Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 24 July, 2015|Photography Art Definition

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.

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 20 November, 2015|Photography Art Definition

Last week when I posted Friday Round Up from Paris the incomprehensible events of that night were yet to come. As I rode a taxi back to my apartment in Saint Michel I was tired but happy after an amazing day at Paris Photo. I'd ended the day with an exhibition at Galerie VU where 40 photographers work was on show. It had been a crowded event. The evening was mild and cafes and bars were busy with those winding down at the end of the week. As I watched the night come to life through the taxi's window I thought how nice it would be to sit at a sidewalk cafe with a glass of champagne and watch the world pass by. But exhaustion got the better of me. As I entered the apartment a friend texted me to ask if I was safe. I got online to discover the horror. All night I could hear the sirens.

This week's post is for Paris, a city I love…

Interview:

Yan Morvan – ‘Champs des Bataille’

One of the most entertaining interviews this week was with French photojournalist Yan Morvan who is brilliantly eccentric and quite the comedian. Often people tell me incredible stories, but Yan wins the prize in the OMG that can’t be true stakes.

Our interview started with Yan recalling that he had an Australian girlfriend once many years ago when he was living in Bangkok in a brothel where “all these guys from Australia came to have cheap sex”. I’m not sure if this was meant to shock me or if he’s having a bit of fun, but there’s a twinkle in his eye that said there is mischief here. In response I laughed at the idea of this man, who is now in his early sixties, his dark hair more grey than not, his blue eyes framed by black-rimmed reading glasses, reliving his youth through saucy tales. He laughed too and the door was opened.

Yan Morvan at his exhibition in Paris

Over several coffees Yan told me how his exploits – running with gangs, photographing a mass murderer, being tortured, starring in a porn flick (that was an accident, he lost a bet) – when condensed into a few pages for an article make a thrilling tale. “Oh yeah it’s like Yan Morvan the living legend,” he laughs heartily. “You know the stories are true, but it’s forty years in three pages. I didn’t set out to do all these things. I’m not this tough photojournalist guy ready to head into battle”.

Once a film director approached him to do a movie about his life, but was disappointed that Yan wasn’t a macho action man. “In all the situations I’ve been in I’ve never been wounded by bullets, only by motorcycle crashes”. He holds up his right hand to show the little finger is missing in part, an example of his scars. He has others but I don’t need to see them, Yan says. That is correct!

It would be easy to explore his more avant-garde moments and write another ‘wow look at the crazy things Yan Morvan has done’ story, but my interest lies in his new book and perhaps his greatest undertaking in terms of time and scope – ‘Champs des Bataille’ (Battlegrounds).

Beirut

Antietam

Chelley Canyon

Chemin des Dames

Dardanelles

Dien Bien Phu

Documenting the world’s greatest battlegrounds is perhaps the epitome for this photojournalist who says he came to the profession because of his lifelong love of history. “Every time I go on the battlefield I am very excited to see what it looks like. I started in 2004 in Normandy. I’ve been to Turkey, to cover the Anzacs, your guys, to Waterloo, Stalingrad, Misrata…there are so many places that people kill each other.” It is clear that last statement holds fascination and horror for Yan who says this project is further evidence that the human race has learned nothing. Events in Paris this week confirm that.

Yan is not interested in photographing the human toll of war rather his focus is now on the scarred landscapes. There is something eerie about these images. On first glace they are fields of flowers and trees, windswept plains, or decaying buildings and urban-scapes, but on closer inspection the scars become evident. In Yan’s pictures we can see where great swathes of earth have been gouged, stones lie broken by mortar, wood and metal are tangled and rotting, and wreckage of battles become grotesque sculptures. In many scenes the debris of battle lies in wait for nature to rejuvenate and cover its path. In others, like the photograph of the Battle of Waterloo and Antietam, crops now grow in the soil that was once soaked with the blood of thousands.

Les Eparges

Misrata

Saipan

Stalingrad

Verdun

Waterloo

‘Champs des Bataille’ is a massive undertaking that began a decade ago. In that time Yan has photographed 250 battlefields carting his Deardorff camera with him across 35 countries. After experimenting with various formats he says, “8x10 was the right way for me to tell this story, this world of memory”. The photographs are rich in texture and detail and many evoke notions of Renaissance paintings. I’ve seen them in the book and on the wall in large format. They are impressive works of art as well as historical documents.

The 660-page book is beautifully produced, and Yan is proud that it is by a French publisher. It is a heavy tome in all senses and its weight makes it prohibitive to pop into my case. I’m disappointed because this is one book I would love to own, but at nearly 7kg it is impossible. Yan laughs and shows me an even bigger version with a slipcase. “And there is a larger one again!” He is clearly delighted with the outcome, but is keen to continue the work, as there are many other battlefields to cover before he packs his Deardorff away for good.

Available on Amazon

Exhibition:

Varda/Cuba

La Galerie de Photographies at the Centre Pompidou presents the works of French filmmaker and photographer Agnès Varda. This was one of my favourite exhibitions. I am a fan of black and white photography, and historical works, and Varda’s Cuba, shot in the early 1960s, is wonderfully insightful and transcendent.

Opening night had a gala air and while many enjoyed the complimentary champagne, others crowded into the exhibition space to view the work and watch the moving footage. The only disappointment was the fact that many of the prints are small and the lighting and congested space made it difficult to view. The catalogue is a magnificent production and allows you to spend more time with the images.

Until 1 February, 2016

La Galerie de Photographies

Centre Pompidou

Photo Essay:

Wiktoria Wojciechowska

Short Flashes

Short Flashes is a series of portraits of Chinese scooter and bicycle riders travelling in the rain. The story began by chance, as often the best photo essays do. Polish photo artist Wiktoria Wojciechowska had recently arrived in China and found herself on the sidewalk watching the riders whiz past in their brightly coloured raincoats. She started to take photographs, an umbrella taped to a tripod to keep herself and the camera dry. As she amassed a collection of portraits she began to investigate the background of the scooter riders and discovered that many were from minorities or regional areas, marginalised by the increasing numbers of affluent Chinese. She says that scooter and bicycle riding is now considered a lowly activity; having a car is thought to be a status symbol that many Chinese aspire to. This series has won a number of awards including this year's Oskar Barnack Leica Newcomer Award, La Quatrieme Image Young Talents and Humanity Photo Awards 2015, documentary category. Wiktoria is now working on a series in Ukraine and she shared a preview of this work with me. She is definitely someone to watch.

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 11th March, 2016|Photography Art Definition

This week celebrates International Women's Day with a showcase of five female photojournalists - Diana Markosian, Barbara Davidson, Kristin Lau, Annalisa Natali Murri and Daro Sulakauri.

Diana Markosian

Goodbye My Chechnya

Armenian-American photographer Diana Markosian was the 2015 Chris Hondros Emerging Photographer Award winner. Her series Goodbye My Chechnya "chronicles the lives of young Muslim girls who witnessed the horrors of two wars and are now coming of age in a republic that is rapidly redefining itself as a Muslim state".

? All images Diana Markosian

Barbara Davidson

Caught within the Crossfire

Canadian Barbara Davidson is a two time winner of the Pulitzer prize and an on-staff photojournalist with the LA Times. Her multimedia project on gang violence, Caught within the Crossfire, features stills and video. Davidson spent three years on the project to expose the reach of gang culture in society and to show the knock of effect of acts of violence on the community.

? All pictures Barbara Davidson

Kristin Lau

American photographer Kristin Lau's collection Nepal Solar Solutions looks at Nepal six months after the catastrophic 2015 earthquake and the SunFarmer solar strength venture. SunFarmer, a international non-profit that installs solar strength in developing countries, has constructed six health posts in Nepal with nearby healthcare companions.

? All photos Kristin Lau

Annalisa Natali Murri

La Nieve y los angeles Flor

In this attractive collection Italian-primarily based photographer Annalisa Natali Murri capabilities snap shots of Russian women who have migrated to Cuba. This collection also consists of personal anecdotes from those pictured. Many of the testimonies are from ladies who migrated thirty years in the past as a part of what Murri calls a "romantic diaspora".

? All images Annalisa Natali Murri

Daro Sulakauri

Deprived of Adolescence

Based in the Republic of Georgia, Daro Sulakauri's ongoing project Deprived of Adolescence documents the culture of early marriage. Georgia has one of the highest rates in Europe of early marriages, which are prevalent among religious and ethnic minorities.

? All snap shots Daro Sulakauri