Friday Round Up - 20th May, 2016

This week on Friday Round Up a preview to the 2016 Auckland Festival of Photography, which runs 2-24 June plus a look at the second edition of Photo London which is on this weekend. But first a photo essay on refugees from Central America.

Photo Essay:

Joseph Sorrentino - Walking to America

Currently featured on Social Documentary Network is this insightful and at times harrowing photo essay by Joseph Sorrentino who has been documenting Central American migrants travelling through Mexico since 2012. When he began this project Sorrentino says, "the vast majority rode the cargo trains known as La Bestia: The Beast. Despite facing a horrific journey—it’s estimated that 80% of refugees were attacked, 60% of women raped, people are killed falling off trains—virtually every train had hundreds of people clinging to it." 

On returning to Mexico in 2015 Sorrentino discovered the trains virtually empty. "Police, immigration agents and even army units are now preventing people from riding La Bestia, sometimes using brutal methods. These include pulling people off trains with long hooks, using Tasers and even shooting refugees. People are taking even more dangerous routes and literally walking to America". This is the refugee crisis no one is talking about says Sorrentino. 

(C) All photos Joseph Sorrentino

Festival: Preview
Auckland Festival of Photography


"Shame" Russ Flatt

This annual festival in the magic habour city of Auckland on New Zealand's north island goes from strength to strength. This year more than 100 exhibitions and events provide visitors with an expansive programme that features both local and international artists working across photographic genres.

The 2016 theme is HOME, which Auckland Festival of Photography's (AFP) public participation director Julia Durkin says, "is a rich and complex one to explore. In Auckland we are having to grapple with regional growth, fading dreams of home ownership, migrant hopes and expectations, and refugees searching for new identity. These elements all feed into the ‘conversation’ that this year’s HOME content provides audiences”.

AFP's Signature series of exhibitions showcases 25 New Zealand-based photographers. There are also 18 Talking Culture events with presentations from leading experts from India, China, New Zealand, Singapore, USA and Australia. 

"AFP has become the most significant visual arts event in the New Zealand winter calendar...and includes but goes beyond the major galleries, involving Auckland-based photographers in its extensive fringe programme of 44 exhibitions. AFP is also building a unique archive of the region thanks to the popular appeal of AFP’s annual Nikon Auckland Photo Day competition."

New works by this year's recipient of AFP's Annual Commission by Sacred Hill, Russ Flatt, will also be premiered on opening night at Silo6 in Wynyard Quarter along with an international line up, selected by New York-based curator Simone Douglas: USA-based artist collaborative Lin +Lam, and Australia-based Shan Turner-Carrol, Shoufay Derz and Eva Marosy-Weide as well as Anna Carey, Ian Strange and Sean Lowry.

Here's a peek at what's on show. For more information on the festival visit the AFP website. To find out more about each exhibition below click on the relevant link.

Ian Strange - HOME

Shan Turner-Carroll - HOME

 
Arthur Ou - HOME

 

Laurence Aberhart - Celebrating Wood

Kate van der Drift - Eventual Efflorescence

 
Sim Chi Yin - The Rat Tribe

Talking Cultures Series

Oh Soon Hwa

Raymond Sagapolutele

Wen Huang PhD, Chair of Jury 2014 and co-founder China International Press Photo

Europe refugees - Sergey Ponomarev - Russia - Picture of the Year CHIPP 2016 Freelance/The New York Times

Fair:
Photo London

The second edition of Photo London opened yesterday and is on until Sunday. L'Oeil de la Photographie previewed the Fair and you can read the full story here. But for now, here are some of the visual highlights.

Sheep going to slaughter, early morning near the Caledonian Road, London 1965, Don McCullin courtesy of Hamiltons Gallery

Manchester, 1967 by Shirley Baker, courtesy The Photographers’ Gallery London

 

From the series Imprisoned Women (1991-1993) by Adriana LesVdo, courtesy Rolf Art Buenos Aries

David Bowie and Kate Moss 2005 by Ellen von Unwerth, courtesy Camera Work Berlin

By Night, Shining Wool and Towering Heel, Evelyn Tripp, New York by Lillian Bassman  

Ori Gersht. Floating World, Lost World, Courtesy Ben Brown Fine Art

Giles, The Pharmacy. Courtesy Eleven Fine Art

Handstand on Michel, 1948 by Jurgen Schadeberg, Blanca Berlin, Madrid

Friday Round Up - 13th May, 2016

This week on Friday Round Up a photo essay by Italian photographer Pierpaolo Mittica, a new book that documents the history of the Greek milk bars in Australia, Sandro Miller's amazing Homage: Malkovich and the Masters opens in New York, and some interesting weekend reading. Don't forget if you're in Sydney Head On Photo Festival is on until 22nd May. You can read my Head On Diary for L'Oeil de la Photographie here.

Photo Essay:
Pierpaolo Mittica - Living Toxic

The 13,000 odd residents of Karabash, a remote Russian copper mining town about 160km north of Kazakhstan, live in a polluted environment that Italian photographer Pierpaolo Mittica describes as “post-apocalyptic”. Mittica photographed Karabash for his ongoing series Living Toxic which he began in 2013. Living Toxic documents some of the world’s most environmentally damaged towns. Here the stench from the copper smelting plant makes the air virtually unbreathable, the river is poisoned and a huge black slag heap runs for about 1.5km through the town.

(C) All images Pierpaolo Mittica


Book:
Greek Cafes & Milk Bars of Australia

In the 1940s Greek milk bars started springing up around Australia, becoming focal points for regional towns where entertainment options were limited. This wonderful new book Greek Cafes & Milk Bars of Australia features hundred of photographs, stories and even old sample menus. It’s a great addition to Australia’s rich migrant history. How bland our world would have been without immigration. To find out more or buy the book click here. 

Exhibition: New York

Sandro Miller - Homage: Malkovich and the Masters 

Andres Serrano / Piss Christ (C) Sandro Miller

Dorothea Lange/ Migrant Mother (C) Sandro Miller

Herb Ritts/Jack Nicholson The Joker (C) Sandro Miller

Coinciding with the release of the book, which I'll be reviewing in the coming weeks, Chicago photographer Sandro Miller's Homage: Malkovich and the Masters opened last night in New York. I interviewed Sandro when he was in Australia last year for Head On Photo Festival and since then I've written a number of stories on his work. He's collaborated with John Malkovich for more than two decades and this body of work is nothing short of extraordinary - he and Mallkovich have painstakingly recreated some of the most iconic images of the 20th Century. Sandro is one of the most generous and talented photographers I've had the pleasure to interview and his work with Malkovich will be exhibited far and wide this year - from New York it goes to Amsterdam and then onto Russia. If you're in New York check it out. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Until 1 July

Yancey Richardson Gallery
525 West 22nd Street,
New York, NY. 10011

Weekend Reading:

BJP interview the new CEO of NOOR Clément Saccomani

Don McCullin on Digital Photography (an older article but still relevant)

Visa pour l'image previews its 2016 programme

Caleb Cain Marcus's photo essay on the Ganges on National Geographic ProofWhy Facts Aren’t Always Truths in Photography - Peter van Agtmael TIME magazine

Friday Round Up - 6th May, 2016

This week on Friday Round Up exquisite images by Michel Rawicki from his exhibition Touched by the Cold currently on in Paris. Also the exhibition Refugee on at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, Ingetje Tadros launches crowdfunding campaign for her book This is My Country and L'Oeil de la Photographie dedicates a day to Head On Photo Festival.

Exhibition: Paris
Michel Rawicki - Touched by the Cold

Nature and wildlife photographer Michel Rawicki has made more than 30 trips over the past 20 years traversing the length and breadth of the polar regions from Antarctica and Greenland, through Siberia and Alaska, in order to photograph people, wild animals, and the incredible landscapes of this region.

Against a backdrop of climatic upheavals, this photographer bears witness to a world that is changing, offering us a positive and honest look at this sensitive and fragile white universe that echoes current environmental concerns. This stunning exhibition features 80 photographs. 

(C) All images Michel Rawicki

Until 17 July
Luxembourg Gardens
Paris

Exhibition:
REFUGEE - Group Exhibition

(C) Tom Stoddart

REFUGEE features photographs taken around the world by five photographers: Martin Schoeller (USA 2016), Graciela Iturbide (Colombia 2105), Tom Stoddart (Europe 2105), Lynsey Addario (Myanmar 2015) and Omar Victor Diop (Cameroon, 2015). Current statistics from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, says 60 million people are displaced globally. 

This exhibition "allows audiences to engage with aspects of the plight of refugees not previously encountered, and to reflect on a full range of refugee experiences through singular images. The compelling exhibit offers visitors insight into the plight of refugees, including their efforts to survive, their needs, their dreams and their hopes for a better future".

(C) Graciela Iturbide

(C) Lynsey Addario

(C) Omar Victor Diop

Watch the video narrated by Cate Blanchett here. 

Until 21 August
Annenberg Space for Photography
2000 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles

Crowdfunding: 

This is My Country - A Book By Ingetje Tadros

Dutch photographer Ingetje Tadros has called the remote Western Australian town of Broome home for the past twelve years. Over the past four years she has been documenting the Aboriginal communities around Broome, which is a tourist mecca known for its pristine beaches, high-priced resorts and stunning scenery.

But Ingetje has uncovered another side to Broome, one the Western Australian government would prefer to sweep under the rug. Tadros says she is appalled by the way the Aboriginal people are treated by the community, and by the authorities. Many live in atrocious, squalid conditions.

Working to gain the trust of elders and other community members Ingetje spent many visits just talking and getting to know the community before she picked up her camera. As her relationship with the community strengthened she began to document daily life - funerals, hunting, family fights, a wedding and intimate family moments. In the last seven months her focus has turned to a single community; Kennedy Hill, one of around 100 indigenous communities that are facing closure under the government’s new edict. Her powerful black and white images have gained international attention and won Tadros a prestigious Walkley journalism award.

Ingetje is working with FotoEvidence to produce a high quality book that will give voice to the stories of the indigenous community in Broome, and wider recognition of the plight of the Australian Aboriginals. It is important work and you can help Ingetje to bring this book to fruition by supporting her Indiegogo campaign here.  

(C) All images Ingetje Tadros

Head On Photo Festival on L'Oeil de la Photographie

(C) Catherine Leutenegger Kodak City

(C) Daniella Zalcman Signs of Your Identity

(C) Giles Clarke Waste in Time

You can read My Diary, interview with Hollywood portrait photographer Michael Grecco and see My Picks (10 exhibitions) on today's L'Oeil de la Photographie.