July 31, 2015

Friday Round Up - 31 July 2015

This week on Friday Round Up - one month to go before the 27th Visa pour l'image, Juno Gemes' Spirit Maps to open in Canberra, the winner of this year's Ian Parry Scholarship, @everydayafrica and Andrew Quilty wins Walkley Best Freelance Journalist of the Year. 

Festival:
Dinosaurs and Nostalgia
Visa pour l'Image 2015


Visa pour l'image's venerable director Jean-François Leroy, writes about this year's festival, the 27th instalment of the world's longest running, and most significant, festival of photojournalism held annually in Perpignan, France. If you haven't made the trek, it's incredibly worthwhile. Online accreditation is now open.

"Our recent statements defending ethical practices in photojournalism triggered some lively reactions, and we must have heard every argument possible. The world is on the move, so it’s time for photojournalism to move too. We are allegedly the protectors of an old-fashioned, narrow-minded vision of photojournalism. That’s quite a charge!

"Such scathing criticism neither concerns us nor upsets us. Au contraire! We see these comments as expressions of encouragement, bolstering our belief in a vision of photojournalism which we have been advocating, in no uncertain terms, over the last 27 festivals.

"How and why should photojournalism change? Is the goal to take staged pictures in studio conditions? Do we want “still life” images to conjure up scenes of war? “You know, all those pictures of war and famine look the same in the end.” What sort of cynical, mindless argument is that? Do we hear that kind of nonsense about sports photos? Well, too bad for us!

"When you look at the wealth of photography we have for the 2015 festival, when you look at what’s coming onto the market (which, as we’ve said so often in so many debates, is getting smaller every year), when you look at the new names appearing, with new talent and more energy, when you wander around Perpignan in September, then you realize that photojournalism is certainly not going to disappear. And that’s good news.

"So, long live nostalgia! Long live the dinosaurs! And welcome to the real world." Jean-François Leroy 2015.

This year's program features a diverse range of exhibitions that demonstrate the incredible breadth of photojournalism stories being told. Look out for the preview on Photojournalism Now - 28th August. Until then, here are a few images to give you a sense of what's in store.  


Somali refugees whose makeshift shelters were amongst the dozens of houses and shops destroyed by soldiers acting on orders from the Somali government. Sarkusta refugee camp, southern Mogadishu, March 4, 2015.
© Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP


Laurel did not know that this would be her last meal: her famous eggplant parmigianino recipe, made specially for her by her son Matthew.
Chappaqua, NY, December 2014.
© Nancy Borowick

Laurine (17) and her son Thiméo (4 months). They live with Laurine’s father in Fourmies. January 2015.
© Viviane Dalles
Winner of the 2014 Canon Female Photojournalist Award, supported by Elle Magazine



Nepal, May 1, 2015.
© Omar Havana / Getty Images


Kumari Dangol with special festive make-up. It is not just outside appearances that change for festivals; former Kumaris say they felt bigger and stronger, and could feel heat radiating from their foreheads.
© Stephanie Sinclair for National Geographic Magazine


Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit, Suakoko, Liberia, October 2014. 
Health workers entering the high-risk zone to do their morning rounds, removing waste from the previous night. Then a second team enters, with medical staff and health workers bringing food and water, doing blood tests, checking patients and providing medical care.
© Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images Reportage / The New York Times
Exhibition: Canberra
Juno Gemes - Spirit Maps




Visual advocacy for Justice for Indigenous Australians has been the hallmark of Juno Gemes’ artistic practice. Born in Budapest, Hungary Juno settled in Australia in 1949 has spent more than four decades using creative media to agitate for shared knowledge and cultural understanding. Her practice has resulted in a body of photographs, film and ephemera that, although superficially disparate, are bound through the common threads of critique and compassion. Gemes is an observer and a listener. Her images arise from careful conversation, from intuitive felt connections with her subjects and their stories.

A recent collaboration with master photogravure printer Lothar Osterburg at his 3rd St Studio in Brooklyn, New York, produced this group of images that reinterrogate the surfaces and resonances of the photographs into a timelessness and variation of tonal modalities which accords with emotional resonances of these two iconic images. Here the images confirm a sense of immortality of spirit and the continuity of people and culture in this remote island community.

"To me Juno Gemes photos capture the world of Australia’s Aborigines in not so as much a documentary mode, as on an emotional level...Working with Juno in my studio was a joy. She was excited to be able to work in the traditional dustgrain copperplate photogravure process as developed by Fox Talbot and refined Carl Kliç in the 19th century. She approached the proofing and printing with an open mind I rarely have experienced with photographers," says Lothar Osterburg.



Juno's works are held in collections including The National Gallery of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, Macquarie University Art Gallery Collection and in the Collection Klugue Rhue Museum at The University of Virginia USA. 

(Above text adapted from the introduction by Charleyene Olgivie in the catalogue for Juno Gemes - Spirit Maps).

Juno Gemes - Spirit Maps
Opens 9th August - Juno will be giving a talk at the opening.
On until 30 August
Manning Clark House Canberra


In Brief:

Winner Ian Parry Scholarship 

Yuyang Liu has been awarded this year’s Ian Parry scholarship for his work documenting the lives of the severely mentally ill and their families in China. He told the New York Times Lens Blog that he was drawn to the story, which was shot in the Guangdong Province, because the mentally ill and their families are often overlooked, if not completely ignored. “This is a group of people who are invisible in normal society. We can’t see them in schools or workplaces, and we don’t see their families.” His photographs depict the families as they struggle to care for their loved ones. Read the full interview and see more images on Lens Blog

Everyday Africa Education 

@everydayafrica - Austin Merrill and Peter DiCampo have expanded into education. Find out more about what these Pulitzer Center grantee journalists are up to, and how you can participate, here.
Photo: Jana Ašenbrennerová 

Andrew Quilty 
Walkley Best Freelance Journalist of the Year
Multi-award winning Australian photojournalist Andrew Quilty talks with Kyla Woods about his journey on Blink.com.  


Gul Ahmad, an infant boy suffering from acute malnutrition, is covered by his mother’s scarf while being treated in the therapeutic feeding centre ward at the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) administered Boost Hospital in Lashkar Gah, the capial of Helamnd Province in southern Afghanistan. ©Andrew Quilty/ OCULI

July 24, 2015

Friday Round Up - 24 July, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up - Cuba, exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, and call for entries - KAUNAS PHOTO festival portfolio reviews and GUATE PHOTO 15 exhibitions. And a great article by Magnum Photo's Larry Towell.

Photo Essay:
Greg Kahn - Cuba






American documentary fine art photographer Greg Kahn gives us a view of today’s Cuba where the gulf between the have’s and have nots widens as the country is pushed into the ‘modern’ world leaving many behind. 










(C) All images Greg Kahn


Exhibitions: Melbourne

Impressions of Melbourne

Charles Kerry 1884

This exhibition is in response to the photographs by Eugène Atget (1857–1927) which feature in NGA’s touring exhibition, Impressions of Paris where Atget is the only photographer. His works appear with those of Degas, Daumier and Lautrec.

Impressions of Melbourne canvases early images of the city taken in the late 1800s by the likes of Charles Kerry through to more contemporary artists. Works are drawn from MGA’s collection. One of my favourite photographers, Mark Strizic, features along with other notable Australian photographers including Max Dupain. 

Mark Strizic Collins Street 1967

Mark Strizic Princes Bridge 1956

Both shows are on until 20 September
Monash Gallery of Art
860 Ferntree Gully Road
Wheelers Hill

Exhibitions: Sydney

Extracts
Mclean Stephenson








(C) All images Mclean Stephenson

This exhibition features an eclectic mix of work from Sydney photographer Mclean Stephenson. Shot over six years on a variety of film formats, his intention with this series is to show the imperfection of the medium as well as the freedom that comes with being open to possibilities and taking a chance.

28 July to 16 August
Blackeye Gallery
3/138 Darlinghurst Road
Darlinghurst 


2020 (I)
Merilyn Fairskye
 



At a time when there is renewed debate over nuclear energy, this series by Sydney visual artist and filmmaker Merilyn Fairskye takes a future view of the impact of nuclear energy on humans and the environment. Shot around the Dungeness Power Station B, Kent UK and Degelen Mountain, Soviet underground nuclear test site, The Polygon, Kazakhstan, Fairskye’s images convey a bleak outlook to a potentially real scenario. 






(C) All images Merilyn Fairskye

Until 29 August
Stills Gallery
36 Gosbell Street
Paddington

Call for Entries:

KAUNAS PHOTO 2015 Portfolio Reviews

Registration Open



Established in 2004 KAUNAS PHOTO festival is held annually in Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. This year portfolio reviews will be held during the festival on 4 September. There are no geographic boundaries to entry and photographers from around the world are invited to register. KAUNAS PHOTO festival portfolio reviews also feature awards including a cash prize, and artistic residencies. It’s a great opportunity to have your work viewed by curators from across Europe. Visit the site for more information. 


GUATE PHOTO 15 
Exhibition Open Call

This is the third outing for this festival, which is held in Guatemala and Antigua Guatemala. GUATE PHOTO is calling for submissions from photographers to participate in the main exhibition program during this year’s festival, which opens on 12 November and runs till the end of the month. A total of 15 artists and 30 photo books will be chosen. Apply here. Program details are yet to be announced, but the festival confirms its lead exhibition is by Martin Parr. 

Article:
Larry Towell's advise to young photojournalists 

In an article on Vice.com Magnum Photo's Larry Towell shares his thoughts. It's definitely worth a read. 

USA. NYC. 9/11/2001. A dazed man picks up a paper that was blown out of the 
towers after the attack of the World Trade Center, and begins to read it. 
Photo by Larry Towell / Magnum Photos.

EL SALVADOR. San Salvador. 1991. A daughter comforts her mother who 
passed out while grieving at the grave of her son who was killed by government 
death squads. Some 70,000 persons died in the 12-year civil war. 
Photo by Larry Towell / Magnum Photos.

July 17, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up Foam Magazine announces 2015 Talents, Katie Orlinsky's Alaska, James Hosking's Beautiful by Night, Alexia Sinclair's masterclass series, Colour My World panel discussion at the National Gallery, Rosemary Laing at AGNSW and a Q&A with LA Times photojournalist Michael Robinson Chavez.

FOAM Talents 2015
Annually Foam Magazine seeks to identify talented photo media artists under the age of 35. Watch the video to see this year's selected photographers.


Katie Orlinsky - Alaska


I’ve written about American photographer Katie Orlinsky a few times as her work continues to engage me. In a recent series she shot in Alaska the impact of climate change on the environment is dramatic - she was on assignment to photograph the seal hunting season, but the seals had already migrated because the water had become too warm and the ice had melted weeks earlier than usual. In these diptychs that feature on National Geographic's Proof blog you can see how the environment has changed in the space of 6 weeks. 





Read the story and see more images on National Geographic Proof

Photo Essay: 
James Hosking - Beautiful by Night


Gustavo/Donna
Gustavo/Donna 

Beautiful by Night is both a documentary film and a series of stills that capture three of San Francisco’s veteran drag queens as they make ready for their performances including intimate at home moments rarely seen. It's a poignant story, told with compassion and honesty. Worth taking a look at the documentary here


Frank/Olivia


Frank/Olivia - I’m a man in a dress and I’m not afraid to show that

Masterclass - Alexia Sinclair 
Discover how Alexia Sinclair digitally mastered the final artwork for Into the Gloaming. Alexia has produced an online masterclass comprising 7 downloadable videos giving you a chance to learn from one of the most exciting, and exacting, photo media artists in the world.

 
(C) Alexia Sinclair

Panel Discussion
Colour My World

(C) Robyn Stacey

The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is hosting a panel discussion with Micky Allan, Janina Green, Ruth Maddison and Robyn Stacey as part of the Colour My World exhibition. Moderated by the show’s curators Shaune Lakin and Anne O’Hehir this is a great opportunity to talk with these artists on the ways that ‘art photography’, feminism and photography’s materiality converged during the 1970s and ‘80s.

25th July, 10.30-11.30am FREE

Exhibition: Sydney
Rosemary Laing - transportation



Continuing this year’s focus on photography at the Art Gallery of NSW is Rosemary Laing’s exhibition ‘transportation’ featuring works from her brownwork (above) and greenwork (below) series. 




All images (C) Rosemary Laing

Until 20 September
Photography Gallery
AGNSW
Art Gallery Road
The Domain Sydney 

Q&A with Michael Robinson Chavez
Michael Robinson Chavez is a photojournalist with the Los Angeles Times. He was recently awarded the Robert F Kennedy Award for Journalism for his series on the California drought. He was in Australia for Head On Photo Festival in May with his exhibition The Driest Seasons: California’s Dust Bowl. He spoke with Alison Stieven-Taylor about the evolution of this story into a five-part series, which ran on the front page of the LA Times...(click on the Q&A tab at the top of the blog to read the interview and see more pictures). 

July 10, 2015

Friday Round Up - 10 July, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up - Generation '74 at Arles, Eastern Europe under the Lens at ACP, the launch of Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women and #Dysturb holds workshop in Sydney.

Photos of the Week:
Child Labour 1908 and 2015


Lewis Hine 1908


Reuters 2015

Exhibition: Sydney
Ex & Post - Eastern Europe Under the Lens
Group Show

Andrej Balco, Pezinok from the series Suburbs 2005-2006

Curated by Sári Stenczer and Krisztina Erdei this group exhibition features works from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Germany and Slovakia. The exhibition explores the aftermath of the collapse of socialist systems in Eastern Europe, the impact on individuals and communities and how those nations are seeking to define cultural identity. 


Rafal Milach, Baranovichi Sasha, the best welder of the Republic of Belarus

Until 16 August
Australian Centre for Photography
257 Oxford Street
Paddington

Book:
Generation ‘74


I really love everything about this book – the concept, the photographs, the text, the production. I saw Generation ’74 when I was at the Auckland Festival of Photography in May and soon it will be on my shelf, after making the journey to Australia all the way from Lithuania.

Generation ’74 features 11 photographers born in 1974. But it’s so much more than a collection of images from a bunch of 40 year olds. Each chapter features a single photographer and begins with a photograph from their childhood followed by 10-12 pages of their work. At the end of the book there is an insightful Q&A also. 











Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction by one of the photographers and the book’s publisher, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas who is also the director of KAUNAS PHOTO festival.

What do these 11 photographers have in common apart from the year they were born in? Well, quite a lot actually. Today, every one of them is well known in their respective countries and beyond. Some are globally renowned and celebrated figures of photography, but before they became what they are now, they too experienced some historical milestones. They were turning 15 in the year when the Berlin wall came down; the guys from the ‘Eastern Bloc’ were between 16 and 18 years old when their countries regained their independences; and they experienced the expansion of the European Union in 2004 when they were in their thirties. “Generation ‘74” accommodated the Internet and digital photography at a mature age, without having discarded the fundamental ideas about life and photography. They all have created long-term projects based on the notion that the world has been transitioning from analogically unique to uniformly global. Their attitude towards taking pictures is imprinted by a sense of civic, social, and individual duty to make honest statements about their countries of origin, residence and those they visit on project trips. Their photographic works do not pretend to be fashionable, flashy, and are by no means superficial or glossy. Instead, they are humane, thoughtful, bitter, ironic, humorous, critical, and they are resonating with what people feel deep down, rather than say out loud.

Photographers in Generation ‘74: Simon Roberts (UK), Nick Hannes (Belgium), Kirill Golovchenko (Ukraine/Germany), Przemyslaw Pokrycki (Poland), Tomáš Pospěch (Czech Republic), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas (Lithuania), Vitus Saloshanka (Belarus/Germany), Gintaras Česonis (Lithuania), Borut Peterlin (Slovenia), Pekka Niittyvirta (Finland), Davide Monteleone (Italy).

To find out more or to order Generation ’74 click here

If you're in Arles at the moment, you can get your copy at Cosmos Books.

New Prize:
Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women

$5000 Photography Prize
$1000 People’s Choice Award


Migrants working on railway 1960s

This newly instituted prize celebrates Maggie Diaz, an American photographer who arrived in Melbourne in 1961 with a one-way ticket, five dollars in her pocket and more chutzpah than the photographic community had seen. Undeterred by the male dominated industry, she successfully established herself as a commercial photographer and went on to shoot for some of the major advertising agencies.

But her passion was photographing Melbourne’s artists, actors and those she came across on the street. Often she’d roam the city after dark with her Rollie capturing a visage of Melbourne that few saw. Her signature is found in the use of available light and her ability to find that evocative moment in everyday happenings. 


Beach Boys


Radio 3AW mobile studio 1960s
Maggie is now 90, and it is only in the past decade that her vast oeuvre has come to light through the work of her long-time friend and her curator, Gwen de Lacy. I was fortunate to interview Maggie a few years back and it was a privilege to hear her stories. She’s a sassy dame, a straight shooter and we had a lot of laughs.

The Maggie Diaz Photography Prize for Women, which is sponsored by Guilty Films, is designed to encourage female photographers to keep pursuing their passion. The winner will be announced on 3 September at Brightspace Gallery in St. Kilda when the Maggie Diaz Projects exhibition opens. Judges for the inaugural prize are Naomi Cass, Director Centre for Contemporary Photography, noted photographer Ponch Hawkes and Ballarat International Foto Biennale Director Jeff Moorfoot.

To find out more about the prize click here 

Workshop:
#Dysturb at ACP


Benjamin Petit © 2014#Dysturb continues its association with the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) after taking over its Instagram feed recently. On Saturday 18th July photographers Madelena Rehorek and Tamara Voninsky will run a one day workshop at ACP focusing on reportage skills and social engagement. Visit ACP for more information on its Photocise program and details on how to register for #Dysturb's workshop.