Family Photography Pictures

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 14 February, 2014|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up new exhibitions for Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, international festivals call for entries and an uplifting story from First Light Institute.

Exhibition: Perth

Graham Miller – All That is Solid Melts into Air

Acclaimed Australian photographer Graham Miller’s new exhibition – “All That is Solid Melts into Air” – opens at the Turner Galleries in Perth tonight.

In this collection of images that was created around Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Miller explores the relationship of people with the landscape. Drawing inspiration from painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and Eugene von Guérard, Miller says his images are intended as “an ambiguous blending of impression and fact and an attempt to provide delicate evocations of human presence and hope”.

All That is Solid Melts into Air

14 February to 15 March, 2014

Turner Galleries

470 William Street

Northbridge (Perth)

For more information visit the website here

Exhibition: Sydney

Kevin Cooper – Boxio Habana

Photographer Kevin Cooper’s photo essay on young Cuban boxers, Boxio Habana, opens at 10x8 Gallery in Sydney tonight. As well as an exhibition, there is also a book of the same name excerpts of which appear below.

Cooper, who has been shooting for over 30 years and labels himself a “visual documentarian,” says he is more comfortable communicating through pictures than words, a trait he identified early in life. “Someone wise once said that every man is entitled to his favourite brand of insanity. Mine is photography. I’m not a words man, I never have been. I read images, and have done since I was a pre-pubescent boy. Photography is my language, and luckily for me it is like music, understood by all”.

In Boxio Habana Cooper explores ‘La Lucha’ – The Struggle – of Cuban society at a “micro-level focusing on a small derelict boxing gym in Havana,” where young boys work out their frustrations and issues in the boxing ring.

“Each culture I document mirrors my struggles with the world I live in, but don’t really conform to. Boxio Habana is no different and I can see correlations between the young boxers and my own struggles as an adolescent. I guess by documenting the struggles of others, I am more equipped to understand my own – and accept them.”

Boxio Habana

14 - 23 February

10x8 Gallery

L3 Central

Central Park 28

Broadway

Exhibition: Victoria

Tim Page – Diggers in the Nam

Opening this weekend at the National Vietnam Veterans Museum (Victoria) ‘Diggers in the Nam’ features iconic images from the Vietnam War taken by photojournalist Tim Page between 1965-1969.

Vietnam was a training ground for Page who as a young photographer worked alongside the likes of Eddie Adams. Since that time Page’s pictures have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the globe over a career that has spanned five decades. Page has had a lauded, and at times, immensely dangerous journey that has left him at death’s door on more than one occasion. Page, who is now in his sixties, will be at the launch to talk about the images and no doubt regale visitors with one or more colourful tales!

Through his lens Page has shown the world images that define generations and his photographs can be seen in museums and galleries around the world, and within the pages of books. And also on this blog with the Tim Page Unseen series featuring never before published photographs.

Diggers in the Nam

15 February - 30 April

National Vietnam Veterans Museum

25 Veterans Drive

Newhaven, Phillip Island

(approximately 2 hours drive from Melbourne)

Festivals:

Call for International Entries

Head On Photo Festival – Sydney

This year’s marks the 10th Anniversary of the Head On Photo Festival’s Portrait Prize. While the Portrait category is open to Australian residents only, Head On is extending its reach inviting international photographers to enter three other prize categories – Landscape, Mobile and the latest addition, Multimedia. Total prize pool is valued at $50,000.

Winners for each category will be announced on Friday 16 May 2014 in Sydney. “All work is judged anonymously and selection is based on the power of the work alone rather than the celebrity of the subject or its creator.”

Entries close 9th March, 2014. Visit the website for more details

Call for International Proposals

Kaunas Festival – Lithuania

Now in its 11th year, Kaunas Photo Festival is calling for proposals on the theme of MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, EXHIBITIONS. This international call is open to photographers and photo-media artists of all ages and to all creative methods from reportage to conceptual works. This Festival launches in May with major exhibitions held over September and October.

Entries close 21 March, 2014

Visit the website for more details

Inspirational:

GMB Akash – First Light Institute of Photography

According to First Light Institute of Photography “there are 7.8 million working children in Bangladesh who have no childhood and no toys. First light Institute of Photography gifted more than 500 new toys to more than 500 deprived children to inspire and to motivate them as well as to encourage them towards happiness.”

The look of joy of these young faces is just reward for the kindness shown and reinforces that social documentary photography also has a role to play in celebrating the human spirit. Images (C) GMB Akash.

To find out more about First Light Institute of Photography click here.

Monday, August 3, 2020

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 28 February, 2014|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up Melbourne Now’s Photobook Day, a new group show opens in Fitzroy, refugee advocate Julian Burnside launches new publication on Nauru, plus Bill Henson’s artist talk at MGA. In Sydney Patricia Casey’s Little Secrets exhibition to open next week, and in The Netherlands Noorderlicht Photofestival calls for submissions for its 2014 theme.

Exhibition: Melbourne

From Above – Group Show

Papua New Guinea (C) John Gollings 1973-1974

Kicking off its 2014 calendar of exhibitions is a group show at Fitzroy’s Colour Factory opening next week. “From Above” features a diverse range of works from an equally diverse group of photographers including John Gollings. Renowned as one of the world’s leading architecture photographers, in this exhibition Gollings has chosen to showcase photographs taken in Papua New Guinea in the 1970s, further demonstrating the breadth of his oeuvre.

Also participating in the show are Marzena Wasikowska, Sean Fennessy, Chris Budgeon, John Laurie, Sarah Pannell and Eriver Hijano.

From Above

6-29 March

Colour Factory

409-429 Gore Street

Fitzroy (Melbourne)

John Gollings website

Colour Factory website

Exhibition: Sydney

Patricia Casey – Little Secrets

In “Little Secrets” Sydney-based photographic artist Patricia Casey has intricately woven landscape and portrait photography with detailed embroidery to create images that are not only physically multi-layered, but also allegorically.

Within each frame Casey invokes a world where memory, nature and fantasy reside inviting the viewer to ponder their own secrets, and to drift into the realm of imagination.

“Everyone has their little secrets,” says Casey. “Sometimes these little secrets are pleasurable, sometimes not, and this series of works is a meditation on that theme.”

All images (C) Patricia Casey

Little Secrets

4-22 March

NG Art Gallery

3 Little Queen Street

Chippendale (Sydney)

Gallery website

Patricia Casey website

Book Launch: Melbourne

Kelvin Skewes – Nauru: What was Taken and What was Given

Leading refugee advocate Julian Burnside AO QC will officially launch a new publication by Melbourne photographer Kelvin Skewes – Nauru: What was Taken and What was Given – at the Asia Pacific Photobook Archive on Saturday 1st March.

The island nation of Nauru, in Micronesia, is the world’s smallest republic. Many Australians know Nauru as an offshore processing centre for asylum seekers under Australia’s Pacific Solution policy; a continual source of contention and debate within Australia.

With its very survival reliant on financial aid from other nations Skews says, "Nauru is a microcosm that allows us to examine questions about extraction industries, the viability of the nation state, 20th century colonialism, 21st century paternalism, as well as our translational and intergenerational responsibilities".

His publication, which is in newspaper format, will be available for sale on the day.

2-4pm

Saturday 1st March

Asia Pacific Photobook Archive

395-397 Gore Street

Fitzroy (Melbourne)

Kelvin Skewes website

Asia Pacific Photobook Archive

Photobook Day: Melbourne

Melbourne Now – NGV International

As part of the exhibition Melbourne Now a “photobook day” will be held on 7 March featuring a selection of books from the Asia Pacific Photobook Archive. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet more than 30 local photographers who will be on hand to talk about their work along with publishers, printers and editors. There will also be photobook-making workshops that are free to attend. Photographers are also invited to donate a copy of their photobooks to the Archive.

Friday 7th March

NGV International – Community Hall

180 St. Kilda Road

Melbourne

Melbourne Now at NGV

Curator Talk:

Bill Henson – Monash Gallery of Art

This Saturday Bill Henson will take visitors through the exhibition “Wildcards: Bill Henson Shuffles the Deck” the first Australian exhibition Henson has curated. This is a fantastic opportunity to hear from one of Australia’s greatest photographers and one of the most erudite people I’ve ever had the pleasure to interview. This is a truly fantastic exhibition. If you can’t make the talk, you have until March 30 to see this show.

Places are limited and bookings essential.

Monash Gallery of Art – 03 8544 0500

2pm Saturday 1st March

Festival: Call for Submissions

Noorderlicht Photo Festival

Noorderlicht 2013 (C) Alison Stieven-Taylor

The theme for this year's main exhibition at the Noorderlicht Photo Festival is "An Ocean of Possibilities". The intention of this theme is to "turn the spotlight on people who plot their own course. They may be individuals, small communities, businesses that think in terms of sustainability, or social enterprises. Whatever their form, they set out to realise a better future, not only for themselves, but also for others, even if that means an uncertain outlook".

This exhibition will be on show simultaneously during the Noorderlicht 2014 International Photofestival and also at the Singapore International Photofestival 2014. It's a great opportunity to gain international exposure so get your submission in before 30 March.

For more information visit the Noorderlicht Photofestival website

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 7 March, 2014|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up we take another view on the Getty Images for Free story, plus there are two brilliant and extremely different photo essays that showcase the diversity of the documentary genre as well as exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney. And as a salute International Women's Day is the success of the Crying Meri Kickstarter Campaign.

Another Take on the Getty Images “Free” Story that Raises More Questions

Most will have seen the stories circulating about Getty Images decision to offer its 35 million plus library of images for free. From reading the coverage it appears that Getty Images has made this decision based on the presumption that everyone who blogs will go to the Getty Images library for photographs. But if you are a blogger that cuts and pastes from an existing story such as the one that ran today on The Atlantic, then the embedded information that is the crux of Getty's strategy does not appear (see below).

This image, which appeared in two places on The Atlantic story "Why Getty Going Free Is Such a Big Deal, Explained in Getty Images" - first as the lead image and then again under point 3 - was saved as a right click “save image as”. As you can see there are no embedded details on this image despite the fact that this information appears on the image published on The Atlantic site which you can view here. The above image has not been cropped or altered in any way. What you see is what was saved directly from the site.

While Getty Images’ move to offer free photographs may be adopted by some bloggers, the very nature of ‘aggregated media’, under which many blogs sit, is to share stories and images that are already available online. Also the cut and paste mentality that exists on sites like Facebook sees thousands of images shared daily without credit. So while the move to halt piracy may be the prime objective, there are still clearly loopholes to close.

Image Credit: GettyImages Gallo Images/George Brits/ Vetta

Photo Essay:

Edward Burtynsky – Water

Undoubtedly one of the most respected landscape photographers working today, Edward Burtynsky’s body of work titled ‘Water’ builds on his already impressive oeuvre and is nothing short of breathtaking - these images re truly epic not only in scale, but in the depth of the storytelling.

Burtynsky’s approach to the landscape is driven by his desire to capture humankind’s relationship to nature and how this is expressed in the industrialised landscape in particular, which has been his focus for more than 30 years.

In articulating his approach he told Alison Stieven-Taylor, “I was always interested in trying to find a language deep in the landscape to photograph. Obviously the traditional landscape has been done, the pristine landscape, what else can you do that we haven’t already seen? Trees, twigs and leaves have been covered really well".

“I felt there was an opportunity to bridge through my work the kind of disconnect that has occurred in our post modern society where economies are globalised, where things come from everywhere and we really don’t have any notion of the source anymore. It is a way to look at the human imprint on the land in pursuit of the materials for our urban existence and to bridge those worlds by exploring the voids.”

Burtynsky’s philosophy can be clearly seen in the photographs that comprise ‘Water’, a body of work that captures the way we have taken this amazing natural resource and literally reshaped the face of the planet. In his Artist’s Statement he says, "While trying to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding, and very thirsty civilization, we are reshaping the Earth in colossal ways. In this new and powerful role over the planet, we are also capable of engineering our own demise. We have to learn to think more long-term about the consequences of what we are doing, while we are doing it".

To see more of Edward Burtynsky's work visit his website here

Photo Essay:

Maxim Dondyuk - The TB Epidemic in Ukraine

While current news coverage of the Ukraine is focused on the political upheaval and Russia's presence on its doorstep, Ukrainian photographer Maxim Dondyuk has been covering another crisis - the TB Epidemic that is ravishing his country claiming around 10,000 souls each year. Many in the west assume this disease is of another generation long past, but for the last 16 years the people of Ukraine have battled against this invisible marauder. Dondyuk has won numerous awards for this body of work that explores both the medical and social implications of this epidemic. To see more from this remarkable photo essay click here.

All images (C) Maxim Dondyuk

Exhibition: Melbourne

Rebecca Dagnall – In Tenebris

In her latest exhibition, “In Tenebris”, which is Latin for ‘in darkness’, photographic artist Rebecca Dagnall explores the concept of the Australian gothic drawing on colonial literature which she says is where the notion of the gothic was first seen in Australian culture.

Within this framework Dagnall has created a series of 13 photographs that invite the viewer into a dark landscape that is at once recognizable and unfamiliar. While the European gothic speaks of antiquities, amazing architecture and haunted houses, Dagnall says the Australian gothic “seems to have taken hold around things like isolation in the bush, which comes from that colonial influx where the harshness of the landscape, the difficulty of living somewhere so foreign, so unknown, where animals can kill you, was quite scary”.

Dagnall’s images, which are beautifully printed and are now on show in the Edmund Pearce Gallery in Melbourne, invite the viewer to let their imagination take flight and create their own narratives around the notion of being in the dark.

In Tenebris

Until 29 March

Edmund Pearce Gallery

Level 2 Nicholas Building

37 Swanston Street

Melbourne

Visit the Gallery website here

Exhibition: Sydney

Australian Vernacular Photography – Art Gallery of NSW

This exhibition explores the “depiction of modern Australian life” over the past 50 years and showcases the work of sixteen photographers including Sue Ford, Fiona Hall, Robert McFarlane, Ed Douglas, Jeff Carter, William Yang, Trent Parke and Glenn Sloggett. All works are from the Art Gallery of NSW's extensive Australian photography collection which numbers around 3800.

In 'Australian Vernacular' there are photographs that draw on tropes of Australian imagery – sun, surf and sand are recurrent themes, for example, that are associated with Australian beach culture. Although the relationship to these themes differs widely depending on whether you are living in the southern states or the country’s more tropical climes. There are also images that could have been taken anywhere, banal suburban themes save for one defining factor; the uniqueness of the Australian light and how the use of light is very particular to photography from this country.

While older works give insight into historical values and carry with them the nostalgia of their time, many of the more recent photographs add to conversations around technology and its impact not only on the artistic practice, but also on how the viewer consumes images.

Australian Vernacular

Art Gallery of NSW

Until 18 May

Visit the website here

There are also exhibition floor talks:

12 March 5.30-6pm Anne Zahalka Artist

9 April Isobel Parker Philip Writer & Photographer

14 May Eleanor Weber Assistant Curator

International Women's Day

Fighting Against Domestic Violence

Saturday 8th March is International Women's Day. While there are many issues facing women around the world, domestic violence is still one that seems no closer to resolution. In Australia if a man beats another on the street, that is considered criminal assault, yet if a man beats his wife it's domestic violence and punitive measures are not comparable.

It seems appropriate that on the day we celebrate the rights of women everywhere to live in harmony with love and respect, that Photojournalism Now congratulates photographer Vlad Sokhin and FotoEvidence for the success of their Kickstarter fundraising campaign to publish Sokhin's book "Crying Meri". Sokhin is dedicated to exposing the endemic violence against women in Papua New Guinea and his work has assisted in changing that country's political stance against domestic violence. With the publication of his book later this year, and the backing of FotoEvidence and its commitment to exposing injustice, those who endure domestic violence take another step towards the light.

See more of Vlad Sokhin's work here

Visit FotoEvidence here

Photography art Gallery Friday Round Up - 21 February, 2014|Photography Art Definition

This week on Friday Round Up photojournalist Megan Lewis shares her latest story - a Photojournalism Now Exclusive. Plus the winner of the 2014 FotoEvidence Book Award, a feature interview with Sam Harris and two events for those in Melbourne - tonight the opening of the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive Reading Room and the first show of the year for Strange Neighbour Gallery.

Exclusive:

Megan Lewis - Conversations with the Mob

“It is possible to be a documentary photographer and in the same breath be a compassionate human being. I believe it is knowing when to act and when not to. I trust my gut, my intuition - life is about being present.” Megan Lewis 2014

Twelve years ago photojournalist Megan Lewis threw in her full-time job on a daily newspaper, packed her car and camera gear and headed into the Australian desert to live with the Martu people, one of the last Indigenous groups in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert to come into contact with white people.

“When you shoot for a media organisation there is no room for going inside,” says Lewis. “We have this checklist – drama, action, violence or controversy. I wanted to tell a deeper story, and to look beyond the Aboriginal stereotypes created in the media where the focus is predominantly negative and centred on violence, poverty and substance abuse.”

The Australian desert is harsh. Temperatures regularly soar past 50°C in summer, and this dry, hot and sparse land is alien to the majority of Australians who cling to the seaboard. The Martu, or the Mob as they call themselves, number around 850 and inhabit a territory in Central Australia that is approximately the size of the United Kingdom.

Lewis lived with this Indigenous community for nearly three years creating a body of work that became the book “Conversations with the Mob” which was published in 2008 to great acclaim. But her work with the Martu continued long after she put her camera down and today she remains connected to the Mob. In the past 18 months she’s worked with community leaders to institute healthy eating programs for the children and to build self-esteem through creative pursuits including photography and filmmaking.

In January 2014 Lewis returned to Central Australia. Unlike Conversations with the Mob which was self-funded, this time Lewis had sponsorship to aid in the cost of heading bush where it is easy to clock up thousands of kilometres travelling from one settlement to another. With the support of Fujifilm Lewis continues this remarkable story and you can watch her video here.

All images (C) Megan Lewis shot on the new Fujifilm X-T1

To buy the book visit UWA Publishing

To find out more about Megan Lewis visit her website.

Winner: 2014 FotoEvidence Book Award

Majid Saeedi - Afghanistan: Life in War

This week Svetlana Bachevanova, publisher of FotoEvidence, announced that Iranian photographer Majid Saeedi was the winner of this year's FotoEvidence Book Award.

Saeedi's submission was chosen from a pool of more than 50 entries documenting a wide range of subjects from photographers working in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

“Majid’s work contrasts with a lot of what we usually see from Afghanistan because he didn’t photograph war. He lived with the people he photographed as one of them," says Bachevanova. "All the work selected shows dedicated documentary photographers working with imagination and courage to shine a light on suffering and injustice…We look forward to exhibiting the work in New York this fall when we release the book.”

I interviewed Saeedi in September last year at Visa pour l'Image about this body of work. You can read the story and see more photographs by clicking on Feature Articles at the top of this blog.

Click here to find out more about FotoEvidence and to view the shortlist.

Interview:

Sam Harris

"British-born photographer Sam Harris is best known for his body of work “Postcards from Home”, through which he has demonstrated a unique approach to turning family photographs into a visual narrative that appeals to those outside the family circle. But his journey to this point has been one of hard truths, dogged determination and ultimately personal discovery, as he tells Alison Stieven-Taylor.

Postcards from Home (2008-2011), the first of a series, has been published online and is also an award-winning book, which has found wide appeal across cultures. “I think it is a common truth that if something is intimate then it is pretty universal really. I am sure Fellini said something along those lines,” he laughs. “Beyond that I guess the passion and the love that comes across in the photos is maybe refreshing when there’s so much sex, drugs and war photography out there”.

Harris, who now lives with his wife and two daughters south of Perth in Western Australia, began his career in London shooting bands for record covers. He says he came to photography through his interest in painting; he is another who originally wanted to be a painter, like renowned UK photographer Lewis Morley. “But I fell in love with the darkroom and the ability to play around with negatives and create images from my imagination. From the darkroom I took that into the studio and in-camera,” he says..."to continue to read this story and see more photographs please click on the Feature Articles tab at the top of this blog.

Exhibition: Melbourne

Todd Anderson-Kunert - Strange Neighbour

(C)Todd Anderson-Kunert

Melbourne gallery Strange Neighbour kicks off its 2014 exhibition program with a solo exhibition by Todd Anderson-Kunert - “The situation we’re in”. Anderson-Kunert has created an installation that incorporates sound, image and 7” vinyl to create an immersive experience that is “centered around an abstracted ballroom”. Within this space “these components rhythmically keep time, moving towards each other and coming apart. Each component is like an event and a beat; some are everyday, others dramatic. They reflect and refract each other, creating a composite of tangent emotions.”

Strange Neighbour

395-397 Gore Street

Fitzroy

Until March 22

Opens tonight at 6pm - 9pm

Visit the Strange Neighbour Website here.

Opening: Melbourne Tonight

Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive

Tonight the new home for the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive Reading Room will officially open. Located next door to Strange Neighbour Gallery in Fitzroy, the Photobook Archive now has around 300 books with the collection growing daily.

Award-winning street photographer Jesse Marlow will officially open the Photobook Archive. On show will be a selection of books curated from the Archive by Heidi Romano of the online magazine “Unless You Will”.

The brainchild of Daniel Boetker-Smith, the Photobook Archive was created to provide a showcase of work from the Asia Pacific region, which Boetker-Smith says is largely under-represented in the world of photobooks. It is an open-access archive and accepts “photographic books and publications of all types”. The Photobook Archive also showcases books at various photographic festivals providing invaluable exposure for the individual artist and the medium itself.

Tonight 6pm-8pm

395-397 Gore Street

Fitzroy

For more information about the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive click here.