Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 17th October, 2014|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up amazing work by Daniel Berehulak on the Ebola crisis, Katie Orlinsky's Bear Town, Gerd Ludwig's Nuclear Tourist, Murray Fredericks' new show opens in Sydney, Andrew Quilty wins the 2014 Nikon-Walkley Award for Photo of the Year and Majid Saeedi's Life in War launches in New York.

Picture of the Week:

Day to Night

American photographer Stephen Wilkes overlaps dozens of images to create his amazing "Day to Night" photographs. Check out the story on this series on TIME Lightbox.

On the frontline:

Daniel Berehulak - Ebola Crisis

Australian photojournalist Daniel Berehulak continues to produce some remarkable work. His coverage for the New York Times on the Ebola crisis is intense. Once again he's risking his own safety to bring us the stories we need to see. Please take the time to look at these images and consider that he was shooting this story covered in the same protective gear as those pictured. In addition to his usual photographic equipment, Berehulak also had to carry multiple changes of suits, gloves and other protective items to work in what is effectively a war zone where the enemy is invisible.

All images (C) Daniel Berehulak

Climate Change:

Katie Orlinsky - Bear Town

American photojournalist Katie Orlinsky's photo essay for Al Jazeera America shows the impact of climate change on the Arctic's wildlife. In the Alaskan town of Kaktovik, polar bears are seen frequently scavenging for food as the ice recedes, and armed residents are joining the polar bear patrol to keep locals safe. The proliferation of polar bears is also becoming a tourist attraction. You can see more photographs and read the story here.

All images (C) Katie Orlinsky

2014 Nikon-Walkley Award:

Andrew Quilty wins Photo of the Year

From the Nikon-Walkley website: "Andrew Quilty’s striking “Baby Burn Victim in Boost Hospital” has been named the 2014 Nikon-Walkley Photo of the Year. The image shot by Quilty in an observation room in the emergency ward at Boost Hospital in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, was the clear stand-out for the judges." Congratulations to Andrew who is currently based in Afghanistan.

Book Launch & Exhibition: New York

Majid Saeedi - Life in War

Iranian photojournalist Majid Saeedi was the winner of the 2014 FotoEvidence Book Award for his long term project, Life in War, shot in Afghanistan. This book and subsequent exhibition launched in New York last night at the Bronx Documentary Center, 614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, New York. Visit the FotoEvidence site for details on both the book and exhibition. Alison Stieven-Taylor's review of Life in War will be published on this blog next week.

Chernobyl As A Tourist Destination:

Gerd Ludwig's Nuclear Tourist

Twenty-eight years ago the name of Chernobyl was etched into the annals of history. Many can recall where they were when they heard the news that there had been a reactor accident at an atomic power plant in Russia, although few at the time really understood what that meant including officials. In the months that followed people around the world reeled as we learned in more detail the devastating effects of the failure, which had been caused by human error. The fallout continued long after the headlines had faded.

National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig made nine visits to Chernobyl, the Exclusion Zone and the abandoned city of Pripyat over 20 years to record not only the physical devastation, but the ongoing impact of the disaster on the people of this region. Now his photographs show that Chernobyl has become a macabre tourist destination. Read the full story and see more images on National Geographic.

All images (C) Gerd Ludwig

Exhibition: Sydney

Murray Fredericks - Topophilia

The Greenland Icesheet Series

Internationally renowned photographer Murray Fredericks made six trips to the centre of Greenland's Ice Sheet between 2010 and 2013. The result is his latest series, Topophilia, which comprises large format photographs of the icecap, as well as stills from the abandoned war missile defence station.

The Ice Sheet

The Abandoned Missile Station

But his new exhibition is so much more than images on walls. Taking full advantage of the multi-purpose spaces of the Annandale Galleries, Fredericks' exhibition is an immersive experience with an amazing, all-encompassing 160sqm cinematic video installation plus another video installation with three monitors. It’s not your average photographic exhibition, but then Fredericks is not your average landscape photographer. Think “epic,” “majestic,” and “breathtaking” and you’re getting close. A must see for those in Sydney.

Still from the video installation

All images (C) Murray Fredericks

Until 8 November

Annandale Galleries

110 Trafalgar Street

Annandale

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 31st October, 2014|Photography Art Definition

On Friday Round Up this week it’s all about exhibitions. In London, New York, Berlin, and Sydney there’s a host of fantastic photographic exhibitions currently on and about to open. Plus check out the photo essay on the changing face of Harlem. More than 30 photos feature on this week's blog.

Exhibitions:

London

Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age

(C) Andreas Gursky

This comprehensive exhibition at London's brilliant Barbican showcases the works of 18 photographers spanning the 1930s to today. With images from New York's soaring skyline to post-war California, contemporary Venezuela and the colonial era of the Congo, Constructing Worlds gives an extraordinary insight into the architectural designs that have shaped our cities.

Dutch photographer Iwan Baan's images (below) are among my favourites, but there are so many amazing images, and structures, in this exhibition. If you are in London this is a must-see exhibition, as the stories these images tell go far beyond the physical to make comment on the changes to our communities in the wake of progress.

(C) Iwan Baan

(C) Iwan Baan

(C) Iwan Baan

(C) Nadav Kander

(C) Berenice Abbott - New York City 1932

Until 11 January, 2015

Barbican

Silk Street

London

New York to Chattanooga

The New York Times Magazine Photographs

Curated by the magazine’s longtime photo editor Kathy Ryan and Aperture Foundation’s Lesley A. Martin

Gregory Crewdson, Julianne Moore, from “Dream House,” 2002

This traveling exhibition showcases photographic projects that have appeared in the New York Times Magazine spanning the past 15 years. The show closes this weekend in New York and its next stop is the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee 24 November to 29 March 2015.

Lars Tunbjörk, 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, published May 18, 1997

Ryan McGinley, Emily Cook, 2010 Olympic freestyle skier (aerials). From “Up!,” published February 7, 2010 (cover image)

Roger Ballen, Actress Selma Blair. From “The Selma Blair Witch Project: Fall’s Dark Silhouettes Have a Way of Creeping Up on You,” published October 30, 2005

Malick Sidibé, Assitan Sidibé in Marni and Christian Lacroix. From “Prints and the

Revolution,” published April 5, 2009

Berlin

Cordelia Beresford - Night Watchman

Cordelia Beresford, the daughter of Australian film director Bruce Beresford, has carved a reputation for herself as an accomplished director and award-winning cinematographer, and she is also a highly collectible photo-artist. This exhibition features her still photography, recent works that echo cinematic qualities and also draw on her work with leading choreographers. It's a curious collection, but shows her diversity as an artist.

Until 21 November

Michael Reid Berlin

Ackerstraße 163

D-10115 Berlin

Sydney

Steve Greenaway - A City Unpolarised

In this series, Sydney photographer Steve Greenaway layers images of mannequins and shopfronts over urban streetscapes to create a multidimensional look at iconic cities including London, New York and Sydney. By choosing to portray these photographs in black and white, Greenaway has managed to slow down what are busy, complex images and allow the eye to be drawn in.

November 11-30

Blackeye Gallery

3/138 Darlinghurst Road

Darlinghurst

Anne Ferran – Shadow Land

This 30-year retrospective features the largest collection of works by Australian photo-media artist Anne Ferran to be shown in Sydney. Ferran also currently has two works on show at Monash Gallery of Art as part of the Photography Meets Feminism group exhibition.

Opens 7 November

Australian Centre for Photography

257 Oxford Street

Paddington

Photo essay:

125th: Time in Harlem

Capturing the changing face of Harlem in New York, photographers Edward Hillel and Isaac Diggs walked the length of 125th Street from the Hudson to the Harlem River in 2009 to document the neighbourhood. Here are some of their images, which the pair hope to publish in a book in the near future.

This is important work. Our cities and suburbs are changing rapidly, not just physically, but socially as well. The gentrification of suburbs that were once deemed unfashionable, or unsavoury, has resulted in the homogenisation of the urban landscape. Photo essays like this will become visual time capsules, our only link to the past. Once the wrecking balls have done their work, and the multi-national brands have visually cloned our cities, these photographs will take on historical import and allow future generations to see what was lost. This may be a romantic view, but I firmly believe that in the rush for progress and the rapid evolution of technology, communities are losing their individuality and vibrancy to the hollow promises of the corporate dollar.

All images (C) Edward Hillel and Isaac Diggs