Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 6 June, 2014|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up four new exhibitions for Melbourne; more news from the Auckland Festival of Photography; and an interview with Italian photo-artist Valentina Vannicola in the new Q&A section above. Plus Head On Photo Festival closes this weekend in Sydney and Australian high-end photography book publisher T&G Publishing launches Jean-Marc Caimi’s new book Daily Bread in Sweden and Japan.

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Exhibition: - Melbourne

Three Shows at Edmund Pearce

Christian Pearson – Industrial Graffiti

Photographer Christian Pearson, who is from Melbourne, says the works that comprise "Industrial Graffiti" aim to convey an “unconscious aesthetic created by labourers, technicians and engineers during the construction of our urban built environment”.

(C) All images Christian Pearson

Defining the concept of ‘industrial graffiti’ Pearson says his images capture what appear as random markings on industrial sites, squiggles, letters, numbers, scrawled in different colours on metal, wood, plastic and over paint.

“The marking is an ephemeral part of a process that ultimately leads to the creation of a new, functional and aesthetic objective,” Pearson states. Like some graffiti, these markings appear defacements when in fact they are codes that guide those erecting our cities. This exhibition is an interesting visual study on a form of communication known to few.

Also on show at Edmund Pearce:

Tim Gresham – Reflect

Shannon McGrath - Fraction

Edmund Pearce

Level 2, Nicholas Building

37 Swanston Street,

Melbourne

Until 28 June

Exhibition: Melbourne

Tom Williams – Portside

(C) Tom Williams

(C) Tom Williams

Often the most powerful photographic stories are those you find in your own backyard. Tom Williams has spent years abroad capturing other cultures and building a career in documentary portraiture. On returning to Australia and the town of Wollongong, (near Sydney) Williams turned his focus on the local population and how the failing industrial economy was impacting residents.

In his exhibition “Portside” are images taken in Port Kembla and Wollongong, both places that have made their mark through the mining and shipping industries. Williams says he found Wollongong a shadow of its former self with those formerly engaged in industrial jobs now joining the ranks of the unemployed.

“The postcard coastline parallels one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Australia,” he says. “As a photographer I’m always asking: what do surfaces say about what’s hidden behind them? What attracts me to making portraits is the brief and intense interaction that results in an image that speaks of the subject, the picture-taker; and sometimes, the place. In the end you can only try to guess at the magnificent complexity and consciousness beneath the outer layer – this is something that keeps us looking at photographs.”

Colour Factory

409-429 Gore Street

Fitzroy

Book Launch:

Jean-Marc Caimi – Daily Bread

I’ll say it upfront. I am biased as I was the editor on this new book by Jean-Marc Caimi “Daily Bread”, and of course I love it. Publisher Gianni Frinzi of T&G Publishing has once again done a brilliant job bringing this book to life. It launched in Sweden last week at Caimi’s exhibition of the same name. You can buy Daily Bread by following the link here.

Daily Bread also launches at the exhibition’s opening in Tokyo at Reminders Photography Stronghold (RPS) on June 14. Caimi is the fourth recipient of the RPS Grant, which he was awarded for Daily Bread.

Launch: Saturday, June 14 at 4:00pm

2-38-5

Higashi-mukojima

Sumida, Tokyo 131-0032

Festival:

Head On Photo Festival

(C) Alison Stieven-Taylor

Head On Photo Festival ends this weekend. Check out the website to see what shows are still on

Showing Now for Head On

Valentina Vannicola's Dante's Inferno - until 8 June

Click on the Feature Articles tab above to read Alison Stieven-Taylor's interview with Valentina about this meticulous and thought-provoking work.

(C) Valentina Vannicola/OnOffPicture

Festival:

Selected Exhibitions – Part Two:

Auckland Festival of Photography

Signature Exhibitions - Alison Stieven-Taylor’s Selection

Last week Photojournalism Now previewed some of the exhibitions on show in the first week of the Auckland Festival of Photography. This week Photojournalism Now takes a look at two exhibitions – one showing now and the other opening 12 June. Both present very different approaches to this year’s Signature Series’ theme -memory. There is also a photo-gallery with images from Rob Gilhooly’s “Suicide Forest” and Emil McAvoy’s “Reflections on Lily Pond”.

Showing Now

Auschwitz Revisited

(C) Bronek Kozka

Melbourne-based photographer Bronek Kozka’s “Auschwitz Revisited” is a contemporary portrait of a landscape that will be remembered in the annals of history as the site of one of the darkest moments of humankind. "Standing in the bitter cold looking to a foggy horizon and seeing what looked like columns, but they were chimneystacks for as far as I could see. One chimney, one hut...the magnitude of the horror dawned on me at this moment. I didn’t want to take any photographs at first...however at some point I decided to shoot. It was here that the most frightening and daunting revelation occurred to me. How close my family was to Auschwitz...how all could have ended here." This is how Kozka describes his experience visiting Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where he found himself on a personal exploration into his Polish heritage. His black and white images weave his own story with the somberness of the landscape and its open wounds.

(C) Bronek Kozka

Auschwitz Revisited

Bronek Kozka

4-21 June

Elam George Fraser Gallery

University of Auckland

25a Princes Street

Auckland

Opens 12 June

Unruly Memoirs: Nature Fights Back

(C) Jane Zusters

In “Unruly Memoirs: Nature Fights Back” Christchurch-based artist Jane Zusters examines the aftermath of that city’s recent devastating earthquakes in a series of “geopolitical montages”. In this collection of digital images Zusters combines images of external and internal spaces to pose unlikely realms where the ceiling of a library may be blue sky and clouds, or the wall to a bedroom open to the street. These images while somewhat surreal are also situated in reality, reminders of the impermanence of structures and their perceived safety especially when faced by the power of Mother Nature.

(C) Jane Zusters

12-28 June

Sanderson Contemporary Art

122 Jervois Road

Herne Bay

Suicide Forest

Rob Gilhooly

(C) Rob Gilhooly

4-17 June

Hum Salon

123 Grafton Road

Grafton

(Read last week's blog post for the story on this exhibition)

Emil McAvoy

Reflections on Lily Pond

(C) Emil McAvoy

11 June - 21 June

ELAM Projectspace Gallery, Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland, 20 Whitaker Place

Photoforum: History in The Taking; 40 years (6-28 June)

Gus Fisher Gallery

74 Shortland Street

For details visit Auckland Festival of Photography

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 27 June, 2014|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up two new books to add to your collection - Stephen Shore's epic From Galilee to the Negev and the Roma's The Waters of Our Time. Plus new exhibitions for Strange Neighbour and Monash Gallery of Art in Melbourne, and Blackeye in Sydney, and a preview to my interview with New York-based Australian photographer Kerry Payne. And a new feature: Picture of the Week.

Picture of the Week:

Despite everything we know about climate change, coal continues to be the "energy of choice" with coal usage reaching a 44 year high in 2013 according to BP's annual Statistical Review of World Energy. While Western democracies point the finger of blame at the developing world, China and India in particular, passing responsibility rather than doing more to clean up their own act, will do nothing to halt the damage being done to the planet. Not to mention the human toll. To see more images from this story visit The Atlantic InFocus.

(C) Channi Anand - Jammu, India 2012

Book:

Stephen Shore - From Galilee to the Negev

“interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place” Edward W. Said

In Stephen Shore’s epic book ‘From Galilee to the Negev’ there is a distinct sense of Shore’s intent and focus from the first pages on this expansive book, which comes with its own map and designated “sites of interest” and “photographed locations”.

Shore’s capacity to pursue a story that took him 17 years to complete, is one of the hallmarks that have made him a master storyteller. Shore, who took to the road in the seventies with camera in hand and hasn’t looked back, is considered one of the pioneers in documentary colour photography. Cited as an influence by many – Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky and Wolfgang Tillmans amongst others – Shore was the first living photographer to be given a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1971; prior to Shore the last artist was Alfred Stieglitz in 1931.

Situated within ten dedicated chapters – Ashqelon, Galilee, Tel Hazor, Tel Aviv, Gaza, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Negev and Sacred Stones - Shore’s idiosyncratic photographs stitch together the desert landscape, the passing of time, the rise of the modern and portraits of local residents to create a visual tapestry that is unique to Israel, and to Shore. ‘From Galilee to the Negev’ is Shore’s interpretation of this part of the world, and little has slipped his astute gaze.

Tel Aviv, March 23, 2011

Large crater, Negev Desert, September 29, 2009

In the urban city of Tel Aviv, Shore captures cosmopolitan Israel in the bustling streets, busy cafes and growing number of high rises dotting the skyline. In the Negev the desert’s arid moonscapes and isolation draw the reader’s eye and in Jerusalem his portraits of local residents give context to daily life in this ancient holy city.

Shore says with this book it is his intention to tell a story about Israel that isn’t loaded with the stereotypes of “suffering and heroism, of victims and perpetrators”, labels often associated with this part of the world.

Tel Aviv, June 17, 2010

Jerusalem, September 23, 2009

Ramallah, October 3, 2009

In "From Galilee to the Negev" each chapter leads with an essay that addresses one particular image. Written by leading artists, writers and academics the essays add another layer to this complex work. To give a flavour of the writing, the chapter ‘Galilee’ features the New Yorker’s Jane Kramer in response to Shore’s image ‘Sderot’ taken in September, 2009. This photograph comprises a map, a man’s hand pointing and his shadow cast across part of the image. Kramer writes: “The map in Stephen Shore’s photograph is, as maps go, neutral, something a pilot might use to get his bearings, benignly distant from the problems of the ground. Its divisions are faint, vague, even reassuring – thin red lines that in reality, have been drawn and redrawn, in the course of three wars, with the blood of thousands of young Arabs and Israeli soldiers”.

This is a book that takes time, you can’t rush through it if you have any intention of understanding it. Give the essayists their due and read their words, ingest the images, listen to others’ thoughts and allow your imagination to run free. Leave behind the snippets of history that dwell in memory and make you think you know Israel. Take Shore’s journey of discovery, meet the people, walk across the pebbled roadways, wipe the grit of sand from your face, and jostle for position at the local market. These are the joys of photography, allowing your imagination to drop you into a photograph to wonder.

From Galilee to the Negev, Stephen Shore £75 / €85 Phaidon 2014

Phaidon

Book:

The Waters of Our Time

Thomas and Giancarlo T. Roma

There is something quite seductive about The Waters of Our Time and its fictitious narrator, a woman who has lived all her life in Brooklyn. As she shares her intimate story, the words meld with the photographs of Thomas Roma, a master photographer, who has spent much of the past forty years photographing Brooklyn his hometown.

(C) All images Thomas Roma - From The Waters of Our Time published by powerHouse Books

This is the second time Thomas and his son, Giancarlo T. Roma, have collaborated. In The Waters of Our Time Giancarlo pens what is at times truly lyrical verse that sings to his father’s photographs, which he has used as a visual storyboard on which to build his narrative.

"The Waters of Our Time" is a story of love, memories and the passing of time. And it is also a story about the relationship between a man and his father. I haven’t seen the hardcopy of this book, but if the PDF is any indication, it’s worth spending sometime in the Roma’s Brooklyn. Available from powerHouse Books New York

Exhibition: Melbourne

A Window that isn't there - Group Show

(C) Daniela Gullotta

This exhibition is based on the premise that there is a "tug of war between what we see with our eyes and what we see with our internal memories and visions". Works include photographs as well as multi-media. Exhibiting artists - Daniela Gullotta, Norian Paicu, Amelie Scalercio, Luhsun Tan, Michael Vale and Philippe Vranjes. Curated by Michael Vale.

Strange Neighbour

11 July - 2 August

395 Gore Street

Fitzroy

Exhibition: Melbourne

Rod McNicol - Memento Mori

Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) is currently showing a series of portraits from Australian photographer Rod McNicol. One of the Prahran College of the Arts alumni in the 1970s, McNicol has won numerous prizes for his portraiture work which is held in major institutional collections including the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, National Library (Canberra), and MGA.

In this exhibition there are a number of dual portraits of the same person taken years apart, as shown here. McNicol has clearly had a particular vision for this series, which he's carried through the years. Hanging together the images tell a story of the passing of time, and hint at the journey of the individual pictured. There are also solitary portraits, but these duo are in my opinion the strongest of the work on show.

(C) All images Rod McNicol

Until 31 August

Monash Gallery of Art

860 Ferntree Gully Road

Wheelers Hill

Exhibition: Sydney

Eden Diebel - Germinate

(C) Eden Diebel - Germinate

Blackeye Gallery

3/138 Darlinghurst Road

Darlinghurst (Sydney)

Until 13 July

Artist's Talk Saturday 28th June at 3pm

Coming Soon:

Interview with Kerry Payne

(C) Kerry Payne from Left Behind

Next week I am interviewing Australian photographer Kerry Payne who is now based in New York, but I wanted to share a couple of her images this week to hopefully whet your appetite. Sometimes you see work and are just blown away by it and that was my immediate reaction to Payne's photography. Deeply emotional and at times painful to view, Payne intimately explores issues around subjects that are largely still taboo in the modern world such as mental health and fertility. This is brave, courageous and infinitely important work.

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 26th September, 2014 |Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up Don McCullin’s exhibition opens in Sydney, John G. Morris in France, plus a look at Filter Festival Chicago, Photoville New York and Guernsey Festival in the Channel Islands. And last chance to see Robert Ashton's and Tom Evangelidis’ shows in Melbourne.

Exhibition: Sydney

Don McCullin

The Impossible Peace

From War Photographs to Landscapes

1958-2011

Don McCullin last year at Visa pour l'Image in front of one of his most

recognised images from the Biafra Civil War 1968 below

(C) Alison Stieven-Taylor

(C) Don McCullin courtesy Contact Press Images

Opening tonight, this exhibition, curated by Robert Pledge of Contact Press Images New York, marks the first time Don McCullin’s photographs have been shown in Australia.

I saw The Impossible Peace last year at Visa pour l’Image, where the retrospective filled the cathedral spaces of the Église des Dominicans in Perpignan, France. This exhibition features McCullin's conflict images, and also his landscape work as well as street photography, particularly his study of the homeless in the UK.

(C) Don McCullin courtesy Contact Press Images

During our interview McCullin told me he is now too old in body to trek the streets of London with camera in hand, but that street photography was something he had greatly enjoyed. “Young photographers don’t need to leave their homeland to find conflict, it is in their own communities, they just have to look,” he said. (My feature interview with Don McCullin will be published next week in NZ Pro Photographer magazine, in print and for iPad).

(C) Don McCullin courtesy Contact Press Images

The Impossible Peace

State Library of NSW in association with Reportage Projects 2014

27 September to 26 October, 2014

Exhibition: Rennes, France

Somewhere in France

John G. Morris

John G. Morris (L) with Robert Pledge Contact Press Images in Rennes 19 September 2014

At 97 years of age the former photo editor of LIFE magazine and the New York Times, John G. Morris is having the time of his life. His new book, Somewhere in France , is being lauded as the most personal view of World War II ever published. And thanks to the book's popularity, Morris is traversing the globe sharing his thoughts on photojournalism, and there are few, if any, who know more about the subject.

During our interview in Paris recently, Morris told me he was busier than ever. “Last week I was in Luxembourg giving a talk. This week I’m going to Rennes for the launch of my exhibition at the Hotel de Ville and a symposium the following day. Next month it’s New York. These are busy times”.

And Morris is loving every moment. If I didn’t know his age, I would have thought he was in his sixties, such is his energy, enthusiasm and sharp recollection.

In Somewhere in France Morris' recollects the summer of 1944. At the time Morris was based in London working for LIFE. Not satisfied with a remote view of the war, he determined to see events for himself. He left the London bureau to join LIFE photographers Robert Capa, George Rodger, Robert Landry, Ralph Morse, David E. Scherman, and Frank Scherschel in Normandy and Brittany, taking with him a dozen rolls of film. He wasn’t a photographer and the pictures taken were for his personal record.

Nearly 70 years later Robert Pledge of Contact Press Images unearthed the images and encouraged Morris to publish a book. Somewhere in France (which was all that soldiers could reveal to loved ones of their location) is the result and features not only Morris’ pictures, but also the love letters he wrote to his wife who was back in the USA.

All photos (C) John G. Morris courtesy Contact Press Images

He says the exhibition of these pictures in Rennes is personally significant for him. “I photographed in Rennes the day it was liberated on August 5th 1944. I walked into the Mayor’s office and there was a man seated at the mayor’s desk. I said 'are you the mayor?' He said no. So I asked, 'where is the mayor?' And he told me the mayor had left during the night. He had been a collaborator”.

The city of Rennes is celebrating the 100 year anniversary of its liberation and Morris’ photographs are being displayed in “gigantic print form on the town square at the Hotel de Ville (below).

My full interview with Morris will be published in the coming weeks. What an absolute delight it was to get the opportunity to speak with Morris who is not only a legend in photojournalism, but a really nice guy too.

Hôtel de Ville

Rennes, France

Until 19 October

Festivals: New York

Photoville

(C) Wall Street Journal

This year Photoville  features more than 50 exhibitions in the “Container Exhibition” program spanning the gamut of contemporary photography including curated shows from The Everyday Projects – Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Iran, Jamaica, Latin America, Middle East and USA; Australian Ashley Gilbertson’s Bedrooms of the Fallen, and so much more.

Photos courtesy of Photoville Instagram

There are also more than a dozen outdoor exhibitions and installations, including Australia’s Head On Portrait Prize exhibition on show at Photoville for the first time. Plus there are workshops and talks and the Photoville FENCE exhibitions featuring work from 55 photographers.

On the FENCE

(c) Melissa Mooney

The Brooklyn FENCE (above), which was the original, and the Boston and Atlanta FENCES, attract thousands of visitors and really take photography to the people in large-sized prints that are impossible to ignore. You can view the Brooklyn FENCE Slideshow here

Check out the Photoville website here

Until 28 September

Festival: Channel Islands

Guernsey Photography Festival

(C) Sam Harris

Held in Guernsey in the Channel Islands off the coasts of England and France, this biennial festival presents its fourth edition with the theme “Faith, Family, and Community”. Featuring exhibitions by a diverse group of photographers as well as portfolio reviews, screen projections, live music, education and community streams, Guernsey Photography Festival presents a comprehensive program over four weeks.

This year Australia’s Sam Harris (we’ve adopted him since he moved from the UK to take up digs in Western Australia) has an exhibition of his work "Middle of Somewhere" along with a total of 24 exhibiting photographers including:

Liz Hingley “Under Gods: Stories from the Soho Road"

Abbas “Faces of Christianity”

Arno Brignon “Josephine”

Maria Kapajeva “Family”

Andrei Nacu “In the forsaken garden time is a thief”

David Moore “Pictures from the real world”

Sam Harris "Middle of Somewhere"

Until 18 October

Various Venues

Visit the Guernsey Photography Festival website here

Festivals: Chicago

Filter Photo

This week Filter Photo Festival in Chicago is in full swing with exhibitions, workshops and panel discussions as well as its core focus, portfolio reviews – this year 30 gallery curators and photography experts will review the portfolios. Held in downtown Chicago, Filter Photo is focused on connecting artists with curators and gallery owners and giving emerging artists in particular a unique opportunity to meet with those who may help direct their careers.

This May Have Happened

Group exhibition at David Weinberg Photography

© Eileen Keator

© Amiko Wenjia Li

© Daniel Coburn

Filter Photo Festival until 28 September

Various Venues

Visit the Filter Photo website for details

Exhibitions: Melbourne

Last chance to see:

Robert Ashton – Into the Hollow Mountains

A Portrait of Fitzroy 1974

Colour Factory  409-429 Gore St

Fitzroy

Tom Evangelidis – Façade

Edmund Pearce Gallery

Level 2, Nicholas Building

37 Swanston Street

Melbourne

Both Closing Saturday 27 September