This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and Taiwan. Plus the Australian Photobook Awards are open for entries and the Bronx Documentary Center public sale is on with some exceptional photographers donating images for a worthy purpose.
Exhibitions: Melbourne
100 Years of Samba
In commemoration of a hundred years of Samba, and as an try to move beyond sexist, stereotypical visions of carnaval, artist Anita Ekman presents this exhibition at Magnet Galleries Melbourne, which explores the position of ladies in Samba thru pictures, etchings on 35mm film, paintings, documentaries and stay tune created by means of the local Australian Brazilian community.
"Samba was born in Rio de Janeiro, inside the house of a Black Brazilian lady: Tia Ciata. As well as being a cook dinner, a healer and a M?E de Santo (Mother-of-saint, a priestess within the Candombl? Religion), she was the mother of Samba. She lived in ?Pequena Africa?, a neighbourhood surrounding the docks of Rio, the biggest slave port in the Americas. It was on this network, beneath Tia Ciata?S roof, that the primary Samba music turned into recorded, ?Pelo Telefono?. This become in 1916, only 28 years after slavery have been officially abolished in Brazil.
One hundred years later, the carnaval has transformed from a symbol of Afro-Brazilian cultural resistance to a beneficial traveller spectacle presided over by Globo TV, Brazil?S monopoly media community, which makes use of the bodies of Brazilian girls to sell its emblem.
Although the carnaval and Samba are famous across the world, few human beings, Brazilians or outsiders, know about the true protagonists of this tale. This exhibition gives the Brazilian women who over the last century continued on inside the spirit of Tia Ciata, stitching costumes, making ready meals, making a song, dancing, writing books, making plays, movies and documentaries, and elevating new generations accountable now not handiest for maintaining Samba alive, but preventing in opposition to the sexist and oppressive marketing in their our bodies on television displays.
Look beyond the tourist spectacle. Samba is a living culture of resistance, and women play a central role in this story." Anita Ekman, artist and exhibition curator.
Nine - 22 October
Magnet Galleries
Level 2
640 Bourke St
Melbourne
Exhibitions: Sydney
Robyn Stacey - Dark Wonder
(C) Robyn Stacey
Sydney-based photographic artist Robyn Stacey’s fascination with camera obscura or the ‘magic mirror of life’ as it is also known, has seen her expand on her first series to feature this technique,Guest Relations, to create this latest body of work, Dark Wonder, yet another name for camera obscura.
Dark Wonder explores artists’ spaces such as Brett Whiteley’s Lavender Bay residence and Hans Heysen’s studio at Cedars. In both these images the camera obscura seems to capture the essence of these artists’ distinctive styles; in the Whiteley image you can see the harbour bridge and the distortion of trees as the image spreads itself across fixed surfaces. With Heysen’s studio it is uncanny how the gum trees projected by the camera obscura evoke notes of the artist’s own paintings.
(C) Robyn Stacey - Whiteley's Library
(C) Robyn Stacey - Heysen's studio
?People are inquisitive about artists areas,? Says Stacey. ?They assume to feel the presence of the artists and immerse themselves in that air of secrecy. The space stands in for the artist and I became honestly inquisitive about working with that because the situation count number. The artist space is distinctive to the inn surroundings. Often it?S a running, living and socialising space, so it's far a whole lot stronger.?
In ?Dark Wonder? The attraction for Stacey is the camera obscura?S relationship with the indoors area, the layout and the architecture of the room. ?With this mixture you get this transient in-between space that I find truely thrilling?.
(C) Robyn Stacey - Martin Sharp Eternity at Wirian
The exhibition features big-scale prints in addition to a room sized camera obscura, developing a world of phantasm that site visitors can immerse themselves in. ?In this space you're in the global, however you?Re reduce off from it. You recognise what?S happening around you, but it?S all upside down and in opposite. It?S like being in your very own personal film,? She says.
Until 5 November
Stills Gallery
36 Gosbell Street
Paddington
Exhibitions: Taiwan
Intimate Transgressions
(C) Tami Xiang
Originally from China, photographic artist Tami Xiang now lives in Perth, Western Australia. Her series Nüwa Re-Awakening draws on the ancient legend of the Chinese Goddess Nüwa who was worshipped in a time when women were revered and powerful.
?N?Wa changed into the person that created human beings and she become worshipped via all and sundry and held a completely high position in historical Chinese tradition. Women have been valuable and handled well and were taken into consideration better than guys. But that modified and in N?Wa Re-Awakening I?Ve imposed my emotions to reveal my riot in opposition to the oppression that have become a part of Chinese way of life and that lasted for centuries,? She says.
This series become first exhibited at Head On Photo Festival in Sydney in 2014 in which I met Tami. Since then she has been invited to exhibit her series at different gala's and galleries in Asia. ?Exhibiting at Head On gave me a extraordinary boost in self assurance. I?M now running on new paintings and additionally establishing exhibitions in my hometown of Chongqing?.
So a ways this 12 months she?S curated 3 exhibitions offering artists from everywhere in the world. ?We?Ve completed indicates with sixty or more artists, so they're quite big and there?S loads to organise?. She now splits her time among Chongqing and Perth.
Currently a selection of images from Nüwa Re-Awakening is included in the Intimate Transgressions touring exhibition, which is a Center for Asian Pacific Affairs (CAPA) project curated by Fion Gunn from Ireland. The latest iteration ofIntimate Transgressions opens in Taiwan next week under the guidance of local co-curator Leon Tsai.
(C) Tami Xiang
(C) Tami Xiang
(C) Tami Xiang
While the subject matter of Nüwa Re-Awakening may be perceived as feminist, Tami is quick to refute that notion. “It’s not about feminism, but more about something that existed in history. I wanted to preserve that for future generations. I don’t want people to forget about how women were treated”.
In Nüwa Re-Awakening Tami combines traditional Chinese masks with the naked female form to express her recognition of her culture’s art and her rebellion against male domination. She says the masks point to women being invisible in the culture and also in marriage; the mask in this instance is symbolic of arranged marriages where the woman doesn’t see or know the man she is to wed. Here the mask represents an uncertain future, as well as concealing the woman’s true nature.
?I also chose to include nude as one of the precept factors, because it symbolises the vulnerability and helplessness of women residing in a society where control is paramount. The nude is likewise a taboo subject in ancient conservative China and so it's also symbolic of my insurrection and rejection of the feudal gadget of manipulate. It?S a tale of 1 girl, but additionally exhibits the destiny of many tens of millions of ladies with out freedom and rights inside the ancient days,? She concludes.
20 October - 1 November
Intimate Transgressions
Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall
Taipei, Taiwan
Auction:
Bronx Documentary Center Fundraiser
Numerous internationally renowned and also emerging photographers have donated prints for the Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) auction. Funds raised enable the BDC to host important exhibitions featuring works from local and international photographers, as well as hold training and free after-school programs for local youth. It’s a great cause and you get an amazing photo in the bargain. Check out some of this year’s images:
(C) Lynsey Addario
(C) Guillermo Cervera
(C) Timothy Fadek
(C) Michael Kamber
Auction closes 13 October, 9pm ET (USA)
Get on board here.
Awards:
Australian Photobook Awards - Call for Entries
The Australian Photobook Of The Year Awards 2016 at the moment are open for entry until eight November. Submit your posted or unpublished book created between 1 Jan 2015 - 30 Sep 2016 and also you?Ll be in the walking for $10,000 in prizes. For full info and to go into visit the site here.
