

Until 1 November

11 Tasmania Circle
Forrest, (Canberra)

Interview:
Louise Whelan - New Settlers

I recently interviewed Sydney documentary photographer Louise Whelan for the Weekend Australian Magazine about her new book New Settlers published by Australia’s only dedicated photography book publisher Gianni Frinzi from T&G Publishing. You can read the full interview on the Feature Articles tab of this blog or by clicking here.

To find out more about the book please visit T&G Publishing

Interview:
Barat Ali Batoor - Pro Photo

The latest issue of Pro Photo magazine features my profile on Barat Ali Batoor, out now.

Have a great weekend.

September 27, 2013

Friday Round Up - 27 September

This week Friday Round Up is bursting with stories – Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam, Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Delhi Photo Festival, new work from Ludovic Robert and Geoffrey Hiller’s Kickstarter Project Burma in Transition, and even a few photos of my own - plenty to view and read over the next couple of weeks while I take a short holiday to catch up with my family in Italy; there are still some places where the Internet doesn’t work! Friday Round Up will be back on Friday 11th October. Until then…

Event:
Unseen Photo Fair - Amsterdam

This brilliant Fair that brings together photographers, galleries, and the public opened yesterday in Amsterdam. General Manager of Unseen, Sasha Stone, took time out of her ridiculously busy schedule for an interview with Alison Stieven-Taylor that included a behind-the-scenes tour while the Fair was in final build. You can read the interview on the Feature Articles link on this blog or click here.

Link: Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam

Festival:
Nooderlicht Photo Festival Now in its 20th edition, the Noorderlicht Photo Festival in the northern city of Groningen, The Netherlands, this year is housed in the old Sugar Factory on the outskirts of town. This massive industrial site lends itself brilliantly to the Festival which has been cleverly designed to make the most of the natural architecture of the space.

Photos above (C) Alison Stieven-Taylor

The open call theme this year is "To Have and Have Not," a topic that curator Wim Melis says was centred on the concept of how the GFC affected the very rich, the 1 percent, a world that is hidden to most. The complexity of photographing what essentially “happens behind closed doors is challenging” states Melis, yet from a pool of 350 submissions he has created a powerful exhibition that gives insight into the playgrounds of the mega-rich. It is a mind boggling collection that demonstrates the excesses and, in my opinion, the sheer insanity that comes with having more money than you need for ten lifetimes, let alone one. "To Have and Have Not" is housed upstairs and presented in a series of cube structures that allow you to walk around the exhibits and really immerse yourself in the work (see above).

Curator Wim Melis

(C) Mark Peterson

Adjacent to this space is one of two commissioned exhibitions, "The Sequel," which features seven photographers - Ad van Denderen, Pieter ten Hoopen, Christian Kryl, Kadir van Lohuizen, Andrea Stultiens, Lidwien van de Ven and Xiaoxiao Xu - who were commissioned to produce a second instalment that built on an existing work. Melis says the concept of "The Sequel" was to give photographers an opportunity to delve further into a subject that they had already invested in. While the whole collection is engaging, two pieces really stood out for me. Ad van Denderen’s work looking at the new Palestinian city of Rawabi juxtaposed against his previous series Baladia, a training city of the Israeli army. And Pieter ten Hoopen’s short film on the residents of mythic city of Kitezh in eastern Russia. Kitezh is a cultural trope in Russia, symbolising a better world, without pain and deprivation, but the reality for residents is quite the opposite.

(C) Pieter ten Hoopen

The other commissioned exhibition, "The Sweet and Sour Story of Sugar," was set up as an international project, says Melis, with sugar as a product being an example of globalisation. “This project is about globalisation, but also colonialisation which is in sugar’s roots. We took as a starting point the countries where sugar and the Dutch have had connections – Suriname, Indonesia and Brazil. We collaborated with those countries engaging local writers and involving local organisations who were given the raw materials we had, to build their own exhibitions”. Six highly respected photographers were commissioned and given specific briefs. James Whitlow Delano and Alejandro Chaskielberg focused on Suriname and The Netherlands; Ed Kashi and Francesco Zizola Brazil and The Netherlands; Carl de Keyzer Indonesia and Belgium, his homeland, and; Tomasz Tomaszewski Indonesia and The Netherlands. The result is an expansive exhibition, and book, that documents the impact of sugar on these countries, and their communities, from both historical and contemporary perspectives.

(C) Ed Kashi

My feature on Photography in The Netherlands featuring Noorderlicht and Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam will be in a coming issue of Pro Photo magazine.

Link: Noorderlicht Photo Festival
Until 13 October

Photo Essay:
Ludovic Robert – Stu Steps Up

London-based French photographer Ludovic Robert is following Stuart “Stu” Nixon, a 49 year old who has been living with Multiple Sclerosis since he was 18. A father and husband, Stu's courage and determination to not let this heinous disease beat his spirit are an inspiration, and now he’s attempting to “walk” to raise awareness and funds for MS. The only catch? Stu can’t walk! Watch Stu’s story here, shot by Robert in Wales, and have some tissues close by! This is a wonderful, brave story and Robert’s compassionate black and white images allow us to witness, but not intrude on, intimate moments of joy and also despair as Stu struggles daily with this debilitating disease. Stu hopes to raise 60,000 pounds for the MS Society UK’s 60th Anniversary by walking 60 kilometres through London in October.

All photos (C) Ludovic Robert

Link: You can watch the first part of Stu Steps Up here

Festival:
Delhi Photo Festival

The biennial Delhi Photo Festival opens today. An initiative of the India Habitat Centre and Nazar Foundation, this edition of the Festival features a broad range of work from traditional print photography to multimedia works. The print exhibitions are on the theme “grace” in tribute to Indian photographer the late Prabuddha Dasgupta who passed away last year at the age of 58 years.

(C) Prabuddha Dasgupta

More than 2300 bodies of work from 90 countries were submitted for this year’s Festival which has been expanded beyond the India Habitat Centre to feature independent exhibitions and activities at galleries throughout the city creating a city-wide Festival.

Following the format that seems to be the template for many photo festivals around the world – exhibitions, workshops and portfolio reviews – the Delhi Photo Festival features more than 40 print exhibitions from a diverse group of photographers. There is a dedicated exhibition linking the works of 5 photographers inspired by Indian Cinema - Jonathan Torgovnik, Kannagi Khanna, Max Pinckers, Nathan G and Pushpmala N. And also a self-published exhibition “Looking Eastward” curated by Sohrab Hura. And that’s just the main print exhibitions. Australian Tamara Dean is also exhibiting.

Unpacking Tamara Dean's show

September 27 to October 11, 2013
Link: Delhi Photo Festival

Kickstarter Project:
Geoffrey Hiller - Burma in Transition

Award-winning US photojournalist Geoffrey Hiller has been visiting Burma since 1987, a country he labels “one of the world’s poorest and most isolated places. I first went in 1987 on the one-week visa. After a frenetic trip, it wasn’t so much the monks and pagodas that haunted me, but the faces of the Burmese, painted in white, often smiling. I wanted to find out more about who they really were, plagued by a corrupt government and international sanctions”. His fascination with the country resulted in the creation of the award-winning multimedia web site “Burma: Grace Under Pressure,” which has been viewed “by millions”.

All photos (C) Geoffrey Hiller

Hiller has continued to use his camera to capture “daily life from the cramped streets of the colonial capital of Yangon, to dusty markets in Mandalay, to Muslims in Meikhtila, and river life in Pathein”. His work presents a fascinating story of a people who have lived under a repressive military dictatorship for half a century and his photographs are rich in colour, complexity and humanity. Now with “unheard of political and cultural freedom…the real question is how this will play out in the lives of the Burmese people”.

Hoping to self-publish his work as a book “Burma in Transition,” Hiller has launched a Kickstarter Project which ends on October 10.

Link: To support this project click here.

Changing the Skyline

To round up this Friday's coverage here are a few photographs from my own project exploring the changing skyline of Europe. Have a great weekend.

Milan September 2013

September 20, 2013

Friday Round Up - 20 September

This week Friday Round Up features exhibitions in Berlin, Eugene Smith’s assistant Takeshi Ishikawa releases his book Minamata Note, Sydney’s Art and About launches, and Bill Henson’s show closes at the Art Gallery of NSW. Next week my report from the Noorderlicht Festival in beautiful Groningen, The Netherlands. Have a great weekend wherever you are.

Berlin and Photography
Last week I was in Berlin to check out a few galleries. In particular the Neue Schule fur Fotographie (New School for Photography) has an exciting exhibition programme along with workshops. A privately run college with an amazing exhibition space, the Neue Schule’s latest show features work from Ulrike Brase, Thommy Gebhardt, Dirk Hoffmann, Anni Jeroch, Yasmin Opielok, Jennie Schwartz and Jinhwan Seol.

Celebrating the launch of this exhibition Neue Schule has produced a fantastic boxed set of catalogues on the works of each artist. You can purchase a single catalogue or the full set. The black embossed booklets are beautifully crafted and a clever idea as they will quickly become collectors items.

Two artists’ work stood out for me – Jennie Schwartz’ “Mommy, what shall I dream about tonight?” and Jinhwan Seol’s “Industrial”. Schwartz explores themes of childhood nightmares and fear of the dark through ambiguous imagery, blurred figures and abstract shapes. Her play with light and perspective creates intriguing images that reveal more the longer you look. Schwartz’s work is easy to relate to, evoking memories of imagination taking flight when the lights go out.

Seol’s portrayal of the Yeosa National Industrial Complex in South Korea, the largest petrochemical complex in the country, is like a storyboard for a futuristic movie. Operating around the clock, Yeosa’s machinery is constantly in motion, its buildings continuously lit creating an unnatural glow on the horizon that Seol uses to great effect in these black and white photographs.

At Camera Work Gallery is Stockholm photographer Blaise Reutersward’s exhibition “Aktstudien und Deutsche Landschaften” a breathtaking collection where large scale German landscapes are juxtaposed against Reutersward’s nude studies, for which he is perhaps better known. With both Reutersward’s aim “is to capture a sense of mystery that simmers underneath the illusion of perfect form and beauty”. The space too in which the gallery is housed is in itself worth a visit.

Until 12 October
Camera Work
Kantstrasse 149
10623 Berlin–Charlottenburg

Book:
Takeshi Ishikawa – Minamata Note

Eugene Smith at work in Minamata (C) Takeshi Ishikawa

When he was in his early twenties Takeshi had a chance meeting with Eugene Smith on the streets of Tokyo, an encounter that would change the young photographer’s life. At that time Smith was about to embark on his now famous Minamata project, which exposed the horrific effects on that city’s population from the severe mercury contamination of shellfish and fish caused by the release of tainted industrial waste water. Takeshi joined him on this journey, working often for nothing but bed and board, assisting Smith and also taking his own photos. Now 40 years later in "Minamata Note" Takeshi shares the images he shot during this time, many of which are intimate portraits of Smith that have never been published.

40 years later - Takeshi back row last on right with some of the people he met when he first went to Minamata

C) Takeshi Ishikawa

Festival:
Art and About – Sydney
With this year’s theme "Private Lives…Public Spaces" Art and About Sydney launches an extensive programme including a fantastic opportunity to have your portrait taken by one of Sydney’s best documentary photographers Louise Whelan.

Louise Whelan – Cultural Connections

Sydney-based photo documentarian Louise Whelan will set up a portrait studio in public spaces around Sydney and take “stylised portraits of members of the community”. Whelan’s recently published book "New Settlers," which I wrote about in the Australian Weekend Magazine (to read click here) encapsulates the diversity of multicultural Australia. The portraits taken during Art and About will add to this body of work exploring concepts of cultural identity and representation. To find out more click here.

Louise Hawson - 52 Suburbs

(C) Louise Hawson

Also part of Art and About is the exhibition 52 Suburbs. Hawson spent a year traversing the globe with her eight year old daughter visiting 10 countries, 14 cities, and 52 suburbs. This exhibition captures ordinary moments in suburbs that most travellers wouldn’t visit. It’s an interesting collection that reveals a commonality that defies cultural boundaries.

Museum of Sydney
Cnr. Bridge and Philip Sts, Sydney

Sydney Life
"Sydney Life" at Hyde Park features the finalists in this year’s competition. You can also take a guided tour of the exhibition with one of the judges, Sandy Edwards 2pm Saturday 12 October, details here. Pictured are three finalists.

Art and About 20 September to 20 October
Various Venues

Exhibition:
Bill Henson – Cloud Landscapes

If you haven’t seen this exhibition by one of the world’s best photographic artists you’ve got two days - it closes on Sunday at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Have a great weekend.