Mid-year promises astonishing visual abundance

Head On Photo Festival Nears - Opening April 30
This year the highly successful Head On Photographic Portrait prize (pictured, above Jonathan May’s entry "Mr Universe") has now evolved into a fully fledged photo festival, which will be launched by Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett (with the announcement of Head On Prize winners) on Friday, 30th April 6-8pm at the Australian Centre for Photography http://www.acp.org.au/ in Sydney.
This inaugural festival will employ 67 venues to show over 80 exhibitions and events which will include a revisiting of Gary Heery’s 1996 B&W exploration of the animal world, "Zoo", on display at Customs House. http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/customshouse/whatsOn/ For a full list of artists and exhibition venues go to www.headon.com.au
Ben Ali Ong - modern visions with ancient roots
There is really no one quite like Ben Ali Ong. There are times when I think his impressionistic vision finds its roots in the Pictorialist movement of the late 19th century. Other times, I can sense a rock riff ... a touch of Hendrix somewhere in his pictures. Ali Ong's "Song of Sorrow" at the Tim Olsen Gallery Annex www.timolsengallery.com however, has roots that go far deeper, being nominally based on the writings of 11th century Persian poet, astronomer, mathematician and philosopher Omar Khayyam. As a result Ali Ong claims he has now "abandoned any notion of a photograph being a document of the real ... each work is a performance; a visual fable that finds its truth in imaginative resonance rather than hard evidence." Ben Ali Ong's remarkable images will be on view at Tim Olsen Gallery Annex, 53 Jersey Road, Woollahra. From May 5 to May 15
Photography's Arcane Past Still Sells
Two Daguerreotypes from the Stanley Yalkowksy Collection have recently gone to auction at Sotheby's New York. Depicting the Melbourne garden of Dr. Godfrey Howitt during the 1840's they were expected to return $5/7000. Anne Wall of Sotheby's Australia www.sothebysaustralia.com.au reported yesterday that the two images had "sold quite handsomely (realising) a Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium of 18,750 US dollars." There was no news available as to the identity of the buyer but Ms Wall added that "it would be marvellous if they (the two Daguerreotypes) returned to Australia."
Neil Duncan brings Impressionism to photographing sports
Veteran press photographer Neil Duncan www.neilduncan.com.au is nothing if not prolific - and inventive. After his recent, successful exhibition "The Works" (see March 2 blog) at the Watchhouse Gallery, Balmain Duncan was invited to participate in the first Head On Photo Festival, this time showing "Hey Sport!" his impressionistic images of sport, shot at slow shutter speeds. This is a theme to which photographers serially return, after dissatisfaction with merely capturing, in razor-sharp detail, those familiar, peak moments that sport provides. Both David Potts (see also this blog) and David Moore experimented with these techniques in London in the 1950's and Neil Duncan now brings his preoccupation with the fluid, undefined moment to the surface with this selection at Airport North Gallery. www.gicleeaustralia.com/ Duncan will discuss his vision and shooting methods with gallery visitors next Saturday, May 1, between 12 and 4pm. Until May 5
Heery’s "Zoo" revisited - endangered animals seen afresh
Accomplished Sydney photographer Gary Heery www.garyheery.com.au will reprise a selection of his large format black and white images from "Zoo", his 1996 book (Random House Australia ISBN 13: 9780091832599) on endangered species, at Customs House, Circular Quay. Originally photographed at Taronga Park and Western Plains Zoo over two years, Heery’s evocative B&W images capture an essence of each animal’s personality. They are, quite simply, resonant portraits of our vulnerable fellow creatures, who may just happen to be tapirs, pygmy hippos or our more fraternal primates - chimpanzees or orang-utan. “Zoo” opens in the Red Room at Customs House, Circular Quay on April 29th
STUART SPENCE brings nuance to photography
The dictionary defines the word 'nuance' literally as "a delicate difference ... of shade(s) of meaning, feeling, colour." I couldn't help feeling this defined Stuart Spence's impressionistic colour essay "What Gives" showing at the Damien Minton Gallery http://damienmintongallery.com.au/ in Sydney's Redfern. Photographer Spence http://stuspence.com/bio.html is a master of creating distilled images conveying oblique personal meanings. Rather than a thousand words, his photographs carry within them a single, often melancholy chord. This is the last week in which to visit this exhibition. Until April 24
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY: From two very different perspectives.
At Point Light Gallery www.pointlight.com.au directors Gordon and Lyndell Undy keep the faith with exhibiting classic ways of photographing the landscape. Displays at their elegant, modest space in Surry Hills consistently trumpet virtues pioneered by masters of U.S. West Coast landscape photography such as Edward Weston www.edward-weston.com - using large format view cameras to find lyrical moments within nature, then realised in fine, traditional photographic prints. In announcing Stephen Tester’s new exhibition “Lanjanuc” (pictured, left) Point Light says “Stephen works with an 8x10 view camera ... to create these contact photographs in the same way Edward Weston did in the 1940's in Point Lobos in America.” Until May 16
However, in curating “The Challenged Landscape” at Sydney's UTS Gallery www.utsgallery.uts.edu.au Sandy Edwards www.arthere.com.au has assembled six contemporary Australian photographers with very different ways of expressing beauty (or its damaged opposite) within the landscape. Stephanie Valentin’s history as an artist has been marked by the stylized, poetic manner with which she informs her pictures with symbols. Her work here is no exception. “Rainbook” shows her father’s ledger (pictured, right) in which he carefully recorded the meagre rainfall on the property in the semi-arid eastern edge of South Australia where she grew up. Valentin www.stillsgallery.com.au places her father's book within a forbidding, desiccated Australian landscape. In this strangely beautiful image, sparse notations of rainfall sit on each page like flies on a summer dining table. Michael Hall’s “Trouble on Lake Hume 1, 2009" (pictured, left) offers an alien landscape where the sky wilts above a meagre watercourse like an artist's pale watercolour wash. Dead trees punctuate the landscape on either side of the river. It is left to Peter Solness www.solness.com.au to find lyrical warmth in the Australian landscape , predictably with one of his elegant recent night illuminations “Mangrove Forest #2 2010" (pictured at left). I had a momentary thought when seeing these six photographers and their varied visions of the landscape that this exhibition might become as influential as the “Six Photographers” exhibition proved to be, at the David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney, a half a
century ago. Until May 21
David Potts Colour Work extended to May 1
Josef Lebovic Gallery's current display of David Potts' pioneering colour visions has been extended to the end of the month. www.joseflebovicgallery.com For a photographer generally regarded as one of Australia's classic B&W photojournalists, Potts has had a long standing parallel interest in testing the boundaries of the colour medium - sometimes with impressionistic views of British pageantry made over a half century ago (pictured, left). However, this important Australian photographer continues to delight in exploring colour, recently choosing to approach still life subjects with his playful, mischievous imagination. There is also a sense of referencing contemporary Australian painting present in the vivid, mandala like forms to which this artist responds. (pictured, right). Not to be missed by any serious collector, or student, of Australian contemporary photography. Now in his early 80's this show proves that the fertile, surprising imagination of David Potts continues undimmed. Until May 1
OCULI now on show at Manly Art Gallery
One of the most eagerly awaited exhibitions of Australia’s younger documentary photographers has opened at Manly Art Gallery & Museum www.manly.nsw.gov.au/gallery TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA celebrates the individual visions of Oculi, a unique Australian photographic collective that consistently “explores Australian identity and place”. With talented members such as Donna Bailey, James Brickwood (pictured left with Parkour series 2006), Tamara Dean, Jesse Marlow, Nick Moir, Jeremy Piper, Andrew Quilty (The Domain 2006, pictured right), Dean Sewell, Steven Siewert and Tamara Voninski, Oculi are uniquely positioned to create a unique body of work on contemporary Australia. Until June 16.
"Portraits From The Edge" opens at STC Wharf Gallery
Jon Lewis's www.jonnylewis.org evocative black and white photographs depicting how climate change may affect the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati, has now opened at the Wharf Gallery, Sydney Theatre Company www.sydneytheatre.com.au as part of their "Greening" program. Subtitled "Putting a Face to Climate Change" these deceptively simple B&W images by Lewis capture an outwardly carefree nation as an environmental crisis threatens change. From April 20
It's No Sin To Entertain
One of the best and brightest barometers for the evolving world of visual journalism is the New York Times photography blog LENS. In a recent (April 13 issue) we got a lighthearted insight into a photojournalist’s lot when covering the US President addressing the recent 47 Nation Nuclear Security Conference in Washington. NY Times Picture Editor Patrick Witty reported that photographer Luke Sharrett demonstrated the patience and invention required of ‘pool’ photographers, not to mention that of the US President himself. In a time lapse sequence of 1338 photographs Sharrett documented the US President greeting each leader in turn, then assembled his images into an amusing video where Obama appears to almost dance from leader to leader. To see Sharrett’s take on President Obama’s extreme social endurance, as reported by Witty, go to http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/obama-goes-dancing-with-the-heads-of-state/?th&emc=th
In the same online issue the NY Times also explores, thoughtfully, the visual dialogue between two photographers, one female, the other male, both exploring their sexual identities in differing ways. Their dialogue can be found in this link to Karen Rosenberg’s article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/arts/design/14opie.html?th&emc=th

Landscape Photography

POST-SCRIPT: IT'S "SYDNEY LIFE" TIME AGAIN

I have just been reminded that there is still time for Australian photographers to enter one of this country's most accessible, beautifully presented and rewarding photographic competitions - "Sydney Life". (submissions close 5pm Tuesday, May 25) As part of the City of Sydney's free public arts festival "Art & About", this annual event is remarkable for three things - displaying works chosen in beautifully reproduced, bedsheet sized images along the length of the central walkway (pictured in 2009 in photograph by Sharon Hickey, above) bisecting Sydney's Hyde Park North - from the Archibald Fountain to Park Street. The second is the quality of the images themselves. I have never been bored by judges' choices in past competitions with the quality of entries being consistently high. This year I would hope to assist in continuing this tradition as I have been invited to join judges - Arthere producer and Stills Gallery curator Sandy Edwards, artist and curator Ace Bourke and the City of Sydney's Director of City Engagement, Alastair Walton. The third tier of this competition is the generousity of the "Sydney Life Prize", for the most outstanding entry - $10,000. Entrants whose works are chosen for display also receive a $400 appearance fee. Judges are looking for original, non-stereotypical ways of portraying life in Australia's great harbour city. All is explained in the "Sydney Life" artist's brief and entry form at www.artandabout.com.au

FOTOFREO-ATHON
The founding Director of Fotofreo, Bob Hewitt, credits me with re-naming this remarkable biennial photography celebration, Fotofreo-athon because of this event's complexity and the sheer endurance needed to celebrate the medium, as so comprehensively presented in Fremantle. That photography maintains it artistic primacy despite the emergence of new media - HD video, 3D Motion Pictures and the viral, fast-growing social networks on the internet - reflects its power. As both a conveyance for the often appalling business of the planet, as well as a dynamic fine-art medium - photography continues to grow, unabated. It is now equally at home as a documentary medium as well as the conceptual, constructivist way of making photographs. This year's Fotofreo http://www.fotofreo.com/was, however, strongly orientated to what Bob Hewitt described to me as 'conflict photography', perhaps too much so, he casually confided on my final, rushed trip to Perth airport after everything was over. However, the answer to this enduring question is elusive. Unpalatable as it is, news of tragic events is important and needs such remarkable, courageous talents as David Dare Parker, Martine Perret and Philip Blenkinsop (all present and exhibiting at Fotofreo) to bring it to us. Would we rather the alternative be (photographic) silence?
Fremantle in Extremis
On reflection, Fotofreo appears perfectly suited to a city such as Fremantle - a relaxed, unpretentious community where living comfortably appears the norm. Except for the explosive moment which occurred during my floor talk for "Received Moments" at the Fremantle Art Centre. After generous introductions by Bob Hewitt and Graham Howe of Curatorial Assistance http://www.curatorial.org/ the heavens opened and the most severe electrical storm to hit Fremantle (and Perth) for decades, descended upon us. For a moment we were deafened by thunder and mounted pictures began to swing alarmingly away from the walls - especially my 1963 portrait of Charlie Perkins. "Is that you, Charlie?" I adlibbed to faint amusement. The storm continued for hours, causing the cancellation of several Fotofreo openings and leaving the city bruised by hail and briefly flooded (pictured, above). Several days later we gathered in the late afternoon at Bob and Helen Hewitt's home for a relaxed Indian dinner. Here, as in previous Fotofreos, were some of the reasons why this well organised, inclusive gathering of photography lovers grows so naturally. Blenkinsop (pictured above) brushed shoulders with Sandy Edwards http://www.arthere.com.au/ just arrived from Sydney - and Peter Eve http://www.monsoonaustralia.com/ recently back from documenting the genius inherent in indigenous Aussie Rules, as played by Tiwi islanders. Laura Beilby, formerly from Magnum in Paris, administered Fotofreo (with Amelia Twiss) without any panic, taking much of the load from overworked Fotofreo stalwarts such as Dare Parker and Hewitt. Dean Sewell and Tamara Dean were also present - both as eloquent as ever about the blurring lines between narrative and conceptual photography. Fotofreo also seems to have taken a leaf from Adelaide's Arts Festival know-how by including a flourishing series of Fringe events. Dean Dampney http://www.submerge.com.au/from NSW had an unsentimental, delightfully honest exhibition of B&W pictures, on show until April 11 "From Innocence and Back" mostly of the world of children (pictured, above) at Early Work Gallery www.earlywork.com.au run by Kate Lindsay (pictured above R) Jennifer Schulz took her "Finding Places" exhibition of landscapes to University of Western Australia, with some scenes quite prosaic - others distinctly illusionist. Schulz, (pictured above L) transformed a section of W.A.'s famous Wave Rock, making it seem more liquid than stone) And in an all too brief conversation with the ever acute Blenkinsop http://www.noorimages.com/ he lamented the increasing need for speed in media - especially photography. Still shooting film for assignments but carrying a Nikon D90 SLR ("it's for the [HD] video", he explained) this remarkable 'conflict' photographer did not appear even close to succumbing to digital image-making. Another fine photographer still shooting film, this time colour, was Brad Rimmer (pictured L) who had instead returned to the rural Western Australian wheat belt where he grew up, to photograph for his book SILENCE. Rimmer's photographs were distinguished by capturing his subjects during long, revealing moments - and seemingly trivial pictures such as extravagant skid marks on country roads - the dangerous calligraphy left by boredom in the bush.
Fotofreo continues in Fremantle until April 18
Jim Marshall (1936-2010) has also now left the building.
Jim Marshall, one of Rock and Jazz music's finest photographers has died in his sleep in New York at the age of 74. Famous for his documentation of the explosive music counter-culture in the U.S. during the 1960's and 70's, Marshall, perhaps best known for his work for Rolling Stone magazine, captured a generation of musicians with affection, insight and above all, intimacy. Capable of containing a 1968 performance by the Grateful Dead (pictured above) in Haight Street, San Franscisco for over 100,000 fans into a single, intimate photojournalistic observation, taken from the stage on which the band was performing, Marshall http://www.marshallphoto.com/collection has left us a priceless archive from a turbulent era. Marshall's photography of rock and jazz was most recently exhibited in Australia last October by Blender Gallery www.blender.com.au in Sydney's Paddington. "I am planning to mount a retrospective (exhibition) to commemorate Jim's life's work as soon as possible," said Blender Gallery director Tali Udovich.
Bromoils of Ancient Italia
Just as I headed East after an exhausting but rewarding six days at Fotofreo, an interesting range of exhibitions are on view in Sydney and Melbourne. Rather than focus on one exhibition, I will simply draw your attention to shows you might find rewarding - or perhaps challenging. In Sydney Tony Peri http://web.mac.com/tonyperi/is swimming harder than ever against the digital tide - to spectactular effect. Recently returned from an image odyssey through Italy and venturing as far North East as Hungary (Peri's late father Otto was Hungarian) the Sydney photographer has mounted an exhibition (at Chatswood's Mezze Cafe www.mezzecafe.com) of bromoil prints (Ancient Roman Forum, pictured above) made back in Sydney from photographs originally taken abroad - using a 35mm Voigtlander Bessa R with five lenses (75, 35, 21, 15 and a venerable, collapsible 50 Elmar.) When I asked him why he pursued a printmaking technique that reached its peak in the 19th century, Peri's answer was disarmingly simple. "I want to be different from everyone else ... they (Bromoils) lend their style to my vision. There is a real beauty and archival permanence about them. Bromoils bring out a mood of the photograph and (when) you control the inking process ... photographs really come alive. There is 150 year of history (in photography) that I don't want to throw away." After seeing Peri's images, it seemed to me that making Bromoil prints (a difficult and time consuming process) is well suited to interpreting the historic vistas that this dedicated photographer discovered in Italy, some aged in millenia. Until April 14
Mayu Kanamori Looks Deeply at Life - Again
In Sydney, documentary photographer Mayu Kanamori www.mayu.com.au again examines mortality in a thoughtful exhibition, and performance, at the Japan Foundation http://www.jpf.org.au/ in Chifley Square. Her series of gently iconic photographs address the conundrum of what it means to be Japanese - to die and be buried far from home. As a Japanese woman who has lived in Australia for many years, Kanamori seems philosophically resigned to the fact that Australia will be her last resting place. "This work is very important to my soul ... through burial, I too will be part of this Australian landscape one day ..." Mortality is not a new subject to this photographer - having once collaborated with her distinguished journalist partner Ben Hills, and creating pictures for their 2009 book "The Island of the Ancients" on the centenarian citizens of Sardinia. Kanamori, however, has found new graphic subtlety in these latest photographs - fusing sand, stone, flesh and earth into restrained, resonant colour photographs.
from April 1 to May 14
Olivia Martin-McGuire documents our hidden lives - when we sleep
Sleep is nothing new to Sydney photographer Martin-McGuire. I reviewed an engaging show at Customs House, Circular Quay a couple of years ago called China Dreaming, made when this photographer was working in Shanghai. Now she has returned to a similar theme with "Sleepers" at the Australian Centre for Photography http://www.acp.org.au/in Paddington, Sydney. "Sleepers is my first series - conceptualised and highly produced" done as part of this artist's MFA (Master of Fine Art) Research Degree at Sydney's College of Fine Art (COFA) "It is still under the theme of Waking Dream States." says Martin Maguire. "I strapped a beautiful, top quality digital Hasselblad to the ceiling of a photography studio and photographed ... people and couples as they fell asleep. I was hoping to catch the psychology of the shell (body) once ... inhibitions of consciousness were gone. I was hoping to make it look like a dance across the walls." Martin-McGuire http://www.oliviamartinmcguire.com/seems seduced by both the intimacy and unreachability of sleep, as a subject. "Those internal journeys remain private" she says, "no matter how much other people may desire know what lies inside. We can watch others, think we understand, but they may be dwelling in far away places we can never know."
Until April 11
Re_View - 170 years of photography at the NGV
Perhaps the most ambitious exhibition currently showing (for only a few days more) is Isobel Crombie's thoughtful assay of the international photography collection at the National Gallery of Victoria. http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/ Re_View is, one feels, like a meeting with old friends - witnessing Ansel Adams' planetary landscape "Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Park 1944" (pictured above) and Andre Kertesz's wilting "Melancholic tulip, February 10, 1939" (pictured below L) and. going further into the past, seeing Eadweard Muybridge's amazingly candid (for its time) "Lifting cloth from the ground, placing it around shoulders and turning, 1887" in which a young, nude woman, with neither modesty nor artifice, performs this simplest of movements for Muybridge's sequential camera. The leap in perception required to achieve this pioneering photographer's understanding of human (and of course, Animal Locomotion) is, for the prudish times in which Muybridge lived, literally astonishing. There are other, more predictable masterpieces (Edward Weston, Julia Margaret Cameron, Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange) sprinkled through this display but I confess to being disappointed to see Robert Frank being represented by one of his merely adequate 1953 images made of Welsh miners in Britain - rather than anything from his epoch-defining 1958 work, The Americans - which, it could be argued, remains one of the most influential books of the last half century. The book's essay writer Jack Kerouac rightly described Frank as having "sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film." This book still resonates in its ability to see beneath American's fertile capacity for mythmaking. Perhaps the most magical image in this collection is the soaringly imaginative colour photograph Crombie chose for the lavish, well reproduced catalogue's cover image - Yee I-Lann's "Huminodun 2007". In this fine example of photographic magical reality (pictured, below), a pregnant woman's flowing black hair takes on a life of its own and soars away from the dreaming young woman, embracing fecund rice plants in the landscape and providing, explains Crombie, " a poignant reminder of how much the indigenous people of Malaysia are in danger of losing in the face of increasing consumerism and modernisation ... it is as the artist writes, her lament for Sabah."
Until April 4
Text copyright Robert McFarlane 2010
In my continuing testing of the Ricoh CX3, all the photographs made of events at Fotofreo in this blog, excepting the picture of Brad Rimmer, were taken with this capable, tiny camera.