Photojournalism Now

August 22, 2014

Friday Round Up - 22nd August, 2014

This week on Friday Round Up the world’s first PhotoBook Museum, "the road" in Australian photography, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale 2014 collection now online, this year's Arkley Award winner, Photography Today review and more.

Picture(s) of the Week:
After seeing this photograph of Vitaliy Raskalov, taken recently by his climbing partner and fellow photographer Vadim Makhorov in Hong Kong, we wanted to show another "daredevil" - pioneering photographer Margaret Bourke-White who was photographed back in 1934 atop the Chrysler building in New York with a much bigger piece of kit!

Fundraiser:

Ballarat International Foto Biennale

If you’re in Melbourne come along on Sunday 31st August 12-4pm at Eleven40 Gallery to support the fundraising efforts of Ballarat International Foto Biennale and to add one of these fantastic pictures to your collection for only $125.00. If you can’t make it you can still buy a photograph online and support this event. Visit the website here for all the details.

Award:
Hari Ho wins Arkley Prize

Established in 2010 in memory of Australian artist Howard Arkely this award is given annually to an emerging, or unrepresented artist exhibiting in Melbourne’s NotFair art fair. The 2014 Arkley, which carries a prize of $10,000 was awarded to Hari Ho, who exhibited works from his Monument and Ruins series, which Photojournalism Now featured recently. Congratulations to Hari who is pictured second from left.

Opening:
PhotoBookMuseum - Germany

Photos from the opening of the PhotoBookMuseum project this week at Carlswerk.

The first museum in the world dedicated to the photobook is scheduled to open its permanent home in Cologne, Germany in 2016. This week the PhotoBookMuseum joined with Photoszene Festival to launch a program of more than 24 exhibitions, workshops, lectures, book signings and other activities, which will run until 3rd October at Carlswerk, Cologne-Mülheim.

Founded by Markus Schaden (pictured below), the PhotoBookMuseum is an exciting initiative designed to celebrate and promote the photobook as an “independent artistic medium”. With the explosion of photobooks, made possible largely by digital technology, there have reportedly been more photobooks published in the last decade than in the history of photography.

Book Review:
Photography Today

In the week that photography celebrates its 175th anniversary it seems appropriate to post a review on a new book from Phaidon, “Photography Today,” which looks at the genre from the 1960s to now.

Putting together a book of this nature is an ambitious project. There will always be contention around who is included and excluded, but there are obvious omissions in this book that are concerning...(to read the full review and see more pictures please click on the Book Reviews tab at the top of this blog).

Free Talk:
The Road and Australian Photography

(C) John Gollings

As part of the current exhibition at the Monash Gallery of Art - The Road - on Saturday 23rd August (tomorrow) Monash Gallery of Art will host a panel discussion on the significance of "the road" to Australian photography in the 1970s and 1980s. Gael Newton, Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia, will chair the discussion with exhibiting photographers Virginia Coventry, John Gollings and Ian North.

2-4pm
Monash Gallery of Art
860 Ferntree Gully Road
Wheelers Hill

Your Daily Photograph

Final Week

Alison Stieven-Taylor’s curation for "Your Daily Photograph," an initiative of the Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles, ends on 31st August. If you haven't signed up yet, there's still time and it's free. Click here.

August 15, 2014

Friday Round Up - 15 August, 2014

This week on Friday Round Up the 25th Melbourne Art Fair, Daniel Berehulak, Ballarat International Foto Biennale fundraiser, exhibitions and more.

Picture of the Week:

By the light of the supermoon - Madrid

(C) Marty Williams

The 25th Melbourne Art Fair opens today at the majestic Royal Exhibitions Building. More than 20,000 people are expected to view the 70 galleries that feature in this year’s Fair with solid representation from local curators as well as international galleries from Asia, Europe and South America. The Fair also features a bookshop and art making spaces.

With a philosophy of public engagement, this year’s Art Fair is also spilling into the streets of Melbourne with day and night events and pop-up shows in the city’s major art spaces such as the National Gallery of Victoria and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) as well as other arts hubs including the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen and the Linden Centre for Contemporary Art in St. Kilda.

(C) Marty Williams

“Good art needs to be seen in the flesh to be appreciated, ” says Barry Keldoulis the Fair's director, who believes the Art Fair is the “physical manifestation” of the Internet – a twist on thoughts that tend to see the Internet as the interloper as opposed to the catalyst for driving people into galleries.

This year a number of galleries feature photo-media art as well as documentary photography including Galeria AFA from Santiago, Chile with an exhibition of black and white portraiture from renowned photographer Paz Errazuriz (below). (Photojournalism Now's interview with Galeria AFA director Camila Opazo will feature on next week’s Friday Round Up).

(C) Marty Williams

Keldoulis says that with the emergence of video art, collectors had initially “leap frogged” over photography, but he believes that photography is now most definitely on the radar of art collectors. However he doesn’t see “any merit or honesty in creating a distinction between photography as art and other visual art forms”.

Fair Director Barry Keldoulis

(C) Marty Williams

To that end Keldoulis doesn’t see the need for photo curators either claiming that art curators who understand image making can curate photography also. Nor can he see the point of galleries specialising in the medium. His comments definitely provide food for thought and will hopefully spark some enlightened debate on the topic of photography as art.

15-17 August
Melbourne Art Fair
Royal Exhibition Buildings
Carlton

Stills Gallery at Melbourne Art Fair

(C) Trent Parke*

Sydney’s Stills Gallery, arguably Australia’s most respected photography-dedicated gallery, will feature a number of its artists works at the Fair including a selection from Trent Parke's The Camera is God series, Narelle Autio, Pat Brassington and Glen Sloggett. View the Stills Gallery catalogue here.

*The above image is not in the catalogue, but representative of the work in The Camera is God.

Feature Article:
Daniel Berehulak

The latest issue of NZ Pro Photographer magazine features Alison Stieven-Taylor’s interview with award-winning Australian photographer, and really nice guy, Daniel Berehulak. Download the iPad App for the magazine to read the story, or lash out and subscribe to the print version - it's a sexy, full colour glossy magazine that does justice to the amazing photographers it features.

Fundraiser:
Ballarat International Foto Biennale

On Sunday 31st August the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB) will host a fundraising event at Eleven40 Gallery in Malvern where photography lovers will be able to view and purchase photographs donated by some of Australia’s leading photographers and photo-media artists.

More than 200 photographers were invited to submit an image for consideration in the BIFB 2015 Collection, which is curated by Festival Director Jeff Moorfoot. The final selection of around 125 photographs, including one of Alison Stieven-Taylor's photographs, will feature in the BIFB 2015 Collection book also and the “first edition” will be auctioned at the fundraiser around 3pm.

Photographs are displayed anonymously with collectors purchasing a red dot for $125. On the Sunday those holding red dots will be able to select the image of their choice in a “first drawn” basis in the Print Selection Lucky Dip.

Moorfoot says the event provides “a fantastic chance to purchase a one-off archival print for a price perhaps well under the value of what an artist might normally sell his or her work for.” All works are offered “anonymously” so purchasers won’t know whose work they have bought until the provenance on the back is revealed.

Come along, enjoy the art, food and wine and help support BIFB.

Sponsors: Eleven40 Gallery, Kayell, Epson and Blurb.

Sunday 31 August
from 12noon
Eleven40 Gallery
1140 Malvern Road
Malvern

Check out the website for more information

Round Up of Exhibitions closing soon:

Melbourne:

Until 23 August
Shara Henderson – London Edit
Edmund Pearce

Sydney:

Ends Sunday 17 August
Paul Blackmore – ONE
Blackeye Gallery

Your Daily Photograph

If you haven’t signed up already, check out Your Daily Photograph to see Alison’s curated selection of 30 photographers, which runs through until the end of August. Already a number of photographs have been sold, and it's fantastic to see Australian photographers getting some well deserved attention on the international photography market. Today’s photograph is from Alexia Sinclair (above). Follow the link here to see more images.

August 08, 2014

Friday Round Up - 8 August, 2014

This week on Friday Round Up new exhibitions for Melbourne and Launceston, John G. Morris’ Get the Picture documentary, American photographer Michael Ast’s new book, and Your Daily Photograph. Plus this week’s Picture of the Week.

Picture of the Week:

Documentary Film:
Get the Picture - John G. Morris

If you haven’t seen this fantastic documentary on John G. Morris by Cathy Pearson check it out via the link below. Morris is such an entertaining and erudite man and his thoughts on photojournalism really should be required “hearing” for anyone interested in the medium. He’s also a really nice guy, and I was lucky enough to meet him last year at Visa pour l’Image.

For those of you who don’t know Morris, he was picture editor for Life and for the New York Times, amongst other titles, and a close friend of Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Eugene Smith. He was also the picture editor who was first to run with Eddie Adams now iconic image from the Vietnam War (see below), on the front page of the New York Times, which he talks about in the film. He’s also worked with a great many contemporary photographers including Peter Turnley who took this intimate portrait of Morris in Paris this year, Morris’ favourite city. Turnley also features in the film along with Paolo Pellegrin and Don McCullin amongst others. This is one of the best documentaries I've seen. Period.

To view Get the Picture click here

Exhibition: Tasmania
Another Country

(C) Matthew Newton

On Friday night the exhibition “Another Country” by photographers Matthew Newton and Sarah Rhodes opens at Sawtooth Gallery in Launceston, Tasmania. It’s not often that we hear from the Apple Isle and it is thanks to Newton’s marketing savvy that Photojournalism Now received the information. That might sound trite, but you would be surprised how many photographers don’t promote their work.

“Another Country” explores the remote communities of Tasmania in large format photographic portraits, landscapes, and still life compositions. Many people still live in pockets of Tasmania that are quite isolated and in some ways have been forgotten by the modern world. These hidden folds are captured by Newton and Rhodes in very different, yet complementary styles.

(C) Sarah Rhodes

“Inspired by historical accounts and contemporary political dialogue we aim to hint at narratives and relay the experiences of strangers met in settings that spur our own emotions. Ultimately, this body of work is a meditation on small town life and the landscape,” says Newton.

Newton is a seasoned photographer and cinematographer, and notably has been awarded for his work documenting the vulnerability of Tasmania’s forest for the past decade. For this work he’s been a finalist in the Australian of the Year awards and the Walkley Awards for excellence in journalism. Newton has also been a finalist in the National Portrait Prize, the Moran Prize for Contemporary Photography and the Bowness Photographic Prize on a number of occasions.

Above images (C) Matthew Newton

Rhodes is an emerging contemporary photographic artist. She uses portraiture as a means of exploring themes around identity. Rhodes has exhibited at Photoville in New York, and she is also a finalist in this year’s Bowness Award. Her work is held in public and private collections including the National Library of Australia and the Charles Blackman Trust.

Above images (C) Sarah Rhodes

Guerilla Event
Inspired by the Elizabeth Street Gallery in Sydney, the pair will also undertake a “guerilla event” adorning an abandoned building in Launceston’s CBD with a series of A0 sized prints from the exhibition.

Until 30 August
Sawtooth Gallery
2/160 Cimitiere St

Launceston

To view more of Newton's work please click here

To view more of Rhodes work please click here

Exhibition: Melbourne
NotFair Art Fair

NotFair, Australia's independent art fair opens in the inner Melbourne suburb of Collingwood next week. NotFair began in response to the lack of opportunities for artists without gallery representation, to show their work. NotFair's "principal role is to conduct a biennial art exhibition to launch the careers of emerging, undervalued and lesser-known mid-generational artists". This year Melbourne-based photographer Hari Ho is the only photographer included in the selection. Ho is showing three images from his series "Monuments and Ruins".

All images (C) Hari Ho

NotFair Art Fair
12 Peel Street
Collingwood

Opening 14 August 6-8pm
NotFair exhibition
15-17 August

Book Review:

Michael Ast - Trying to Find the Ocean

The first thing I noticed about American photographer Michael Ast’s debut book is how these images carry the tempo of a city, in this case Baltimore, Maryland. It is almost as if Ast’s camera is a barometer for the mood of this town seen in its human and animal inhabitants, its concrete structures, cracked roads, dilapidated buildings and steaming vents.

In “Trying to Find the Ocean” Ast creates a seamless narrative that gains momentum as the pages unfold and there is definitely a sense that as you move through this book you are part of a journey that is both physical and allegorical...(to read the review in full and see more photographs please click on the Book Reviews tab at the top of this blog).

Your Daily Photograph
August Guest Curator – Alison Stieven-Taylor

For the month of August Alison Stieven-Taylor is guest curator for Your Daily Photograph, which is an initiative of the Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles. Each day subscribers receive an email – Your Daily Photograph – that features curated photographs that are available for sale (click here to view). This daily email is sent to the Gallery's subscriber-base of around 3800 dedicated photographic art collectors. “In the recent past images from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andreas Gursky, Richard Misrach, Andre Kertesz, Edward Burtynsky and other photography legends have appeared in Your Daily Photograph”.

Gallery director Daniel Miller says the idea began in 2012 when a collector who wanted to sell a large and diverse collection of photographs approached the gallery. “We started emailing one picture everyday to a small list of our collectors, and the "Daily" was born,” says Miller. “The list grew by word of mouth among collectors, and we began to accept subscribers. After some time, we added a few categories to each email, to present more kinds of photographs to our subscribers, which now stand at around 3800”.

As the subscriber list has grown so have sales, but there’s no formula to what sells and Miller says, “different collectors have very different tastes and each one has unique interests that is influenced by a range of things such as age, education, habits and even geographic regions. We are constantly surprised by which images have the highest demand”.

In the digital world where we are inundated with images Miller says the average collector can be overwhelmed. As a result Your Daily Photograph’s curated selections have found a niche for “serious collectors”. And it has also helped photographers to find new markets as well as representation and exhibitions. Check out the website to see comments from photographers who have participated in Your Daily Photograph.

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can subscribe here. Alison’s curated collection continues until the end of August.

August 01, 2014

Friday Round Up - 1 August, 2014

This week on Friday Round Up new exhibitions for Melbourne and Sydney, a new book on photographer John Deakin in review, a photo essay on women mine workers in Poland and Photojournalism Now's Alison Stieven-Taylor invited to curate a month of photography for Your Daily Photograph.

Picture of the Week:

China: These bars are designed to keep the children at a distance to their books to help prevent nearsightedness. Lucky they don't have mobile phones and tablets. Photo: Reuters

Your Daily Photograph - Los Angeles

Australian Guest Curator for August

For the month of August Alison Stieven-Taylor is the guest curator for YourDailyPhotograph.com, an initiative of the Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles. Each day subscribers receive an email – YourDailyPhotograph – that features curated photographs that are available for sale. This daily email is sent to the Gallery's subscriber-base of around 3800 dedicated photographic art collectors. Registration is free. Sign up today to see Alison's selection that features 30 photographers. Click here.

Book Review:
Under the Influence

John Deakin, Photography and the Lure of Soho

“Being fatally drawn to the human race, what I want to do when I photograph is to make a revelation about it, so my sitters become my victims.” John Deakin
English photographer John Deakin’s reputation as a boorish drunk largely eclipsed his talent during his lifetime and at the time of his death in 1972 at the age of 60 he was virtually destitute and his photographs forgotten.

Yet Deakin was an enigma. An artist whose considerable potential was squandered by drink and self-indulgence, Deakin was reportedly “loved and loathed in equal measure”. At one turn he was described as a “nasty little man” and at another, deeply insightful, with his compassion for his fellow man (sic) evident in his startling portraiture. Deakin’s images still stand today as a marker to what truly great portraiture is all about, but it is not due to his care and diligence that his archive remains. When Deakin died friends found piles of prints and scratched negatives under his bed...(to read the full review and see more images please click on the Book Reviews tab at the top of this blog).

Portrait of Francis Bacon by John Deakin 1952

Photo Essay:

Arek Gola - Kobiety Kopalnia

(Women in Mines)

This photo essay by Polish photographer Arek Gola turns the camera on the women who work in the mines in Poland. Here Gola has created a series of portraits that give a view to a world that few see.

All images (C) Arek Gola 2012

Exhibitions: Sydney
Paul Blackmore – One

Photographer Paul Blackmore is one of the most insightful documentary photographers working today, yet while much of his imagery falls into the reportage category, Blackmore's work translates across both photojournalism and fine art genres as is evidenced in his most recent book At Water’s Edge and now in this new collection, ONE.

In ONE, Blackmore's treatment of the human body evokes abstraction in distinct forms. Shot in studio in black and white Blackmore's nudes are reminiscent of the minimalist nudes of the likes of Erwin Blumenfeld, where the eye is drawn by the simplicity, the fall of the light and the interplay of shadows. Where Blumenfeld often used props such as venetian blinds and fabric and shot through diffused panels of glass, Blackmore has stripped back to the basics – one light source, one subject, one background – freeing the images of clutter and allowing the eye to roam.

All images (C) Paul Blackmore

5-17 August
Blackeye Gallery
3/138 Darlinghurst Road
Darllinghurst

Exhibition: Melbourne
Ruth Maddison

Australian photographer Ruth Maddison's series of work "In Residence" features photographs that were created during a three-month residency at Artspace in Sydney in 2013.

Maddison came to photography in 1976 in Melbourne at a time when women in particular were pushing artistic boundaries in the medium and using photography to explore the personal in a way their male counterparts largely had not. Of her artistic practice Maddison says, “I’m documenting the passage of my life via my image making. I’m recording what it is that makes me want to go on and on with the camera. Anything can interest me and it may not relate to anything I’ve done before or anything I’m working on. Everything I do and see and know somehow becomes included in what I want to translate into images”.

All images (C) Ruth Maddison

Until 23 August
Edmund Pearce
Lvl 2 Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Melbourne

Exhibition: Melbourne
Kelvin Skewes - Nauru: What was Taken and What was Given

The island nation of Nauru, in Micronesia, is the world’s smallest republic. Many Australians know Nauru as an offshore processing centre for asylum seekers under Australia’s Pacific Solution policy; a continual source of contention and debate within Australia.

Melbourne photographer Kelvin Skewes says the work in his exhibition - Nauru: What was Taken and What was Given – “examines questions about extraction industries, the viability of the nation state, 20th century colonialism, 21st century paternalism, as well as our translational and intergenerational responsibilities".