Adam Pretty / The Big Picture August 26, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Journalism, Publishing , add a commentOn Saturday, Singapore welcomed young athletes from around the world in a ceremony opening the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. This first ever Summer Youth Olympics, an event designed to be celebrated in the same tradition of the Olympic Games – involved competitors between 14 and 18 years of age. This year, 3,500 athletes from more than 200 countries competed in 184 events in 26 sports. The amazing Australian photographer Adam Pretty was there and the Boston Globe’s Big Picture ran a story on the event.
- Photo Copyright Adam Pretty Getty Images
Tokyo Symphony August 23, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : New Media, Photojournalism, Publications, Publishing , add a commentmonographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
Photo Ed van der Elsken
The installation was never finished due to his early death at age 60. It was thought that the collection of 1,600 images, which is currently stored at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, was all that remained of this ambitious project. In 2007, researcher Frank Ortmanns discovered five audiotapes belonging to the project. Fascinated by this missing piece of the puzzle, Ortmanns approached Paradox to discuss the possibility of posthumously realizing Tokyo Symphony. Taking into account Van der Elsken’s fascination with AV technology, it was concluded that a contemporary approach to this installation would be most appropriate. In other words: to make an installation as if Van der Elsken were still alive.
The immersive installation based on hundreds of unknown colour slides confronts the viewer with various traditional as well as contemporary and little known aspects of Tokyo: from demonstrations in Shibuya to weddings and memorial celebrations, from girls wrestling and karaoke in Harajuku to the Tsukiji fish market. Van der Elsken switches constantly from intimate portraits to lively street scenes. The spatial multi-screen design of the installation, which is accompanied by a soundtrack based on his original recordings, adds to the dynamic experience of the strange mixture of tradition and modernity that characterises the metropolis of Tokyo. Through the harmonic as well as disharmonic interplay of various audiovisual elements, the installation can be seen as a true modern symphony about urbanism and eastern culture – a symphony that reflects the notion of the all absorbing and omnipresent urban environment.
Ed van der Elsken´s photographs are represented worldwide in the collections of several renowned institutions including the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), the Chicago Art Institute, the Kawasaki Modern Art Museum, the Special Collections Department of the University Leiden and the Museum of Modern Art (New York).
Even before his 1956 breakthrough with Love on the Left Bank, Van der Elsken attracted attention in international exhibitions such as Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man (1955). Further important exhibitions followed, such as Sweet Life (Amsterdam, 1968), Masters of European Photography (London, 1973), Van der Elsken´s Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 1979), L´Amour à Saint Germain des Prés (Tokyo, 1986) and De ontdekking van Japan 1961-1988 (Amsterdam, 1988/1989). Also posthumously: Once Upon a Time (Amsterdam /Tokyo, 1991), Long Live Me! (Paris /Amsterdam /Porto /Modena /Antwerp, 1996 – 2006), and Documenta X (Kassel, 1997). His most influential photo books include Een liefdesgeschiedenis in Saint Germain des Prés(1956), Bagara (1958), Jazz (1958), Sweet Life (1966), Amsterdam! (1979), De ontdekking van Japan (1988) and Once Upon a Time (1991).
Big City Press July 16, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, German Photographers, Hijacked, Publications, Publishing , add a comment Robert Cook
Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Photography and Design
Art Gallery of Western Australia (2010)
Opening Speech at launch of Hijacked 2 Australia Germany ART GALLERY OF WEST AUSTRALIA
- Laura Beilby and Mark McPherson
The Hijacked project was initiated by Mark McPherson in 2005 as a photocopied ‘zine. It took what was cool about where ‘zine culture ended up going via the American post-punk and skate scenes, by riffing off the way those publications worked against hierarchical culture to create liberating peer-based zones of exchange. So because the ‘zine format functioned for McPherson as a guerrilla platform, to announce the work of peers and to shape a society of creative equals, it expressed the general evolution away from the zine genre’s fan-roots as DIY printed love songs to movie stars and pop icons made by spotty bedroom romantics. This is a way of saying that Hijacked, in its various forms, has always been about framing, not fandom per se. While there is undeniably love in it, it is, therefore, not devotional, and, now, in its current state of hardcover monumentality, it might be seen to stand on the opposing pole to the intricate first person longing of the world’s other great uber zine, Stop Breathing. In my mind, in ‘zine culture in general, that is where Hijacked now stands. There is Stop Breathing – almost obsessively over-thought singly authored analyses of the world of mostly American indie music – and there is Hijacked – sprawling, restless, decentred, local and international, shooting from the hip, yet obsessive in its own delirious way. Both began life in lo-fi formats and expanded to be all they could be, while staying true to their defining visions.
Hijacked’s vigorously loose ambit was facilitated in the title. In an overt way it allowed other artists to take over, to hijack it and take it to their own destination. Thus, early issues were also produced by outstanding Perth creatives such as Thomas Jeppe, Conor O’Brien, Marcus Canning and Hannah Mathews. In a covert way, the idea of hijacking also, I believe, granted a kind of permission to lift practices from the context of their production and give them a new meaning through this violence. It is more forceful than cultural jamming, it is latently heavy, and this weight is supported by the horizontal field, the sense that Hijacked works, figuratively at least, in the manner of Fugazi and, later, The Evens -(where possible) no stage, no difference between audience and creator.
I dwell on this because I think the original ethos pulses through its relaunch as the hardcover book. The first outing, published in 2008 to great success, saw McPherson and co-editor Max Pam bring Australian artists together with American. The tone was post party, hung-over soulful, humans and spaces merging in a graphic liquid bath. It was like two New Worlds, two products of the colonial oceanic slough faced each other and asked, what the hell brought us here? And what the hell are we gonna do with these cars, in these hotel rooms, with these inked skins? Hijacked 1, answered these questions visually in wildly entertaining ways.
This volume sees McPherson joining fellow editors Ute Noll and Markus Schaden to create a dialogue between German and Australian photographers. And in it, the feel is ‘post hurricane’. The cobwebs are gone and the old and the new world stutter and speak with and at other, their gestures, their communications opening out the implicit politics that structure post war Germany and contemporary colonial Australia. As such, issues of freedom, of movement, of desire, of the world as ‘troubled playground’, shape the work. And so there is a celebration of youthful vigour and a tremulousness thanks to the awareness that the adolescent and recently adolescent mindset are in no way separate from the dangerous voyage of history, and the architectural and human structures that we live through. What this book shows is that we are always hemming ourselves in, always challenging those boundaries. It is in this way that the political and the aesthetic are carefully unified in the project. And it’s a coolly complicated thing, obvious and not so, and it’s something the fine essays circle in ways both dense and airy. These essays sit discreetly between the two hemispheres’ art works, functioning as a dividing wall of interpretation that might be seen as being both respected and broken down by the photos themselves. Easts and Wests, Norths and Souths, push together, imagistically, against the words that would contain them in the middle. It’s a smart layout, but then everything is smart about this project.
And as such, I want to pay a small tribute to Mark McPherson. Though he has collaborated, and drawn on many, many people’s energies, Hijacked is basically a testament to his force and his energy. He has a lot personally at stake in this. It is not a career, but a drive that has caused him to make this. He has a brave and a wonderful vision and I am kind of in awe of it. In his essay in this book, Alasdair Foster quotes Henry Miller, saying that ‘chaos is the score upon which reality is written’. I think that sums up so much, not just about this book, but about Mark’s energetic approach to making culture, to being in a way our most important young photo curators and editors in this country. He is reaching out, refusing to be pinned by the local, and is making a new kind of global community of artists.
Beyond the book, is the tour of the exhibition. It is currently on show at the Australian Centre for Photography, where I am told it looks amazing. It is moving around not just eh country but the world, and will make an appearance in Perth at the John Curtin Gallery July-September 2011, something of a significant homecoming for the material, and I am positive it will look incredible in the crisp spaces of the exquisite gallery.
Before that, you have the book. It is available from our shop right now and I need to say that all sales from the book shop go toward assisting the gallery fund a range of activities, exhibitions especially. I would like to congratulate Mark, Ute and Markus on their achievements, all the incredible photographers several of whom are here tonight, and also the brilliant Fabio Ongarato and his team for the impeccable graphic design. Inspiring people all. Thanks for coming and have a great evening.
- Photographers Suzie Fox and Jackson Eaton with Hijacked 2
- Robert Cook Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Photography and Design
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography June 20, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Awards, Degree South, Documentary, Publishing, Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography , add a commentGardner Photography Fellow, 2010
Following an international search, the Gardner Fellowship committee awarded the Fellowship to Stephen Dupont, a prize-winning Australian photographer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Time, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. Dupont will be working on a project entitled Guns and Arrows: The Detribalization of Papua New Guinea.
Over the past six years, Dupont has traveled to Papua New Guinea, photographically documenting its changing face and the powerful impact of globalization on the fabric of its traditional Melanesian society. Guns and Arrows, the proposed project, will continue this work. From the recasting of tribal society into an urban proletariat and the effects of violence and lawlessness in Port Moresby to the westernization of traditional society in the Highlands, it will be an in-depth study of cultural erosion as well as a celebration of an ancient people. He plans to use 35mm, 6×6, panoramic, and Polaroid formats for documentary street photography, landscapes, and portraiture; weaving single images, contact sheets, composites, and video grabs into multiple forms: a traditional exhibition at the Peabody Museum, a book with the Peabody Museum Press, and an interactive web presentation.
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Polaroid portrait of raskol (”criminal” in Tok Pison) Samson Maipe inside the Kips Kaboni (Red Devils) safe house in Kaugare Settlement, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 2004. Copyright Stephen Dupont. |
Stephen Dupont – first Australian to be awarded the
2010 Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography
Esteemed Australian photographer, Stephen Dupont, is the first Australian to be awarded the prestigious 2010 Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
A self-taught photographer, Stephen Dupont has captured photo essays from some of the world’s most dangerous regions including Afghanistan, Angola, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Congo, East Timor, Iraq, Israel, Rwanda and Somalia.
As part of the Award prize, the Fellowship funds an ‘established practitioner of the photographic arts to create and subsequently publish through the Peabody Museum a major book of photographs on the human condition anywhere in the world.’
For his project, Stephen has selected to travel to Papua New Guinea where he will spend 12 months working on Guns and Arrows: The Detribalisation of Papua New Guinea. Over the past six years, he has travelled to Papua New Guinea to photographically document its changing face and the powerful impact of globalisation on the fabric of its traditional Melanesian society.
“Guns and Arrows will be an in-depth study of cultural erosion as well as a celebration of an ancient people,” Stephen said.
As part of his project, he will also produce a major book profiling his Papua New Guinea photographs; conduct an exhibition and lecture at the Peabody Museum; as well as produce an interactive web presentation.
Stephen Dupont said he has been an advocate of FUJIFILM Professional films throughout his 21-year career, in particular FP-100C 5” x 4” instant colour film, Neopan ACROS black-and-white film and Velvia colour transparency.
FUJIFILM Australia National Manager – Professional, Kevin Cooper, said the 2010 Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography is a fitting accolade for Stephen Dupont who has been recognised internationally for his outstanding photographic work that has captured the essence of so many cultures, which have often been war-torn at the time.
“He has worked in extremely high risk environments, including Afghanistan where he survived a suicide bombing,” Mr Cooper said.
Stephen Dupont has earned many other prestigious photography awards including a Robert Capa Gold Medal citation from the Overseas Press Club of America; a Bayeux War Correspondent’s Prize; plus achieved first places in the World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, the Australian Walkleys and the Leica/CCP Documentary Award.
In 2007, Stephen was also awarded the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanitarian Photography for his ongoing project in Afghanistan.
His handmade photographic artist books and portfolios are in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Australian War Memorial, The New York Public Library, Berlin and Munich National Art Libraries, Stanford University, Yale University, Boston Athanaeum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Joy of Giving Something, Inc.
Australian Book Wins Best Photography Prize at PhotoEspaña June 18, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Awards, Publishing , add a comment
- Australian Book Wins Best Photography Book Prize at PhotoEspaña
Australian photographer Max Pam’s Atlas Monographs published by T&G Publishing Sydney has taken out the coveted “Best Photography Book Prize (International Category)” for the 2010 edition at PhotoEspaña in Madrid.
PHotoEspaña International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts is a major event in the annual calendar attracting an audience of more than 600,000 from around the world.
Atlas Monographs was named in the top 100 Best Photography Books of the Year for 2010, the only Australian book to make the list. Publisher Gianni Frinzi was advised of the win in the “Best Photography Book Prize (International Category)” this week. An Awards ceremony will be held in Madrid on 24th June.
“We are absolutely delighted with the win. Max (Pam) and I worked tirelessly to ensure the integrity and quality of the book. It is fantastic to be rewarded with this international prize,” said Gianni.
“T&G is focused on bringing the best of Australian photography to the world. This prize is not only recognition for Max Pam’s tremendous body of work, and for T&G. It is a real boost for Australian photography publishing. To my knowledge we are the first to win this prize in Australia.”
The PhotoEspaña jury comprised Juan Manuel Bonet, critic and former director of Museum Reina Sofia; Pep Carrio, photographer; Wim van Sinderen, curator at The Hague Museum of Photography; Miguel Lopez, Director of Antonio Saura Foundation and Alberto Corazon, designer.
Gianni Frinzi T&G Publishing
SPECIAL EDITIONS:
Max Pam, Brad Rimmer
Blind Boys April 5, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Blindboys, Foto Freo, India, New Media, Publishing , add a commentKapil Das is a photographer from Mumbai. He has a penchant for the Yashica T4, a point and shoot that is perhaps his favourite camera. He has an incredible sense of humour and a quick enquiring mind. He has been a great addition to the INCITE programme at FotoFreo where he was part of the panel of Aaron Rose (Think the film ‘Beautiful Losers’), Jack Pam, the magazine ‘eleventhirty’, with Art Gallery of WA curator Robert Cook chairing the discussion.
‘Blindboys.org is a magazine exploring Photography and Shared Territories in and from a new ever-changing Asia. In addition to being a platform for new visual perspectives from the continent, Blindboys.org also dreams of creating a community for a better synthesis of art, media, and Asian cultures leading to a holism of new Asian visual identities.
In its current form you can discover photography from Asia and various points of view: documentary, fine art, photojournalism, poetic, personal, abstract, human, and street photography. We gear ourselves to be a free platform for inclusion, collecting perspectives that otherwise would have been left under told. Taking these perspectives on to the streets to foster better dialogue and taking the photographic medium into communities to galvanize and curate a visual self expression.
Had a quick look at the photographers exhibiting their work on Blind Boys and rediscovered the work of Adrian Fisk, a British photographer who has been based in Delhi for some years and who I first met in Perpignan France. Small world. Keep an eye on this photo commune and its blog.
- Kapil Das Blind Boys Photo Commune Mumbai India Photo Bohdan Warchomij
Photo Book Now Competition April 4, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Competitions, Documentary, Photojournalism, Publications, Publishing , add a comment
- UKRAINE / Ilichovsk / Harbor Photo Rafal Milach
Rafael Milach from Poland won Blurb’s Photography Book Now competition in 2009. The 2010 competition has launched for the third year running . In addition to $25,000, the grand prize winner will also be given the opportunity to show their work at ICP, the Annenberg Space for Photography, and the George Eastman House. The competition defines the potential of self-publishing.
Year of the Book March 31, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Degree South, Documentary, Foto Freo, Photography Festivals, Photojournalism, Publishing, War , add a comment
- Michael Coyne Degree South Collective Book Launch
- James Brickwood, Dean Sewell OCULI and David Dare Parker Degree South
- Dean Sewell Photo Oculi Museum Perth
2010 has been a great year for the photograph in book form at Foto Freo. Max Pam’s Atlas Chronicles launched prior to the festival opening and then in rapid succession Brad Rimmer launched Silence at the Fremantle Prison, Oculi, the respected Australian East Coast photo collective launched its massive first tome, and Degree South launched WAR, an impressively seminal work at Central Gallery in Perth. Gianni Frinzi from T & G Publishing is to be commended for his huge contribution to Australian photography.
Degree South formed in 2006 at Foto Freo as a cooperative that has an established archive that cover’s Australia’s involvement in the world’s conflicts since Vietnam in the 60’s. Individually Tim Page, David Dare Parker, Ben Bohane, Stephen Dupont, Jack Picone, Michael Coyne, Ashley Gilbertson, and Sean Flynn have strong reputations that have been hammered out in the world’s conflicts. Collectively those reputations are significantly enhanced. The book is a collector’s item and their show is not to be missed.
PDFX12 Photo Documentary folioX12 February 3, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Publishing, Web , add a commentpdfX12 is an online, monthly free photo journal that presents and features a series of photos by various photojournalists living and working in various communities around the world.
These photos tell poignant stories about people who are facing harsh social, economic, environmental and political conditions.
Photojournalists presented here are those, with their own resources and energy, who have chosen to dedicate their life’s work to documenting certain human issues in order to bring about greater attention to harsh human conditions that many people would brush aside. It is thus very important that the voices of these photojournalists, who are living and working in communities that they are documenting, are heard through this type of online venue, which everyone can access.
Originally, we had thought of presenting this online magazine only to a Japanese audience, but now we have broadened it to a worldwide audience. The awareness of various human issues facing humanity is greatly needed in Japan, just as in other parts of the world. Published photos and text will be in English and Japanese. Presented will be high-quality photos with written stories shared by the photojournalists themselves.
what’s reminders project?
The reminders (something or someone to make one remember) project was inaugurated in 2000 as a website and series of photo exhibitions. Reminders is a name that refers simultaneously to the photographer, the subject and the people who see it.
By simply reading a paper or watching the news on TV, people can consider
what is happening elsewhere in the world as somebody else’s business. Even though problems remain unsolved, people forget about the issues very quickly. Or, if an issue does not attract attention in the first place, it is as if nothing happened at all.
The reminders project, however, aims to tell as many people as possible what really happens around the world. We show images taken by photojournalists who understand their subjects deeply and continue to cover issues through their own viewpoints. In addition to covering these stories, The Reminders Project creates slide shows, workshops and both national and international photo exhibitions.
The reminders project has no set agenda as to how and where we present the works created. We also have no requirements on photographers’ nationalities or their experience. But we have two fundamental ideas: to introduce our stories widely and to seek various viewpoints. Our ideal goal is for this project’s stories to endure through time.
PDFX12 EDITORIAL TEAM
editor in chief|designer pdf+web|project director
YUMI GOTO
g.youme@gmail.com
translators+text editors
AKENO NIWAYAMA
KAREN COATES
AKIKO HIGGINS
SACHIKO YASUDA
MAKI ABE
TEPPEI ONISHI
pdf production team
KISHIN SHIMOMOTO, MOTOE HORIKAWA, TERUMI K WRIGHT, KOICHI
John Pilger January 19, 2010
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Education, John Pilger, New Media, Photojournalism, Publishing , add a commentTHE MEDIA AND PROPAGANDA
Nigel Dolan from UWA Extension Service was instrumental in attracting John Pilger, Journalist, Author and Film-maker to a lecture at the Social Sciences Theatre University of West Australia on the 12th January 2010 to talk and answer questions on the subject of “The Media and Propaganda”. Interestingly main stream media were conspicuous by their absence. John Pilger, who was the winner of the Sydney Peace Prize in 2009 answered questions from the floor. The theatre was packed.
‘It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere
messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the
message and myths that surround it’ – John Pilger. In this question
and answer session John examined the role and power of the
media and its responsibilities in a world of seemingly endless crises,
growing instability and inequality.
- John Pilger Photograph Bohdan Warchomij
John Pilger, renowned investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, is one of only two journalists to have twice won British journalism’s top award; his documentaries have won academy awards in both the UK and the US. In a New Statesman survey of the 50 heroes of our time, Pilger came fourth behind Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. “John Pilger,” wrote Harold Pinter, “unearths, with steely attention facts, the filthy truth. I salute him.”
