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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
Michael Coyne Degree South Collective Book Launch

James Brickwood, Dean Sewell OCULI and David Dare Parker Degree South
James Brickwood, Dean Sewell OCULI and David Dare Parker Degree South

Dean Sewell Photo Oculi Museum Perth
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.

Foto Freo Festival Photos March 25, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Foto Freo, Fremantle Arts Centre, PCP, Philip Blenkinsop, Photography Festivals, Photojournalism , 1 comment so far

Sohrab Hura Foto Freo launch of Life is Elsewhere PCP
Sohrab Hura Foto Freo launch of Life is Elsewhere PCP

Jean Chung Tears in the Congo Moore's Building
Jean Chung Tears in the Congo Moore’s Building

Graham Miller and Amy Stein Foto Freo launch of Stranded
Graham Miller and Amy Stein Foto Freo launch of Stranded

David Blenkinsop and Jude Savage atFoto Freo at Launch
David Blenkinsop and Jude Savage atFoto Freo at Launch

Philip Blenkinsop at Growing Pains Timor Leste
Philip Blenkinsop at Growing Pains Timor Leste

Curator Julian Tennent and Photographer Zesopol Carlito Caminha
Curator Julian Tennent and Photographer Zesopol Carlito Caminha

Bernadino Soares Growing Pains Timor Leste
Bernadino Soares Growing Pains Timor Leste

Martine Perret Growing Pains Timor Leste
Martine Perret Growing Pains Timor Leste

Storm Maritime Museum Fremantle photo Bohdan Warchomij
Storm Maritime Museum Fremantle photo Bohdan Warchomij

Photo Bohdan Warchomij
Photos Bohdan Warchomij

Foto Freo Launch March 24, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Foto Freo, Fremantle Arts Centre, PCP, Philip Blenkinsop, Photography Festivals, Photojournalism , add a comment

Narelle Autio's work "The Summer of Us"

Narelle Autio Maritime Museum Foto Freo :THe Summer of Us"
Narelle Autio Maritime Museum Foto Freo : The Summer of Us”

Launch at the Fremantle Arts Centre Photo Bohdan Warchomij

Foto Freo has launched in galleries throughout Fremantle, Perth and Rottnest. The work of artists such as Narelle Autio, Carrie Levy, Pat Brassington at the Maritime Museum, Philip Blenkinsop, Dean Sewell, Glenn Campbell, Martine Perret and the three visiting Timorese photographers  Zesopol Carlito Caminha, Bernardino Soares, and Antoniho Bernardino at the Moore’s Building is inspirational and humbling and a wonderful  experience for any  photographer. Jean Chung’s powerful work Tears in the Congo and Claire Martin’s Slab City and Vivien Dalles A Journey of Exile add so much to  the experience.

Amy Stein’s ‘Stranded’ and Sohrab Hura’s  ‘Life is Elsewhere’ at the Perth Centre for Photography are not to be missed. There are many jewels at the fringe of the Festival. Seng Mah’s Sons of Ganga at the Cracked Monkey in Mt Lawley gives us a mature insight into life in Varanasi, India.

Photo Seng Mah "Airborne"
Photo Seng Mah “Airborne”

Brad Rimmer Foto Freo "Silence" Launch
Brad Rimmer Foto Freo “Silence” Launch

Bob Hewitt Director Foto Freo at Launch Fremantle Arts Centre
Bob Hewitt Director Foto Freo at Launch Fremantle Arts Centre

Carrie Levy Maritime Museum Foto Freo
Carrie Levy Maritime Museum Foto Freo

Trent Parke March 17, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Foto Freo, Fremantle Arts Centre, Magnum, Photojournalism , add a comment

Trent Parke gave an inspired talk at Fremantle Arts Centre last night detailing his history from his cadetship at the Newcastle Herald to a move to Sydney where he covered Australian cricket for News Limited for over five  years.  Questioning his lifestyle at the paper he bought a Leica and was introduced to Rodinal and a high contrast and personal way of processing and printing his images. His mother’s death from asthma turned him into a questioning sentient being who makes a point of never wasting a moment in life.  His mistake of putting a battery incorrectly into his Nikonos and developing the underexposed film for an inordinately long time led to a two year brush with the the sea that led to the The Seventh Wave and further experiments with chance and experiment and serendipity and contrast and technique.

His Eugene Smith award helped fund the rest of his and Narelle Autio’s trip around Australia that became Minutes to Midnight. What he wanted to do with Minutes  to Midnight was to do something really personal and connect his work to  Narelle Autio’s and his  shared family experiences and the changes happening in Australia and internationally. His feelings and emotions on the trip impose themselves on the landscape and influence his photography and apocalyptic vision. Photography for Trent Parke is about magic and illusion  and a love of life and the story that is being told.

Rebirth was the next stage of his journey, and his son’s birth was an important part of his exhibition at ACP. His photos always have a  fictional element that is a part of something bigger.  Working wih Alisdair Foster from ACP has been an important part of the journey and Trent Parke’s search and journey toward a personal vision.

Pushing boundaries constantly is important for Trent and he switched to medium format and colour and a Mamiya rangefinder from the Leica and worked in a documentary sense as a street photographer again.  His photos were now about time and life and became the  next phase in his work.

A move back to Adelaide led to an exploration of family and suburbia from a personal point of view and exhibitions and a new body of work.

His new photography Black Rose has returned to black and white and medium and large format  and he is exploring new directions and questioning  past and present, the future, chance and fate and is a journey back to his sense of childhood. It is a circular return to an understanding of what is important for him in an Australia that is his source of inspiration and reward.

Trent Parke was raised in Newcastle, New South Wales. Using his mother’s Pentax Spotmatic and the family laundry as a darkroom, he began taking pictures when he was around 12 years old. Today, Parke, the only Australian photographer to be represented by Magnum Photos, works primarily as a street photographer. In 2003, with wife and fellow photographer Narelle Autio, Parke drove almost 90,000 km around Australia. Minutes to Midnight, the collection of photographs from this journey, offers an occasionally disturbing portrait of twenty-first century Australia, from the desiccated outback to the chaotic, melancholic vitality of life in remote Aboriginal towns. For this project Parke was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. Parke won World Press Photo Awards in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005, and in 2006 was granted the ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award. He was selected to be part of the World Press Photo Masterclass in 1999. Parke has published two books, Dream/Life in 1999, and The Seventh Wave with Narelle Autio in 2000. His work has been exhibited widely. In 2006 the National Gallery of Australia acquired Parke’s entire Minutes to Midnight exhibition.

Trent Parke talk at Fremantle Arts Centre Photo Bohdan Warchomij
Trent Parke talk at Fremantle Arts Centre Photo Bohdan Warchomij

Bruno Barbey March 16, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : ACMP, Foto Freo, Kulcha, Magnum , add a comment

Last night at Kulcha in Fremantle ACMP hosted Bruno Barbey, a Frenchman born in Morocco and a long time member of Magnum. He studied photography and graphic arts at the École des Arts et Métiers in Vevey, Switzerland. Between 1961 and 1964 he photographed the Italians, treating them as protagonists of a small ‘theatrical world’, with the aim of capturing the spirit of a nation. During the 1960s, he was commissioned by Éditions Rencontre in Lausanne to report from European and African countries. He also contributed regularly to Vogue. Barbey began his relationship with Magnum Photos in 1964, becoming a full member in 1968, the year he documented the political unrest and student riots in Paris. A decade later, between 1979 and 1981, he photographed Poland at a turning point in its history, publishing his work in the widely acclaimed book Poland. He served as Magnum vice president for Europe in 1978 and 1979 and as President of Magnum International from 1992 – 1995. Over four decades Barbey has journeyed across five continents and into numerous military conflicts. Although he rejects the label of ‘war photographer’, he has covered civil wars in Nigeria, Vietnam, the Middle East, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Kuwait. His work has appeared in most of the world’s major magazines. Barbey is known particularly for his free and harmonious use of colour. He has frequently worked in Morocco, the country of his childhood. In 1999 the Petit Palais, Paris, organized a large exhibition of photographs that Barbey had taken in Morocco during the previous three decades. He has received many awards for his work, including the French National Order of Merit; his photographs have been exhibited internationally and are in numerous museum collections.”

Bruno Barbey showed his images and talked about his experiences in photography and the way that the industry has changed and his excitement about working and printing digitally. After a short question and answer session the photographers retired to Little Creatures  where Trent Park and Chien-Chi Chang and Bruno Barbey mixed with students from Europe and Australia who they are working with in the Magnum Workshops.

Images from the Magnum Workshops will be projected on Friday night at the Foto Freo opening at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Bruno Barbey at Kulcha in Fremantle for Foto Freo and ACMP photo Bohdan Warchomij
Bruno Barbey at Kulcha in Fremantle for Foto Freo and ACMP photo Bohdan Warchomij

My Asian Heart March 11, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Australian photographers, Documentary, Film, Philip Blenkinsop, Photojournalism , add a comment

Carmelo Musca WA Screen Awards Perth Concert Hall introduces the Ray Bradbury film "My Asian Heart"
Carmelo Musca WA Screen Awards Perth Concert Hall receives his award  for services to the film industry          Photo Photo Bohdan Warchomij

Carmelo Musca received  an award for his outstanding contribution to the film industry. In a montage of films that he has produced and or directed  a clip from My Asian Heart was included. It was one of the highlights for me in documenting  the West Australian Screen awards. The award winning David Bradbury film about Philip Blenkinsop, the Bangkok based Australian photojournalist who has covered and broken issues of international significance and received awards including the Visa d’or News Award in 2009 for his China Earthquake report from Visa Pour L’Image and Amnesty International is scheduled for Screening at FTI during Foto Freo.  This will be a highlight for me of the festival. Philip Blenkinsop Noor Images was in China to prepare for a major exhibition, but was moved by news of pro-democracy riots in Nepal, a scenario he’s tracked for years. He headed to the conflict zone  hitting the mutinous Kathmandu streets. The photographer’s  commitment to focus on what is real is avidly demonstrated as Bradbury follows him through Asia, interviews interspersed with Blenkinsop’s  haunting images.  A must see event.

Photo Philip Blenkinsop Film Image My Asian Heart
Photo Philip Blenkinsop Film Image My Asian Heart

Bruno Barbey Magnum Photographer March 9, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : ACMP, Foto Freo, Magnum , add a comment

ACMP presents an evening with Magnum Photographer Bruno Barbey at Kulcha 13 first floor South Terrace  in Fremantle.

The evening, a projection of Bruno Barbey’s images and a discussion with the photographer is on Monday 15th March and runs from 6.30 pm to 8.30pm. Cost of the evening is $20 for non members of ACMP and $15 for members of ACMP.

Bar drinks are cash only.

Photo Credit Bruno Barbey Magnum

Photo Credit Bruno Barbey Magnum

Credits Bruno Barbey

Curico Earthquake March 9, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Aftermath, Chile, Disaster, Photojournalism, Relief , add a comment

Jessica Phelps is a young photographer from Ohio currently working in a community center in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Santiago, Chile. She has contributed to Metaphor Online from Haiti and contributes  her images from a devastated Curico.

Here are her words from Santiago and Curico:

“3.30am Friday morning in Santiago and I was in a deep sleep. I woke up slowly to the sensation of my bed shaking. It wasn’t until I heard my roommate yelling my name that I understood what was happening. I jumped out of bed and ran to the hallway to see Gonzalo motioning me to come to him.We stood under his door frame hugging, terrified as the earthquake intensified; we were being shaken violently for an eternal three minutes. He kept reassuring me we would be all right. When everything was still again we rushed to get dressed and ran down the six flights of stairs to the park outside. And there we waited in complete darkness for the morning light to come along with information of what had happened.
I was shocked when I learned how strong the earthquake was and even more surprised to walk around Santiago and see almost everything still standing. As the weekend progressed and news came out about the damage further south I knew I had to go to see for myself. Accompanied by my camera I went to a small town called Curico. There had been many reports of looting but here I found the people beginning to organize their lives.Listening to their stories was heartbreaking. The family whose home had been destroyed and were now sleeping in a bus at night too afraid to sleep in the remains of their house. The parents who had lost their infant child.

But more impressive was the amount of donations collected by this town andbeing sorted by its residents to be passed out to those left with nothing.Everyone in this town was helping to clear away rubble and start the process of rebuilding. They were told that temporary houses would be built outside the center of town by the government while they awaited their new homes, but many there do not have confidence that this will happen and are more comfortable relying on neighbors
This town still had no electricity, no T.V., no communication outside itselfand only one radio station near the center of town was still in operation.
I left Curico with mixed feelings. Heartbroken at the amount of devastation, but also inspired to see this town pulling together,  neighbors helping neighbors.”

CURICO, Chile –Curicó (kūrēkō’), “Black Waters” in Mapudungun, originally meaning “Land of Black Water”, is the name of the capital of Curicó Province, part of the Region del Maule in Chile’s central valley. The 8.8 richter scale earthquake has devastated the city. The worst-hit area of Curico, founded in 1743 and situated in a picturesque fruit- and wine-producing area, has been its  historic quarter.

The 18th-century San Francisco Church lies in ruins alongside ruined 19th-century homes as well as the 100-year-old building that once housed the city’s La Prensa newspaper.

Wheelchair, Curico. Photo Jessica Phelps
Wheelchair, Curico. Photo Jessica Phelps

Crushed car Curico Chile Photo Jessica Phelps
Crushed car Curico Chile Photo Jessica Phelps

Firefighters and Military in Curico Photo Jessica Phelps
Firefighters and Military in Curico Photo Jessica Phelps

Cyrus Cornut March 2, 2010

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Foto Freo, Photojournalism , add a comment

Cyrus Cornut, Cities are Like Oceans
FotoFreo 2010 Fringe Exhibition

Exhibition Opening March 2, 2010 6pm Wolfe Lane Rear 321 Murray Street Perth

Cities are Like Oceans shows the place of human beings in cities that are increasingly chaotic, and where modernity, dictated by the rule of economics tends to irrevocably take over traditions that have been established over time. Man as a social being no longer has a place here. Human scale has been reduced to nothing. Man, with an individualistic future is lost like a drop in the urban ocean.  Houses crumble, skyscrapers grow, the ground is filled with urban communication networks.  The world marches on.

French of Iraqui-Iranian descent, Cyrus Cornut first lived in Baghdad, then Cairo and finally Paris. Having studied architecture at university, today he is a professional photographer.  His work revolves around the city, its evolution, framework, empty spaces and the human behaviour that it leads to.  In 2006, his work on Chinese megacities was shown at the Rencontres Internationales de la photographie in Arles under Raymond Depardon.  He joined the photography collective Dolce Vita in the same year, and became a member of the Picturetank photography cooperative in 2007.

www.fotofreo.com/fringe
www.cyruscornut.com

Cyrus Cornut image

Cyrus Cornut image

http://www.cyruscornut.com/