Photojournalism Now

November 11, 2016

Friday Round Up - 11 November, 2016

This week Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up features photographic essays on Iran, Russia and Scotland.

Exhibition: Melbourne

Hoda Afshar – In the Exodus, I Love You More

Hoda is originally from Iran and now lives in Melbourne. I interviewed her a couple of years ago about her series Under Western Eyes and am pleased to share some of her new work with you.

In the Exodus, I Love You More is a continuation of her work on her homeland. “This series captures Iran and Iranians' lives and their changing faces during a time of great transition,” Hoda says. “(It) is very close to me, and I am honoured to be holding the first major exhibition of the work at Brightspace Gallery.”

Valeriy Klamm - The Siberians: Daily Life of Rural Russia

In 2012 I interviewed Valeriy Klamm the project coordinator of the community blog ‘Birthmark on the Map’, a project capturing rural Russia with a focus on Siberia. At the time he told me of his decade long bid to bring a view of rural Russia to a broader audience – to tell a different story about Russia, one that didn't focus on war, climate or deprivation.

Valeriy works in the cultural sector in his hometown of Novosibirsk, Siberia. He said, “I wanted to tell the story to the outside world of who we are in reality, not a polished view... I am very happy that the content has stayed real. The blog continues to develop and it is like an endless puzzle, an endless chain”.

This puzzle now has a new piece, Valeriy’s own series The Siberians which is also a book. You can see the book here. I visited Russia some years ago now, but I didn't get to Siberia; the country is so vast it was impossible to cram everything on my 'to do' list into three weeks. Russia is incredibly rich culturally and I found it fascinating, as are Valeriy's photographs.

French photographer Laetitia Vancon’s photo essay of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland’s western islands, captures some of the last Gaelic-speaking villages and their inhabitants. It’s a hauntingly beautiful series that will be exhibited next month in Paris. Laetitia’s documentary photography encompasses a diverse range of topics with essays on the blood feud in Albania, the vanishing art of mud wrestling in India and the gentrification of Istanbul. You can see more of her work here.

November 04, 2016

Friday Round Up - 4 November, 2016

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up three very different exhibitions - Andrew Chapman's Drive Line in Melbourne and two exhibitions in Sydney - The Light Collective and Stephen Dupont.

Exhibition: Melbourne
Andrew Chapman – Drive Line

The closing of the Ford plant in Melbourne, and indeed the withdrawal from Australia of this iconic car manufacturer, is a major blow to this country’s manufacturing industry, but more importantly it is devastating for hundreds of families who have relied on the plant for their livelihoods.

Ford is gone. Holden will be closing up shop and so will Toyota.

Still I’m not going to say anymore on the shortsightedness of the Liberal government and its epic failure to acknowledge the massive ramifications of allowing our car industry to crumble to dust…

Melbourne photojournalist Andrew Chapman has captured the last days of the Ford plant in Broadmeadows (on the outskirts of Melbourne) in his usual style making pictures that resonate at a deep human level, even when they only feature machinery as many of these do.

Chapman draws out the stories of this plant, which began operation in 1959 and closed its doors in October 2016, in black and white, which serves to immediately place these images as historical documents.

The series was commissioned by Hume City Council and will be on show until the end of January.

It is great that Hume had the foresight to engage Chapman before it was too late.

Drive Line is an important series and will serve as an invaluable archive for future generations.

10 November 2016 - 29 January, 2017
Gee Lee-Wik Doleen Gallery
Hume Global Learning Centre
75-95 Central Park Avenue
Craigieburn

Exhibition: Sydney

Kati Chanda - Lake Eyre
Interpretations from the Air

Adam Williams, Paul Hoelen, Luke Austin, Ignacio Palacios and Ricardo Da Cunha make up The Light Collective, a group of Australian landscape photographers four of which have just launched a new book and exhibition of photographs of Lake Eyre taken from above. These photographs could be oil paintings and they are rich with texture. Many of the scenes are otherworldly and all are incredibly beautiful.

“When you take to the air its (Lake Eyre’s) true complexity, variety and immensity is breathtakingly revealed. Salt deposits, eroded channels and inlets, layers of sediment and algal blooms provide endlessly subtle variations of texture, lines, patter and colour,” the group says.

Adam, Paul, Ignacio and Luke’s images are truly stunning. I’ll be reviewing the book in December, but if you’re in Sydney check out the show at The Depot Gallery. You can see more of their work here - The Light Collective . There's also a behind the scenes video.

Until 12 November
The Depot Gallery
2 Danks Street
Waterloo

Exhibition: Sydney

Stephen Dupont - The White Sheet Series

Havana, Cuba (C) Stephen Dupont

Multi-award winning Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont caps off a brilliant year with his exhibition The White Sheet Series at Sydney’s Stills Gallery. This year Dupont has won numerous awards for his amazing book Generation AK including the Olivier Reboot Award, POYi Book of the Year and the Australian Photobook of the Year, adding to a long list of accolades.

The White Sheet Series features portraits taken by Dupont in various places around the globe including PNG, Cuba and India. Carrying a white sheet with him to use as a backdrop, Dupont sets up his makeshift studio on the streets of the cities he visits and invites locals to sit for him. The use of the white sheet places these portraits in the mode of traditional ethnographic photography where a blank background was commonly used in early portraiture. But Dupont’s take is original, and in his white sheet portraits we can see the people holding up the sheet, and the surrounds to give context and personality to the images that goes beyond the stereotypical portrait.

Havana, Cuba (C) Stephen Dupont

Piksa, PNG (C) Stephen Dupont

Varanasi, India (C) Stephen Dupont

9 November to 10 December
Stills Gallery
36 Gosbell Street
Paddington

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October 28, 2016

Friday Round Up - 28 October 2016

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - Sydney's Blackeye Gallery pops up in Melbourne with works by Sandro Miller, Frank Ockenfels, Robyn Beeche and others, the recipient of the 2016 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography and some interesting weekend reading/viewing.

Exhibition: Melbourne

Blackeye Pop Up Gallery - fortyfivedownstairs

Melbourne photography lovers have the chance to see some fantastic works on show for a limited time at fortyfivedownstairs. Blackeye Gallery's pop up show features works from international photography luminaries including Chicago's Sandro Miller with his phenomenal series Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage to Photographic Masters and American portraitist and artist Frank Ockenfels from his exhibition Frank Ockenfels 3. The show also includes work shot in the 1980s in London by Robyn Beeche as well as Blackeye Gallery co-owner Tom Evangelidis' series Façade and others.

Until 5 November

fortyfivedownstairs

45 Flinders Lane

Melbourne

Awards:
W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography

Justyna Mielnikiewicz is the recipient of this year’s W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for her project “A Diverging Frontier”, which looks at the role of ethnicity in the political development of countries that were formerly part of the USSR.

In her proposal Justyna said: “My project explores borders as ever-changing spheres of influence that overlap physical borders marked on the map. It documents life on the frontier of Europe, and delves into the symbolic meanings and reconstructed historical narratives of these borderlands, which contribute to the formation of national identity and shaping the images of the neighboring countries.”

It's a fascinating project and it will be interesting to see where Justyna takes it.