Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 29 May, 2015|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up - Part Two of the 12th annual Auckland Festival of Photography coverage featuring four diverse exhibitions - The Imperial Body Fiona Amundsen, Oil & Water Murray Lloyd and Peter Evans, California & American Pride Sandra Chen Weinstein and Lisa Reihana'sIn Pursuit of Venus [infected] 2015. Plus an interview with Festival Director Julia Durkin.

Feature:

Auckland Festival of Photography - Opening Weekend

Until 20 June

Reporting live from Auckland! Last night the 12th annual Auckland Festival of Photography opened with a fantastic event at Silo Park where this year's commissioned artist, PJ Paterson (below), revealed his new work created for the Festival under this year's theme Truth and Fiction. See last week's post for the interview with PJ.

PJ Paterson (C) Alison Stieven-Taylor

At the launch Auckland City Council confirmed funding for the next decade giving Festival Director Julia Durkin and her team much to smile about. In fact the community spirit and local pride in the Festival was truly wonderful to witness. This is first and foremost a festival that celebrates photography in New Zealand and gives local artists a platform on which to showcase their work. The Festival is also an important annual fixture in the region and part of the Asia Pacific Photo Forum. With exhibitions, projections, workshops, portfolio reviews and the Talking Cultures seminar program there's a wealth of activity to immerse yourself in.

Tomorrow (Saturday) there are talks and a panel discussion at the Auckland Art Gallery on photobooks. On Sunday I'm giving a talk on the Future of Photojournalism at 1pm so if you're in town head to the Gallery for these free sessions.

Today Julia played tour guide and escorted the Festival's international guests to no less than eight exhibitions. But we started the day at Mount Eden, a "dormant volcano" Julia assured us, that provided the most amazing 360 degree view of Auckland on a day that sparkled. Auckland Festival of Photography is on until 20 June. Check the website for the full program.

L-R: Julia Durkin, Libby Jeffrey (Momento Pro - sponsor)  (C) Alison Stieven-Taylor

Tour party on top of Mt Eden: Jackie, Donatas, Doug, Julia, Mindaugas, Alison, Mikolaj, Libby

Exhibitions:

Fiona Amundsen - The Imperial Body

Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine was established in 1869 in honour of those who died serving the Emperor. For decades soldiers departing for war have uttered the phrase ‘If I don’t come home, I’ll see you at Yasukuni,’ to families and loved ones, and Yasukuni is fixed in the annals of Japanese warfare.

In her series The Imperial Body, New Zealand photographer Fiona Amundsen draws on her academic background in social anthropology to explore “the contentious Yasukuni Shrine” with the aim “to provoke new experiences of historicised narratives that both pay homage to trauma, but resist holding histories as static or fixed”.

Amundsen says, “I am neither Japanese nor Anglo-American, but a New Zealander who brings a perspective to this material that has undoubtedly been shaped by my own experiences of learning about not only WWII, but also Japanese and American military histories. Accordingly, as a New Zealander, while interested in the discourses that surround WWII, I’m also looking for the counter histories that reside within such dominant rhetoric as it is ascribed to both the allied and axis powers. I’m interested in confronting what can be pre-given or non-negotiable fixed ‘images’ (visual and narrative based) of history, regardless of specific cultural origin. Ultimately, my practice aims to produce artworks that continually reflect on their position as being essentially a ‘cultural outsider’ who comes from, and is firmly rooted to the Asia Pacific region”.

2 June - 11 July

Gus Fisher Gallery

University of Auckland

74 Shortland Street

Murray Lloyd and Peter Evans - Oil & Water: Is clean water the new oil?

(C) Murray Lloyd

(C) Peter Evans

The works of two New Zealand photographers – Wellington based Murray Lloyd and Auckland’s Peter Evans – combine in this exhibition to explore the notion that clean water may soon become a precious, and valuable, global commodity as pollution and climate change influence the availability of this essential resource.

(C) Murray Lloyd

(C) Peter Evans

Until 24 June

Depot Artspace, Main Gallery

28 Clarence Street

Devonport

Sandra Chen Weinstein – California & American Pride

In the late 1990s Sandra Chen Weinstein moved to Southern California after living in large metropolises in China, Japan and Taiwan. Weinstein says living in Orange County “I became acutely aware of the solitude and the very different and disconnected lifestyle experienced in a community separated by freeways. Californian State highways divide widespread suburban landscapes. Fences divide communities. In their isolation, neighbourhoods are often missed when passing through due to the overwhelming traffic”.

Using photography to understand this foreign landscape, Weinstein took many of the images that feature in her seriesCalifornia while travelling on the highways through neighbourhoods and country areas. “Like most of my photography, my works are un-staged and represent a moment in time; I like to allow the subject to lead us to itself,” she says.

In this exhibition Weinstein features images from California and her other series American Pride which was shot primarily in San Francisco with the LGBT community in the Bay Area. “I have always been interested in culture and the human condition, including the complexity and controversiality of one’s identity and sexuality," she says.

Until 16 June

Hum Salon

123 Grafton Road

Grafton

Lisa Reihana – In Pursuit of Venus (infected)

Lisa Reihana, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] 2015, multi-channel video (still),

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of Auckland Art Gallery

A multi-disciplinary artist of Maori descent Lisa Reihana often enlists friends and family to create her elaborate, cinematic artworks that draw on the complexities of photographic and filmic languages. "If there is any Maori philosophy that I work with more than any other, it is that sense of community. I love people and the notion of community, friends and places to come together, so I utilise my work, digital and actual, to play around with that idea," she says.

Lisa Reihana, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] 2015, multi-channel video (still),

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of Auckland Art Gallery

Lisa Reihana, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] 2015, multi-channel video (still),

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of Auckland Art Gallery

In Pursuit of Venus (infected) is a multi-disciplinary project which “challenges the stereotypes developed through the gaze of imperialism and reappraises a widely distributed European representation of the Pacific from the early 19th Century in the form of Joseph Dufour's 1804 scenic wallpaper, Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique.” Here Reihana “refreshes, reactivates and reenergises these ideas from a Pacific perspective using digital technologies to create an immersive experience for audiences. This exhibition marks the world premiere of one of the most ambitious screen-based projects from Aotearoa New Zealand by one of the country’s most admired artists”.

Until 30 August

Auckland Art Gallery

Toi o Tamaki

Interview:

Festival Director Julia Durkin with Alison Stieven-Taylor

Julia Durkin (C) Stefen Chow

In a year when the legitimacy of the photograph as proof is under question once again, the concept of truth and fiction in photography seems an appropriate theme to explore in the 12th annual Auckland Festival of Photography, which runs until the end of June.

Festival director Julia Durkin says the choice of this year’s theme – Truth and Fiction - progresses the conversation around digitally constructed imagery, and also allows for the incorporation of photojournalism, providing the Festival’s audience the opportunity to engage with the new as well as the familiar.

This year’s program combines the fictional and imaginary worlds of international artists like Julia Fullerton Batten (UK) Jae Hoon Lee (Korea) and Maria Kapajeva (Russia) alongside “hard hitting factual photojournalism” including exhibits from Angkor Photo Festival.

There is also solid representation from the local photographic community in New Zealand with individual and group shows including Lay of the Land, which features the works of 11 artists. And there’s the new series by this year’s commissioned artist, PJ Paterson, unveiled on opening night.

“Ninety percent of the work in the Festival is by local artists and we are very proud to support New Zealand photography and promote our cultural identity through photography,” says Durkin. “Within the theme there is a nice balance. I think it’s important for our audience to have exposure to international work they wouldn’t get to see as well as New Zealand work that is part of the cultural landscape, contemporary and also archival. It’s a very New Zealand bias program, and that’s what we’re here for.”

Durkin says the Festival’s program is the result of “discussion, research and referral”. The Auckland Festival of Photography is a member of the Asia Pacific Photo Forum and as such Durkin travels to other festivals throughout the region including Angkor in Cambodia, Pingyao in China, and Head On in Australia. “I get to see an awful lot of photography at these other Festivals. I also do portfolio reviews and that’s another great way to see work, get to know what you like and what might work for the festival. My colleague Elaine Smith is the curator of our annual commission so she’s focused on the local talent. It’s about knowing your craft, understanding what will work with the audience and then programming to fit our budget”.

The Auckland Festival of Photography attracts a diverse audience from professional photographers to enthusiasts, amateurs and those who are not involved in photography per se. This year the Festival has also targeted the student demographic with its Future Projections project that features work from all the educational institutes in Auckland. This runs alongside the professional exhibitions and the amateur shows.

“We are there mainly to generate interest in photography with the general public and that’s a very broad remit,” she says. The Festival attracts both the older and younger demographic with the latter group showing a ten percent increase in attendance last year. 80 percent of the Festival’s audience is local.

Auckland has one of the most diverse communities with more than 160 languages spoken in a city with a population of only 1.4 million. “Photography is a universal language and can engage people no matter their mother tongue,” says Durkin.

“The great thing about Festivals is they are conduits for community engagement for the delivery of cultural experience and the building of cultural currency. We are the only photography festival in New Zealand and we have managed to build and maintain it. I’d like to think there are twelve year olds in Auckland that have never known the city without a photography festival.”

This year the Auckland Council granted the Festival long term funding, a breakthrough Durkin puts down to the increased profile of photography in the Asia Pacific. “There is a change in the air now,” says Durkin who credits the collaboration between regional festivals through the Asia Pacific Photo Forum for shifting the focus away from European, American and Japanese photography and putting the spotlight on the Asia Pacific region.

“We’ve positioned ourselves fantastically to be able to capture this shift because we’ve actually led it with our partners in Australia. It’s nice that we are now in a position where the cultural funding agencies in New Zealand are taking note and are now supporting what we are doing because of that. It’s taken us having this network in place and being able to take New Zealand photography off shore for them to suddenly wake up and say hang on that’s amazing, we want to support it.”

The Auckland Festival of Photography runs 28th May to 20th June.

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 26 June, 2015|Photography Art Definition

This week a look at three incredibly powerful photo essays including Arnau Bach’s seminal work, Suburbia, plus Bruce Gilden hits the Paris Metro, Australians on show at PhotoIreland and Auckland Festival of Photography’s inaugural charity auction.

Photo Essays:

Japanese American Internment Survivors

Paul Kitagaki Jr

During WWII more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned in camps in the USA. Dorothea Lange, amongst others, photographed many of those detained in California. Photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr’s family was amongst them. 70 years later he has revisited those original photographs, tracking down others pictured and where possible shooting them in the same location as the original images. Kitagaki also interviewed his subjects about their experiences. It’s an emotional series that reminds us the human toll of war extends far beyond the battlefields to impact those who through their ethnicity are fated to be called enemies. To see more images and read the full story visit Mother Jones

Dorothea Lange also photographed Kitagaki’s family. Above, his grandparents Suyematsu Kitagaki and Juki Kitagaki are with their children, Kimiko (11yo) and his father Kiyoshi (14yo) in Oakland, California. They were interned in the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah in 1942.Below: In this photo Paul Kitagaki Jr. (far right) is pictured with his father (centre) and aunt Kimiko (second from left) at the same location as the original photograph.

Above: This iconic image by Dorothea Lange features 70-year-old Sakutaro Aso and his grandsons Shigeo Jerry Aso and Sadao Bill Aso. They were deported from California in 1942. Bill (below right) told Kitagaki, "When I look at the picture, I can see my grandfather realized that something terrible was happening and his life was never going to be the same again. That was the end of the line for him”.

Shigeo Jerry Aso and Sadao Bill Aso (C) Paul Kitagaki Jr

Above: Helene Nakamoto Mihara (left) and Mary Ann Yahiro (center) taken by Dorothea Lange in San Francisco 1942. Both girls ended up in Topaz Internment Camp in Utah. Mary Ann, pictured on the right below with Helene, and her mother were separated and never saw each other again.

(C) Paul Kitagaki Jr

Girls in Justice

Richard Ross

“Been here two months for a violation. They make me take out all the studs they can. But the one in my throat and in my cheeks are implants. I ran away from placement. It was a group home with 65 kids in Critinton, Orange County.” 15 year old.

American photographer and academic Richard Ross has been working on his long term project to document the juvenile justice system in that country for the best part of a decade. After photographing detention centres in more than 30 states Ross has no doubt the system is failing these kids. He hopes his photographs can shine a light on the plight that a growing number of American teens face.

“I should be a sophomore but I have no credits for school. The last grade I completed was eighth. My mom visits. She isn’t a parent; she’s a teenager in a parent body.” 16 year old.

Girls make up the largest number of juvenile detainees in the system and some are as young as ten. Ross, who is a professor at the University of California, has published a second book on the project - Girls in Justice - that specifically focuses on this group. Many are in detention for minor offences, and carry the scars of emotional and physical abuse often at the hands of their families. Others have nowhere else to go.

Ross photographs the girls to obscure their faces. “If you see a face, you can say, ‘well, I’m glad that’s not my kid. But if the face is obscured, it could stand in for anybody’s kid,” he says.

“I was four months when I first came in the system. My mom didn’t have a house; she lost it. I’m here with my sister, but my sister’s now with a foster family. If it works out, she gets to stay. But she told me it’s not gonna work out and she’ll be back to see me.” 11 year old.

“They took me from my mom at age 12 because she’s had drug problems. She was beating me, and I was molested by her friends. I think I was born in Asheville, North Carolina, but at this point I don’t really live anywhere.” 15 year old.

“My mom is deceased. Drug overdose. I stayed with my auntie until I was 11 in Compton. She was abusive, verbally and physically. I went to maybe 15–20 foster homes.” 16 year old.

You can see more of Richard Ross’s work on juveniles in justice on the website Juvenile in Justice

Read the full interview with Ross at Slate.com

Suburbia

Arnau Bach

(C) Arnau Bach

(C) Arnau Bach

(C) Arnau Bach

(C) Arnau Bach

(C) Arnau Bach

(C) Arnau Bach

Spanish photographer Arnau Bach spent four years photographing the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the most populated, and poverty stricken areas of Paris. Here 1.5 million people live in close quarters. Unemployment and crime are high and hope for a better tomorrow faint. On his website Arnau says, “This work seeks to reflect on the lifestyle of youth in these ghettos: their gregarious existence and their love for hip-hop culture, the lack of opportunity and the absence of social services and recreational facilities which leads them to stay idle in the streets. Beyond the harshness of their social codes, youth culture rebels as an act of resistance against of a present where they don’t have much to gain and even less to lose.”

To see more of his work clickhere

Bruce Gilden

Paris Metro

Through October, RATP, the world's fifth largest public transport company will feature photographs by Magnum Photos' Bruce Gilden in 16 of its subway stations. The theme of the exhibition is urban mobility in the five cities where the RATP group operates: Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Manchester, New York and Paris. Gilden’s 41 photographs will be on display in multiple locations totaling nearly 300 images.

All Photos: (C) Bruno Marguerite RATP

PhotoIreland

Dublin

(C) Katrin Koenning

Australians have a strong presence at this year’s Photoireland which kicks off on 1st July in Dublin for a month. Melbourne’s Katrin Koenning continues her European tour with an exhibition of new works; the Australian Centre for Photography presents Island - Australia a group show curated by Claire Monneraye that features a range of genres from street photography to documentary and fine art with works by Markus Andersen, Katelyn Jane-Dunn, Charles Kasprzak, Kristian Laemmle-Ruff, Jesse Marlow, Raphaela Rosella, Chris Round, David Maurice Smith, Juliet Taylor and Wouter Van De Voorde and; the Asia Pacific Photobook Archive will also present a selection of books from its collection. To find out more visit the Festival here

Auckland Festival of Photography

Charity Auction

On Tuesday 30th June, the inaugural Auckland Festival of Photography Charity Auction will be held at 6.30pm at Webb’s at 23-25 Falcon St Parnell. You can bid on photographic works by emerging and established New Zealand photographers. There’s 55 photographic works up for grabs. Check out the catalogue here.