Photojournalism Now: April 2017

April 28, 2017

Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 28th April, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up it's all about the Head On Photo Festival in Sydney. Part one of a two part feature kicks off with my top picks for the festival's featured exhibitions, but there are so many shows that there is sure to be something to appeal to every visual style. Next week I'll be blogging from the opening weekend.

And tomorrow my interview with Markus Klinko, about his amazing exhibition Bowie Unseen, undoubtedly one of this year's Head On highlights, is in the Australian Financial Review Weekend.

Special Feature:
Head On Photo Festival - Sydney
5 - 28 May, 2017

The annual Head On Photo Festival is a week away from kicking off with another spectacular line up of exhibitions, workshops, talks and other events including a debate with photographers from around the globe, and moderated by myself, on the question "Does photojournalism facilitate or counteract 'fake news'? Click here to register. It's free!

Get ready to have your mind blown. This year's Head On Photo Festival program rocks!

Exhibitions - My Picks

Juli Balla - Where the sidewalk ends

This stunning series by Hungarian-born Juli Balla features extravagant staged scenes that draw on street photography from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

Their filmic aesthetic is reminiscent of Gregory Crewdson’s work, although Balla has a distinct European sensibility in her visual signature.

Each tells a unique, compelling story.

Visually engaging and meticulously designed and executed, these are fabulous images that capture the imagination.

Also opening at Olsen Annexe at the same time is Australian photographer Tim Georgeson's ethereal series Oracles.

Dina Litovsky – Meatpacking

In this series Ukrainian-born Dina Litovsky, who has lived in New York since 1991, shows us another side to the city’s meatpacking district. Transformed at night into what she calls “a microcosm of sexual politics,” this former working class district was once populated with fetish houses and gay bars.

Now it is a mecca for those flocking to new fashionable nightclubs, which attract young single women looking for romance.

These girls who place themselves on parade hoping for Mr. Right, outnumber the opposite sex creating an environment in which competition is rife, giving new meaning to the idea of 'meatpacking'.

Litovsky doesn’t make any moral judgments, rather she captures scenes as they unfold, the industrial setting making for a startling background to the painted and stiletto-heel clad throngs of women hoping to be the ‘one’.

Venue: Head On Photo Festival Pop Up QVB Forecourt, Sydney.

Maggie Steber - The Secret Garden of Lily LaPalma

This is a very personal series of photographs, which Maggie Steber says "was made in the shadows of a dark side of me that, as of late, I have begun to re-explore. Without meaning to make them so, these photographs reveal my fears and private memories, all the things that are wrapped up in a human life. In The Garden there is danger and beauty in a wild jungle that grows unfettered. The photographs are a documentation of my subconscious and imagination, often posing as something entirely unrelated and recognised only by me. They are created spur of the moment. I go from the gut. I don’t want them to be perfect because reality isn’t perfect; it’s messy, and the imperfection of these spontaneous moments reflects what I’m after.”

In addition to the exhibition, Maggie, who is a multi-award winning photojournalist, photo editor and curator, is holding a workshop for a limited number of extremely fortunate photographers. If you want to “Walk on the Wild Side with Maggie Steber” there are still a few places left. Don't miss out.

Venue: AD Space - UNSW Art & Design

In Brief:

Two Australian Photojournalists - Brian Cassey and Michael Amendolia

Based in Far North Queensland, Brian Cassey, who was born in London, but we've claimed him as our own, has been shooting since he was a lad. A multi-award winner, Brian has covered sports, news and features and shares a selection of his life's work in this exhibition at Juniper Hall.

Michael Amendolia is another super talented Australian photojournalist who is best known for his work with the late Fred Hollows, whose pioneering efforts to bring sight to those in third world countries is one of the most remarkable humanitarian stories of the past century. In this exhibition Michael shares some of the images taken over 25 years documenting this marvellous work. His work is on show at Head On Photo Festival Pop Up QVB Forecourt.

To find out more about Head On Photo Festival and to see the full program head over to the website.

April 21, 2017

Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 21st April, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - Australian photographic artist Murray Fredericks showcases his latest work in Melbourne and London, Greek artist Aris Georgiou's exhibition opens in Sydney and New Zealand photographer Thomas Slade makes his solo debut in Wellington. Plus grant rounds are open for Getty Grants and W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography and the Indian Photography Festival - Hyderabad calls for entries. Next week, a preview of the 2017 Head On Photo Festival, which promises to be fantastic!

Exhibition: Melbourne & London
Murray Fredericks - Vanity

Australian photographic artist Murray Fredericks has built an international reputation on his epic vistas of Australia’s Lake Eyre, his signature a dead flat horizon that conveys the vastness of space. It is this concept of space that Fredericks is chasing, the idea that in the landscape there is limitless discovery, the opportunity to shift to a different plane, to transcend the known and drift into possibility.

Fredericks keeps going back to Lake Eyre, which is 144km long and 77km wide, to find new ways to engage. He’s now made 17 trips and in his latest series, “Vanity,” he uses a large mirror as a device through which to further explore the vistas of this otherworldly landscape. “Rather than reflecting our own ‘surface’ image, the mirror is positioned to draw our gaze out and away from ourselves, into the environment, driving us towards an emotional engagement with light, colour and space,” he says.

Last night I attended the opening in Melbourne at Arc One Gallery. These are stunning images that when viewed in the gallery are just breathtaking. And no, they are not Photoshopped!

Murray Fredericks' 'Vanity' opens at Arc One

Currently showing in Melbourne until 27 May at Arc One Gallery 45 Flinders Lane
Opening in London at Hamiltons Gallery on 28 April, 13 Carlos Pl, Mayfair, London W1K 2EU

Exhibition: Sydney

Aris Georgiou - Circumstantial Evidence

This exhibition is the first major survey of photographic works by Greek artist Aris Georgiou to be shown in Australia. Curated by Jack Pam (who is the son of Australian photographer Max Pam) Circumstantial Evidence includes photographs spanning a period of thirty years taken in Greece, USA, France, Germany, Israel and India.

(C) Aris Georgiou

Pam says Georgiou’s body of work “explores the possibilities of human endeavour through a powerfully romantic, creative sensibility. Themes of repetition, memory, hope, dreams and love are consistently confronted in Georgiou’s work as they are warped and exploited by the passage of time”.

Georgiou will be in Australia for the show and will hold an artist’s talk at 2pm on 13th May. A limited edition publication will be produced for the exhibition by the Australian Museum of Contemporary Photography.

26 April to 21 May
Delmar Gallery
Trinity Grammar School
144 Victoria St, Ashfield (Sydney)

Exhibition: Wellington, New Zealand

Thomas Slade - What brings you here? & Translating a silent language

From: What brings you here?

Thomas Slade's first solo exhibition features two bodies of work: What brings you here? and Translating a silent language.

Slade says, "What brings you here? is a comparative study that examines both the positive and negative changes in rural New Zealand. Why does one town decline while another prospers? Using photography, statistics and interviews this body of work explores differences and consequences of change for two towns (Waverley and Shannon)...These images of rural New Zealand highlight change. They remind us where we have come from as a country and of our identity as New Zealanders."

In contrast, Translating a silent language is a series of photographs made in 2016 in which the chosen subjects were photographed in urban environments under the direction of Slade and the constructed scenes were captured using a high-end digital camera. Both show the artist's versatility.

Until 15 May
Photospace
1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place
Wellington New Zealand

Grants:

Getty Grants - 5 Grants of US$10,000

Past winner Kirsten Luce

Five photojournalists will be selected to receive grants that will aid in funding projects of personal and journalistic significance. This year the judges are: Alice Gabriner (TIME), Chelsea Matiash, (The Intercept), Thomas Simonetti (Washington Post), Damon Winter (New York Times) and Jean-Francois Leroy (Visa Pour l’Image). Applications close May 15. Apply here.

W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography

2016 Recipient was Justyna Mielnikiewicz

Annually the W. Eugene Smith grant awards a photographer “who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to documenting the human condition in the spirit of Smith’s concerned photography and dedicated compassion.” This year the grant has been increased to US$35,000 and entries close on May 31. Click here for details.

Last year’s recipient was Justyna Mielnikiewicz for her project A Diverging Frontier, which she says, “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”.

Festival:

Indian Photography Festival - Hyderabad

The Indian Photography Festival - Hyderabad invites photographers from all over the world to submit for the 2017 exhibition program. The festival runs from 21 September to 8 October. To find out more visit the website.

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: