me-take October 30, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Indigenous Artists, exhibition , add a comment
Dianne Jones in front of Perth Centre of Photography.
‘Ye must be born again: John 3.7′
2008, archival digital print
‘take, re-take, me-take’, in the words of curator Eva Fernandez, is a photo exhibition at the Perth Centre of Photography which subverts the ‘the notions of early representation’ of Indigenous people, which classified, categorised and confined, to produce compelling, powerful and playful works of art which redefine Indigenous representation.’
Dianne Jones, Tony Albert and Christian Thompson are the three artists exhibiting. The art works ‘have been selected not only for theiruse of self-imagery but for their powerful, uncompromising exploration of issues of culture, gender, sexuality and spirituality and also for the cohesive nature of their seductive aesthetic.’ (Curator Eva Fernandez)
Christian Thompson Black Gum-2
- Tony Albert 50perCENT
Hand Made October 23, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Publishing , add a commentRafal Milach’s recent win in the Blurb Photo Book competition has opened my eyes to the developments in Print On Demand digital books.
The latest launch of cutomised services is from powerHouse Books in New York with PCP (Powerhouse Custom Publishing). Still a traditional offset book publisher it now offers professional photographers and artists a creative digital service encompassing Custom Editing and Design, Colour Management and Retouching and Production. Additional services include Marketing Description and Product Categorisation, Email blasts to PCP subscribers, sales through PCP bookstores, and a link to Amazon.
Digital books are not new but the success of Blurb has obviously influenced PowerHouse to launch their new customised service.
The Fine Art Category winner in the Blurb competition “i sell fish” By Joshua Deaner is a PCP client.
There are strong new moves ahead in the Print On Demand book publishing business.
Requiem for a Dream October 23, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Documentary, Photojournalism , add a commentMasud Alam Liton’s “Requiem for a Dream” on the Lightstalkers site documents the lives of the sex workers of Dauladia Ghat, Rajbari, Bangladesh.
The images are an amazing insight into an unseen cloistered world and lead to questions that need to be asked rather than answers.
These are photos that will certainly contribute to social change.
When Andy Levin published his issue on the photographers of Bangladesh in 100 EYES magazine, I was stunned by the power of the photography from Bangladesh. I received a link to Masud Alam Liton’s site recently and am happy to publish his images.
http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/contact_sheet/19007
Black Sea of Concrete October 16, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Documentary, Photojournalism , 1 comment so farRafal Milach
From the series “Black Sea of Concrete”
(c) Rafal Milach / Sputnik Photos / Altemus
Congratulations to Rafal Milach on winning the Blurb prize for self published books of $25000. I first met Rafal in Perpignan at Visa Pour L’Image circa 2005 and included his seminal work ‘Young Russia’ in a Metaphor Images projection at the festival Foto Freo in Perth, West Australia in 2006. It was incredibly well received. He is an intensely serious photographer with a great sense of colour and vision and his work continues to collect awards.
Ater graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, and the Institute for Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic), Milach moved to Warsaw where he worked as a freelance photographer for Newsweek Poland, Polityka and Przekroj magazine. Rafal Milach continues to work on personal projects such as Young Russia and it is this approach that is bringing him recognition. His work Disappearing Circus has been awarded in contests such as World Press Photo. Recently he won the Photography.Book.Now Grand Prize for his book, Black Sea of Concrete, money which will help him to publish a new book on Russia, He is the co-founder of SPUTNIK, the East European collective of photographers which was commissioned by Altemus, the Belgian NGO to work on the Ukraine project that led to this book, and is represented internationally by the Anzenberger Agency.
Darius Himes, the chief judge of the Blurb award was effusive in his praise of Milach’s work. One specific element of Milach’s book that Himes singled out for praise was the text, which was designed to appear as if it were coming at the reader in waves, a reference to the book’s subject, the Black Sea. Milach collaborated with a designer, Ania Nalecka, on the project. Himes also praised the book for its “strong photography, important subject matter, vigorous edit and intelligent sequencing, combined with a thoughtful attention to those elements that are specifically book-centric, including type treatment, page-layout and cover design.”
Speed Dating for Photographers October 15, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Documentary , add a commentGraham Miller is a photographic artist and co-founder of FotoFreo a biennial international festival of photography based in Fremantle, Western Australia. His work has been exhibited internationally and throughout Australia, including Pingyao International Festival of Photography China, Recontres Photographie Internationale de Niort France, Kaunas Photo Lithuania, F/Stop Festival Leipzig Germany, Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Photography Gallery of Western Australia.
“I’m interested in the ambiguity of images. The way that all photographs have elements of fabrication and truth making..”
Speed Dating for Photographers
Graham Miller has had a year of connecting and travelling. He has been to Sante Fe for a juried portfolio review and to Pingyao with Transient States which showed originally at the Lawrence Wilson Gallery and his pitch is that blogs generate access for a photographer’s work, and provide connections to interesting photographers outside ones immediate realm.
He originally contacted Amy Stein through a connection via Mark McPherson’s HIJACKED project and she suggested that he enter via the Photolucida’s Critical Mass competition which accepts 175 photographers for critical reviews that lead to a book deal for the selected photographer.
Graham got to the last six but missed out on the book deal, disappointing he admits but nevertheless great for networking as his images were seen as part of the process by 200 reviewers, some of whom he reestablished contact when he travelled to Review Sante Fe, organized by Center , formerly the Santa Fe Center for Photography.
Review Santa Fe is a juried portfolio review. 100 photographers pick 9 reviewers, curators, gallery owners, editors , publishers to pitch their wares to for 20 minutes. As Graham Miller describes it. It is like ’speed dating for photographers.’ It was a great experience for him. He met people that he will continue to connect with, Jon Feinstein | Co-Founder and Curatorial Director of Humble Arts Foundation, Wally Mason from the Haggerty Museum of Art, Denise Wolf, a picture editor from Aperture, Kevin Miller from the SW Museum of Photography and Debra Klomp Ching from Klompching Gallery in New York. Debra studied in Perth with Norm Leslie and Graham’s photos struck a chord for her.
He mentioned blogs such as Flak Photo run by Andy Adams who will be at Foto Freo 2010, and who is switched on to the social networking aspects of the web, Abe’s Penny Micro Magazine, Amy Stein’s blog, Critical Mass, and the Center. Blogs and reviewing platforms are now industries in their own right and important ways for photographers to promote and push their work, domestically and internationally. It has been a good year for Graham Miller, thanks to speed dating.
Graham Miller http://www.grahammiller.com.au/
Griffith University October 13, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Documentary, Photojournalism , add a commentOnline Symposium: Seeking Justice – Social Activism through Journalism & Documentary Practice
The Centre for Documentary Practice invites you to logon and join the world’s first online journalism and documentary conference on October 15th 2009, starting 12:01am (GMT).
Speakers include Paul Fusco, Ed Kashi, Jodi Bieber, Marcus Bleasdale, Shahidul Alam, Gary Knight, Robin Hammond, Adam Ferguson, Travis Beard, Michael Coyne, Masaru Goto, Jack Picone, Megan Lewis, and more to be confirmed.
On October 15th we will connect an international community of documentary practitioners and journalists for one day, to share stories, to stimulate discussion and debate about our discipline, and to inspire each other to continue the fight for justice.
http://cdp.edu.au/cdp/conferences-and-events
Connect and register and take part in this unique event
Griffith University
CUTOUT October 12, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Metaphor, exhibition , add a comment
CUTOUT: Marnya Rothe is a Perth photographer undertaking a Masters in Photomedia at Edith Cowan University.
Originally from Adelaide where she studied environmental science, Marnya Rothe’s love of fashion photography and fashion photographers such as Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton and their use of narrative elements in their work has generated the surrealist elements in CUT OUT. The women she photographs, confined by their domestic space, trapped in their working environment, are part of a dialogue between the photographer and her subjects. The women are specifically 2D objects, cutouts rephotographed, not photoshopped, that sometimes blend and sometimes overpower the space they are in. They are objects that tell compressed stories that are themselves products for consumption and analysis. In ‘Morning honey’, the woman lying in the toast rack anwers and invites questions. The brooding darkness in the photo of the woman of ‘Light My Fire’ leaves us with uncomfortable feelings of uncertainty, ambiguity and death.
There are strong parallels to Guy Bourdin’s work in the use of colour and the use of an erotic conceptualism. In Marnya Rothe’s strongest photos the feminine ‘goddess’ plays her role with a double edge that helps us reexamine feminist theory and women’s sexuality.
Marnya Rothe will be exhibiting at FotoFreo 2010
A French Connection October 8, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Documentary , add a comment
Parisian photographer Ali Moon is coming to terms with the Australia that she has been curious about for a long time. She plans to be here for a while, in a country that she describes as fantastic. It is early days for her, she has barely scratched the surface but it is the country, the vastness of the open spaces, the rhythm of life in the bush that she feels most comfortable with.
She wants to spend more time in remote areas, amongst Aboriginal communities, among white communities, in particular farmers, cowboys. She likes their sense of place and self, and the way they connect to each other.
In the cities people lose themselves in consumption, and don’t have the strong sense of nature and the closeness to the land that country people have. It is the wilderness of Western Australia and Queensland that she finds attractive.
She initially studied business and was hired by Stanley Green, the Noor Agency photojournalist to accompany him on a twelve month trip to Mexico and the Caribbean Islands to do street and documentary photography. She says that his photography has not been a major influence but his methodology, his modus operandi has been important. His state of mind, the way he enters his subject, lives his subject, his energy, his fearlessness, his faith in his mission and his sense of destiny, his moral support are all the attributes of a major artist. Stanley Greene has been good at pointing Ali Moon in the right direction, but Ali Moon has her own inner strength, and an ability to connect to an Australia that too few of us have connected with. She has just started scratching the arid surface of Australia’s North but already she has discovered some gems on the road.
Story Bohdan Warchomij
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 October 5, 2009
Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Metaphor , add a commentTime to get involved. Entries for the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 close on 1 November 2009
The National Portrait Gallery invites all Australian residents to enter the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2010. The exhibition will be displayed in the new National Portrait Gallery building from 20 March to 24 May 2010 and will subsequently tour to a select number of Australian capital cities and regional centres. The Prize is an annual event intended to promote the very best in contemporary photographic portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers.
With the generous support of Visa International Service Association, the National Portrait Gallery is offering a prize of $25,000 for the most outstanding photographic portrait.
http://www.portrait.gov.au/site/nppp.php
