Photojournalism Now

April 07, 2017

Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 7th April, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - the Photographic Emotion festival is on in France until 30 April plus some great weekend reading. Next week I'm taking a break for the Easter holiday, so there won't be an edition of Friday Round Up, but I'll see you back here on 21st April.

Festival:
Photographic Emotion - Angouleme, France

I always enjoy featuring lesser known festivals, especially those from Europe where there seems to be such a vibrant photographic community. This week it's the Photographic Emotion festival held in the south-western French commune of Angouleme and the surrounding area of the Charente. Angouleme is not far from Bordeaux, a lovely part of France for which I have fond memories, not just of the great red wine!

This year the festival features three guest photographers: Warren Saré, Jean-Daniel Guillou and Jean-Michel Leligny who have been selected to represent a facet of the theme ‘History and Short Stories’. Plus 21 photographers have been chosen to exhibit from the open call: Bruno Mercier, Michel Claverie, Paul-Emile Objar, Brigitte Manoukian, Christophe Hargoues, Jean-Charles Dehedin, Anne-Lore Mesnages, Arnaud Hubas, Louis Oke Agbo, Arnaud Makalou, Baudouin Mouanda, Cushmok, Nicolas Auvray, Amaral and Barthes, Irina Sovkine, JL Aubert, Anna Bambou, Jean-Michel Delage, Emilie Masson and Sébastien Pageot.

These are my picks:

Photographic Emotion

Until 30 April

Some interesting weekend reading/viewing:

Times-Standard: Photographer researches the earliest women in her field

The Guardian: "The disease enslaved me": Living with leprosy in Ghana - in pictures

TIME: Nordic Noir: Fleeing the Darkness in Scandinavia

Impressa: Long Distance Relationship

March 31, 2017

Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 31st March, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - a truly wonderful photo essay from Ukrainian photographer Viktoria Sorochinski and Siberia's amazing frozen Baikal Lake, the deepest, and cleanest on earth. Plus the winners of the Australia and New Zealand Photobook of the Year Awards.

Photo Essay:
Viktoria Sorochinski - Lands of No Return

Ukrainian photographer Viktoria Sorochinski has been working on this photo essay for close to a decade. These beautiful, poignant and at times hauntingly sorrowful portraits capture a society that has been bypassed by progress, its elderly residents impoverished and alone. This work is incredibly mature and insightful and rings with authenticity.

Viktoria says as a child she visited her grandparents in this small village near Kiev, a time that she recalls as "filled with light and happiness." Years later she visited the village again and this time "was astonished at how lifeless and miserable it looked. There were almost exclusively elderly people in the village. They are living out their last days: neglected by the government and often abandoned by their families. Along with their traditions and their homes, they are slowly disappearing…Even though this project started as a personal journey, the more I worked on it, the more I realized that capturing and commemorating these people and places has a greater value. They are the last remaining evidence of the once-magical and vibrant culture that will soon be known only in history books”.

Photo Essay:

Kristina Kakeeva - Siberia's Frozen Baikal Lake

Russian photographer Kristina Kakeeva is also an engineer. She spent several days on the lake to produce these wonderful photographs. She also tells the story of how the lake came to be, which I love.

"The only river in the world that flows from the lake is Angara, all other rivers flow into the lake. There is a legend that the Father Baikal had 336 rivers—335 sons and one daughter, Angara. All of the sons flowed into Baikal to restock the water, but the daughter fell in love with Yenisei (another river in Russia) and started to take her father’s water to her lover. In response, Father Baikal threw a huge rock into his daughter and cursed her. This rock is called Shaman-Stone; it is situated in the spring head of Angara, and is considered to be the river’s beginning."

Photobook Awards:
Australian and New Zealand Photobook Awards - Winners

Katrin Koenning and Sarker Protick are the winners of the 2016 Australian Photobook of the Year for their publication Astres Noir published by Chose Commune (France). This win adds to a list of impressive accolades including being shortlisted for Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards (First Book) and the Prix Nadar.

Over the ditch the New Zealand Photobook of the Year was shared by Simon Devitt for Rannoch and Evangeline Davis for Touchy.

To find out more: Australia and New Zealand. These awards are sponsored by Momento Pro (Geoff and Libby) who deserve a shout-out because they really do put their heart and soul into making photobooks.

March 24, 2017

Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 24th March, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - group shows for Sydney and Melbourne and the winner of the 2017 BJP International Photography Award, Daniel Castro Garcia's exhibition Foreigner: Migration into Europe 2015-2016 is on at TJ Boulting Gallery, London.

Exhibition: Sydney
HOME - Group Show
This group show featuring Brian Cassey, Daniel Grendon, Godelieve Mols, Isabelle Baumann Ivana Jovanovic, Lola Alexander, Michael Jalaru Torres, Nick Pont, Samantha Mackie and Zorica Purlija explores the theme of 'home'. As you can see from these images, it's a theme that means a whole lot of different things for the individual. And it's one of my favourite themes because of the unique perspectives it evokes.

“Fragility Of Home" © Brian Cassey

"My Place" © Brian Cassey

"Making Sense of The Vast" © Samantha Mackie

Bending Light © Michael Jalaru Torres

An Inconsistent Look - Group Show

This group exhibition examines how people often see the same things differently; how what one person notices another will overlook. Once again, it’s all about perspectives.

"An Inconsistent Look" takes the viewer to the streets of Melbourne and Argentina in black and white, and in colour. Italian-born photographer Carlos Oggioni captures the daily commute in Melbourne; Scottish-born photographer Barry C. Douglas steps back to look in; and Felipe Devoto presents an abstract view of his native Argentina.

(C) Carlos Oggioni

6-27 April
Magnet Galleries
Level 2
640 Bourke Street
Melbourne

Exhibition: London
Daniel Castro Garcia - Foreigner: Migration into Europe 2015-2016

Daniel Castro Garcia was this year's winner of the British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Award for his series depicting migrants caught up in the European refugee crisis.

Castro Garcia spent weeks with his subjects, interviewing almost everyone before he photographed them. He says this engagement is “the backbone of the work. Going up to people and speaking to them, discussing their situation before even mentioning photography. I really have a strong belief that it’s a collaboration. Without engaging with the individuals and conveying what you’re trying to do with them, it’s worthless.”