Archive for the ‘Exhibitions’ Category
NEW PHOTODOC SHOW Curated by Doug @ Maud Gallery
In-situ – Frontispiece
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IN SITU: New Photodocumentary Work
At the end of 2015 I was the external assessor for the Queensland College of Art Bachelor of Photography Documentary stream. The work that I encountered from their recently completed documentary photography projects was inspiring. The projects that they had engaged in employed an ‘embedded’ methodology. Each photographer created stories expressing concepts and ideas that I felt deserved a wider audience. As some of the projects crossed-over into the slippery areas of art and concept documentation I felt that presenting the work in this context would encourage comment and discourse.
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Doug in an assessment @ the Queensland College of Art PHOTO: Earle Bridger
I sought support from Irena Prikryl, Director of Brisbane’s Maud Gallery, with my intention being to curate a show of selected works. Over a week I forwarded to Irena websites and links to the student’s works – each submission was met with a response – ‘these photos are awesome!’ Irena then offered an exhibition early in 2016. In discussions with students I found that one of them was interested in curating and gallery management – so an honorary internship was offered to Gillian Jones.
The rationale for exhibition is as follows:
Every photograph is a document. A photographic document may be about a friend’s smile, a family event, a dramatic storm cloud or a dent in a car door. But, what about those documentary images that tell us about the greater aspects of life in our times? These other photographs can encompass the tragedies of human suffering, of rituals and habits, of things that escape our casual view of the world and documents of hidden acts, a performances or a ‘happening’.
The documentary photographs in this exhibition are made by photographers not working as the casual iPhone snapshot ‘photographer’ of today, but rather individuals who embed themselves in human and natural environments to witness, to empathise and to document with a camera so a story can be shared.
The documentary photographers in this exhibition present their work as evidence of what they have seen, felt and been touched by. This work represents new photodocumentary practice and will place viewers in situ – surrounded by issues of contemporary life…
The exhibitors who accepted the invitation were:
Follow the links to the Maud Gallery website to see the projects (NOTE: Some links may now be inactive)
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Chris Bowes for the work ‘Sweat‘
Richard Fraser for the work ‘Pup play and beyond – exploring Brisbane’s BDSM subculture’
Gillian Jones for her work ‘Choice, Chance or Circumstance‘
Louis Lim for his work ‘Waiting for Sunshine‘
David Mines for the work ‘Beautiful one day perfect the next?
Thomas Oliver for his work ‘Disconnection‘
Marc Pricop for the work ‘Our Place in The Valley‘
Elise Searson for her work ‘Karen’ Lyme disease sufferer
Cale Searston for his work ‘BLU‘
The show was opened by arts writer Louise Martin-Chew on March 9 who was to comment at the beginning of her address that:
I am not an expert on photo documentary: my interest is in art and artist stories. I’m interested in the way in which we may tell and share these stories most effectively, and it is the many narratives, often those that are hidden unless you are part of that experience, or sub culture, that is at the heart of this exhibition of new photography.
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Louise Martin-Chew opens ‘In Situ’ PHOTOS: Irena Prikryl
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Well over 120 people attended the exhibition opening. A cash bar operated with the profits going to the Lyme Disease Association of Australia charity – associated with Elise Searson’s project’
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Opening attendees
Opening attendees
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Some views of the exhibition:
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David Mines’ ‘Beautiful one day perfect the next?’
Elise Searson’s ‘Karen’ Lyme disease
Richard Fraser’s ‘Pup play and beyond’
Thomas Olivers’ ‘Disconnection’
Louis’ ‘Waiting for Sunshine’
Chris Bowes’ ‘Sweat’
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Over the course of the exhibition each of the photographers presented a floortalk at the gallery. One contributor was Thomas Oliver, who is currently studying overseas in Toronto, Canada presented a Skype session in the gallery before his work.
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Gillian Jones presenting her floortalk
Thomas Oliver giving his floortalk by Skype
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The exhibition concluded on the 20th March with a dinner for the exhibitors and gallery members within the white walled empty space of the gallery.
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The artists’ dinner @ Maud Gallery
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In my comments at the opening of the exhibition I stated that a documentary photograph does not exist until it is publically distributed. The exhibition, In Situ: New Photodocumentary Work, put this work and the stories it contains before an audience. Everyone seeing it may interpret this work differently; such is the nature of the photodocument. Perhaps the true value of photodocumentary work can be summed up in Louise martin-Chew’s closing statement:
The power of this collection of works by a very talented group is simply summed up I think: Art may not be able to save the world, but it has an unparalleled ability to help us understand the individuals that comprise a community, a country, a continent = the world. And that may be sufficient.
Thank you to Irena Prikryl and Maud Gallery, Gillian Jones, the contributing photographers and Louise Martin-Chew for a memorable and powerful photodocumentary exhibition of new works.
Dr Doug Spowart
Louise Martin-Chew’s opening address can be seen on her website: HERE
New-PhotoDoc Catalogue
A catalogue of selected works from the show can be downloaded: NEW-DOC-CATALOGUE
Each of the photographer’s works can be seen on the Maud Gallery website under the participant’s names in the OUR ARTISTS menu – they can be purchased from the site as well.
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Unless attributed otherwise all texts and photographs are ©2016 Doug Spowart
PERSONAL HISTORIES–Artists Books @ Uni of NSW–ADFA, Canberra
‘Personal Histories’ invite
To survive and work as an artist is a big enough challenge in this day and age–but for some that’s not enough. A few have dreams for fantastic extravaganzas and then commit themselves to the necessary problem solving and planning to bring these wild ideas into fruition. One such inspired individual is Robyn Foster who curated an international exhibition of artists books that was first shown at the Redland Museum, then Redlands Art Gallery. The show, Personal Histories was then traveled as a self funded initiative for the third exhibition at the University of NSW Library at ADFA in Canberra.
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Ms Selena Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Design, UNSW Art & Design, officially launched the exhibition on the 1st October in Canberra and was attended by members of the local artists book community. We also attended the Canberra opening, viewed the exhibition and met some of the artists.
The exhibition is a curatorial masterpiece, the like of which is usually only undertaken by an institutional team! The works shown represent a wide gamut of practice from books that look and operate like books, to books as sculptural object. The books presented were made by every conceivable process and materials. Represented in the exhibition was every form of container for stories from codices, to concertinas and prosaic ‘ready-mades’. There is no resolution to the question ‘what is an artists book?’ as it continues to be challenged by the diversity and inventiveness of the works in this exhibition.
The stories in Personal Histories came from each artist’s life and experiences expressed through their creative art process. Through the intimacy of the book and the visual and haptic experience of reading, these personal narratives have the potential to be shared with those encountering these books in the future.
Congratulations Robyn Foster for curating and presenting this wonderful opportunity for us to experience the diversity of books by artists and the opportunity for these books to be seen.
Doug Spowart
Judy Bourke talking about her book ‘Born to life’ 2014. A tribute to Anne Murray.
A video of the exhibition showing a ‘fly through’ of some of the works as well as the opening address from Ms Selena Griffith and Robyn Foster’s response is available HERE:
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FROM THE PERSONAL HISTORIES WEBSITE:
Bringing together artists from around the globe to share their own stories in artist book form.
Sharing similarities, diversities and individual perspectives.
Highlighting the dynamic world of artist books.
The Personal Histories International Artist Book Exhibition highlights the dynamic world of contemporary artists’ book practice, with contributing artists from over 16 countries who attempt to reconfigure and reignite our relationship with the book.
This exhibition intimately catalogues a perspective of individual life experience exploring various structures and content, with curator Robyn Foster inviting us to contemplate our evanescent relationship with books at a seminal point in history where technology has overtaken books as society’s primary information source.
A detailed website discussing the project, the exhibitions and the works can be found HERE
http://personalhistoriesartistbooks.weebly.com/
Some images from the event:
Robyn Foster, Judy Bourke, Selena Griffith, Tracie Toohey, Rachel Hunter, Lisa Morisset.
Tracie Toohey @ ‘Personal Histories’ opening Uni NSW, ADFA, Canberra.
Judy Bourke @ ‘Personal Histories’ opening Uni NSW, ADFA, Canberra.
Robyn Foster @ ‘Personal Histories’ opening Uni NSW, ADFA, Canberra.
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UP CLOSE: Gemes, Driessens & Aird and their photographs of Aboriginal people
“Up Close” exhibition invitation
Doug Spowart opens the “Up Close” exhibition @ Fireworks Gallery PHOTO: Victoria Cooper
PHOTOGRAPHER: JUNO GEMES
Juno Gemes – “Up Close” @ Fireworks Gallery PHOTO: Doug Spowart
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Juno Gemes is one of Australia’s most significant photographers. For over 40 years, she has advocated for justice, recognition and respect for Aboriginal Australians through her photographic documentation. While her photographic mode could most accurately described as ‘photo-activism’ her artworks are resolved using a range of techniques that enhance the communicative qualities of the work. These include gelatine silver prints, type C prints, photogravure, photomontage, artists books and hand-colouring.
Gemes’ works have been shown in exhibitions world-wide and a solo exhibition of her Aboriginal portraits was shown in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition Proof in 2003. Photographs by Gemes have been published in all forms of media from national and Aboriginal newspapers to academic journals and publications.
PHOTO Juno Gemes. Lindsay (Spider) Roughsey on the Bora Ground with women of his clan, Mornington Island, 1978
PHOTO: Juno Gemes. Marcia Langton backstage at the Deadleys, Sydney Opera House, 2013
WORDS WRITTEN FOR JUNO
In a 1995 edition of the Photofile Juno Gemes poses the question: “What can a woman do with a camera?”[i] 20 years on we can now reflect upon her question, particularly as the exhibition Up Close opens at Fireworks Gallery in Brisbane, December 2015.
How does one describe Juno Gemes? For me she is some kind of a rhizomic individual, a chameleon, and a shape-shifter. She is everywhere for everyone and watch out if you are on the wrong side her – particularly if it is to do with injustice. There is more to Juno Gemes. The manifesto that drives her is deeply and often quite vocally expressed, is rooted in social justice. Central to her personal crusade are concepts relating to humanity, culture/s and communication.
In 2003 she posed the following observations and questions in relation to what motivates her work:
“If cultural difference is the true wealth of humanity … why is it that people from one culture find it so difficult to recognise the cultures of others? If our sense of culture–our value system–is fragmented and broken, how can we heal it? How does mythic thought function for different peoples?”[ii]
Her strategy in responding to these questions are: “… to be curious and ask the difficult questions is the crucible of art.”[iii]
And the art of the camera and the photograph became her way of dealing with the difficult questions of the times – Australia and its treatment and recognition of its first peoples. But Gemes’ approach to photography may not have been the traditionally accepted ‘impartial’ documentary style but rather more inclusive, active and interactive motivated by her, and her subject’s desire for authenticity in the story that is told through her photographs.
In 1978 when photographing on Mornington Island Juno was to ask: “What images should I make? What do you want your fellow Australian to see?” The answer from the Aboriginal community was: “Show them that we are still here, we been here all along. Show them that our culture is still strong. Show them that, my girl.”[iv] Juno made photographs then, and ever since, as an advocate of this simple request.
Rather than calling herself a documentary photographer, Gemes’ considers her work photo-activism. This stance is based on advice given to her by many of her mentors and teachers including Jo Spence and David Hurn. In 1979 at a workshop in Venice Lisette Model counselled Juno advising that: You do not photograph with your camera but with your eyes, your head and your heart…
In the years that followed Gemes was a constant photographer of The Movement its activities, meetings and people. Her photographs became powerful statements, authentic, respectful bearing witness and giving voice to issues of Aboriginal identity and presence on the land. Gemes’ photographs were distributed in all kinds of media, not only those of the Movement itself but also in political and academic papers and mainstream newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald.
Due to her photo-activism approach to photography she was not always successful in getting what she wanted published. In 1982 she documented the land rights marches associated with the Commonwealth Games Action Protests in Brisbane. When she offered her images to the Sydney Morning Herald the pictorial editor said: “Juno, I can’t publish this, it’s clear what side you’re on. What about your objectivity?”[v]
She replied: “Objectivity is fiction. It’s a refusal to take a conscious position. There can be no fence–sitting on this issue. Pictures you are publishing also have a clear position. A negative position not informed by what this action is really about.”[vi]
Over time Juno Gemes’ photographs have become a comprehensive record of the times, and with camera in hand, she continues to amass and archive of critical and sublime moments of Aboriginal culture, life and those who and connect with it. What cannot be left out in this story is the significant support that Juno Gemes’ has given to an entourage of Aboriginal photographers in all fields of practice from personal documentation to the highest levels of art photography. Her methods, ideals and integrity continues on through the work of photographers like Jo-Anne Driessens who is also in this show.
In reflection on Juno’s approach to her work, one looks for defining moments in her life that underpin and inspire her dedication, empathy, respect and creativity. She references being born in Hungary and coming, as a child, to Australia. As a child she talks of questioning the history of this country that was taught in her classroom. She has spoken about how her life was disrupted by dispossession from her homeland. In a Photofile journal in 1995 she recounted one of her earliest childhood memories that shaped her life: “… carried out of my homeland, Hungary, on my father’s shoulders; he was walking in knee-deep snow, gunfire rang out in the distance.”[vii]
In closing I’d like to read you Juno’s words from the catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery’s 2003 exhibition Proof: Portraits from the Movement 1978-2003, Juno Gemes was to say:
I have eyes that see in a particular way.
My eyes are informed by everything I have experienced, by all that I am.
I saw powerful beauty, strength, resilience, ingenuity, and hope at a time where others mostly saw only despair, their own discomfort and shame.
I saw what had been hidden, kept invisible.
I tried to communicate from within one culture to another.
It was sometimes a lonely place to be.
I had many great teachers who taught me so much along the way.
I understood how important it is never to forget what has been.
For we are also — what we have lost.[viii]
I say again: “What can a woman do with a camera!”
Congratulations Juno Gemes on your work in the Up Close exhibition and thank you for sharing the stories that you tell in the photographs before us….
Dr Doug Spowart
[i] Juno Gemes, “Profile: Juno Gemes,” Photofile, no. 46 (1995).
[ii] “The Political and the Personal Process in Portraiture: Juno Gemes in Conversation,” Australian Aboriginal Studies (The Journal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Straight Islander Studies)
(2003).
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] “Up Close,” ed. Fireworks Gallery (Brisbane: Keeaira Press, Southport, Queensland, Australia, 2015).
[v] “The Political and the Personal Process in Portraiture: Juno Gemes in Conversation.”
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] “Profile: Juno Gemes.”
[viii] “Proof: Portraits from the Movement 1978-2003,” ed. National Portrait Gallery (Canberra2003).
PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHAEL AIRD.
Michael Aird – “Up Close” @ Fireworks Gallery PHOTO: Doug Spowart
Michael Aird is a photographer anthropologist and curator of Aboriginal cultural heritage since 1985. Aird has produced numerous exhibitions and publications focused on photographs of Aboriginal people, including Portraits of our Elders, Brisbane Blacks, Transforming Tindale, Object of the Story and Captured: Early Brisbane Photographers and their Aboriginal Subjects. Michael Aird established Keeaira Press in 1996 and this year was awarded a University of Queensland Alumni Indigenous Community Impact Award. He is also the President of the Gold Coast Historical Society.
Michael Aird’s photographs deal with photographs of the everyday – He is interested in ordinary people and their lives. Although his work includes portraits of the leaders and elders he turns the interest of his camera lens on those not usually photographed as part of a community record. All his photographs are carefully catalogued and archived creating a significant record of the subjects and localities he has photographed.
PHOTO: Michael Aird. Paul Wright casting net South Stradbroke Island 2007
A selection of Michael Aird’s portrait images
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PHOTOGRAPHER: JO-ANNE DRIESSENS
Jo-Anne Driessens – “Up Close” @ Fireworks Gallery PHOTO: Doug Spowart
Completed a Diploma of Photography and a cadetship at the State Library of Queensland working as a photographer and later as an Indigenous Research Officer. She has worked as an assistant to Juno who has also been her mentor and supporter. Over a 15 year period she has had an extensive photography documentary and exhibition practice. Jo-Anne has acted in a number of roles and positions including her current one as a Senior Arts and Culture Officer and exhibition curator for the City of the Gold Coast. She was recently selected to participate in the Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership Program in Canberra.
Jo-Anne Driessen’s work centers on community and family. Her images can at times be a record of major activities and events – yet on other occasions they may be personal expressions and exchanges between friends and family.
PHOTO: Jo-Anne Driessens. William Sandy, Paddy Carroll, Dicky Brown, Alice Eather, Michael Nelson, and Two Bob Jungari at the Dar Festival King George Square, Brisbane, 1998
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PHOTO: Jo-Anne Driessens – Reconcilliation Bridge Walk, Bisbane 2000
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ESSAYIST: BETH JACKSON
Beth Jackson – Calatlogue essayist for “Up Close” PHOTO: Doug Spowart
Beth Jackson is a multi-discipline arts professional, curator and consultant of contemporary art.
“Up Close” Artist Talk invitation
“Up Close” Artist Talk chaired by Doug Spowart PHOTO: Victoria Cooper
“Up Close” Artist Talk panel PHOTO: Victoria Cooper
A sound recording of the hour-long talk is available by ‘Clicking’ the link below. The file size is 15mb and will be available to download via a link to Dropbox.
Please note that simple recording systems were used – the sound quality is variable…
UP CLOSE ARTIST TALK AUDIO FILE
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The copyright of all photographs of artworks is maintained by the photographers. All other photographs ©2015 Doug Spowart + Victoria Cooper.
WORLD PHOTOBOOK DAY @ Brisbane’s Maud Creative
World Photobook Day at Maud Creative Gallery Photo Robert Gray
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A survey project about those who read photobooks
My Favourite Photobook – Brisbane World Photobook Day
World Photobook Day (WPBD) in Brisbane Australia at Brisbane’s Maud Creative Gallery was celebrated with a survey project highlighting photographers and their photobooks curated by Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart.
The international WPBD team chose this day in recognition of the British Library’s the acquisition of Anna Atkins’ Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype impressions on October 14 in 1843. Atkins’ cyanotype book is arguably considered as the world’s first photobook as both image and text are printed simultaneously printed on the same page. It was some time before the photograph and text could be co-printed, so books that included photographic illustrations, were usually printed with text by letterpress processes and photographs ‘tipped-in’ as original prints. WPBD activities are supported through the PhotoBook Club, a worldwide network of groups interesting in photobooks.
The Cooper+Spowart survey asked photographers to submit a photograph of themselves reading their favourite photobook and comment on why they like their chosen book. Sixty-five photographers responded to the request. Working on tight timelines Cooper and Spowart printed the photographer’s submissions including: their self-portraits while reading, their chosen book and a comment about why they had chosen the book. This work was presented for viewing on the gallery wall.
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Brisbane World Photobook Day, Maud Gallery Photo Doug Spowart
Looking at books – WPBD, Maud Gallery Photo Doug Spowart
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The event was also attended by photographica collector and historian Sandy Barrie who presented a selection of photographically illustrated books from the 19th century. These books include the 1846 Art Union journal that contained an essay by Henry Fox Talbot and an original calotype print.
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Sandy Barrie and the Art Union journal Photo: Doug Spowart
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Early in the evening a ‘fly-through’ video was made of the installation with some guests present.
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In the evening around 35 photobook enthusiasts attended a forum with panellists including Dr Heather Faulkner documentary transmedia practitioner and lecturer at the Queensland College of Art (Gold Coast), Chris Bowes artist and bookmaker, Julie Ann Sutton documentary photographer and collector, Helen Cole Senior Librarian and Coordinator of the Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland, and Henri van Noordenberg artist and bookmaker. The forum was convened by Doug Spowart who in a Q&A format led discussion and a range of photobook issues including:
- Collecting books
- Possession and ownership
- Borrowing and loaning of books
- Adding bookplates and marginalia to books
- Letting children handle books
- The future of photobooks
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WPBD Forum Photo Daniel Groneberg
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The last poignant comment came from Heather Faulkner when speaking of the future printed book. In her statement she referred to the recent changes to privacy laws giving government agencies access and scrutiny over all of our online metadata. Faulkner’s prediction is that the physical book, as it has been in the past, will be the place for personal and provocative commentary on contemporary life and politics.
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Cooper+Spowart wish to acknowledge the following supporters of this project:
- The creative from Maud Gallery: Irena Prikryl, Teri Ducheck and Peter Pescell – videographer;
- Matt Johnston – The Photobook Club;
- Tony Holden and Ilford for the inkjet printing paper;
- Sandy Barrie;
- The forum panelists – Heather, Chris, Julie Ann, Helen and Henri;
- The installation team Maureen Trainor, Rene Thalmann, Mel Brackstone and Daniel Groneberg;
- And, of course, all the participants.
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To celebrate the Brisbane WPBD event BLURB Australia has offered a discount voucher for participants in the Brisbane event. The code and conditions are: WPBD2015, expires 30 November 2015. Must pay with Australian dollars. Maximum discount per book is AUD$150. Each customer can use the code 1 time.
SEE a few of the photographers and their favourite books in this download:
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DOWNLOAD A PDF SELECTION: WPBD-Selected_Submissions
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THE PROJECT WILL CONTINUE… Stay tuned.
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Previous WPBD events coordinated by Cooper+Spowart 2013 and 2014.
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The 67 participating photographers and their books were:
Peter Adams: Passage – Irving Penn
Melissa Anderson: Shooting Back – Jim Hubbard
Ying Ang: Sabine – Jacob Aue Sobol
Sandy Barrie: Art Union Journal, 1 June 1846 – Henry Fox Talbot essay
Chris Bowes: Tokyo Compression – Michael Wolf
Isaac Brown: Ray’s a Laugh – Richard Billingham
Harvey Benge: Blumen – Collier Schorr’s book
Camilla Birkeland: Mike and Doug Starn – Andy Grundberg
Daniel Boetker-Smith: In Flagrante – Chris Killip
Mel Brackstone: Melbourne and Me (a work in progress) – Adrian Donoghue
Helen Cole: Booked – Peter Lyssiotis
Victoria Cooper: Domesday Book – Peter Kennard
Michael Coyne: Workers -Sebastião Salgado
Judith Crispin: da Sud a Nord (from South to North) – Sabine Korth
Sean Davey: William Eggleston Paris
Jacqui Dean: Peter Adams – A Few of the Legends
John Elliott: Richard Avedon Portraits
Dawne Fahey: Julia Margaret Cameron – Marta Weiss
Heather Faulkner: The Notion of Family – La Toya Ruby Frazier
Liss Fenwick: Outland – Roger Ballen
Juno Gemes: Nothing Personal – Richard Avedon and text by James Baldwin
Kate Golding: Fig. – Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin
Philip Gostelow: Thank You – Robert Frank
Robert Gray: Max Yavno
Daniel Groneberg: Los Alamos – William Eggleston
Sam Harris: Café Lehmitz – Anders Petersen
Tony Hewitt: 50 Landscapes – Charlie Waite
Douglas Holleley: Man and His Symbols – Carl Jung
Kelly Hussey-Smith: On the Sixth Day – Alessandra Sanguinette
Libby Jeffery: Inferno – James Nachtwey
Matt Johnston: Touch – Peter Dekens
Larissa Leclair: Moisés – Mariela Sancari
Louis Lim: Blind – Sophie Calle
James McArdle: Love on the left bank – Ed van der Elsken
Paul McNamara: The Terrible Boredom of Paradise – Derek Henderson
Henri van Noordenberg: Cinci Lei – Joost Vandebrug
Gael Newton: By the sea – CR White
Glen O’Malley: A Modern Photography Annual 1974
Thomas Oliver: Common Sense – Martin Parr
Maurice Ortega: The Apollo Prophecies – Kahn and Selesnick
Adele Outteridge: Pompeii – Amedeo Maiuri
Polixeni Papapetrou: Diane Arbus
Martin Parr: Bye, Bye Photography – Daido Moriyama
Gael Phillips: Arcadia Britannica, A Modern British Folklore Portrait – Henry Bourne
Louis Porter: Looking Forward to Being Attacked – Lieutenant Jim Bullard
Imogen Prus: The Whale’s Eyelash, A Play in Five Parts – Timothy Prus
Jack Picone: Exiles – Josef Koudelka
Ian Poole: White Play – Takuya Tsukahara
Irena Prikryl: Cyclops – Albert Watson
Susan Purdy: nagi no hira, fragments of calm – Suda Issei
Jan Ramsay: AraName – Bir Ara Güler Kitabi
Jacob Raupach: The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater – Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Felicity Rea: Pandanus – Victoria Cooper
Mark Shoeman: Me We, Love Humanity and Us
Roger Skinner: Third Continent – Self-published
Doug Spowart: The Research Library, National Gallery of Australia
Tim Steele: The Earth From The Air – Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Alison Stieven Taylor: Strange Friends – Bojan Brecelj
Julie Ann Sutton: Katherine Avenue – Larry Sultan
Maureen Trainor: Sequences – Duane Michals
Garry Trinh: Period of Juvenile Prosperity – Mike Brodie
Ann Vardanega: Loretta Lux
George Voulgaropoulos: A shimmer of possibility – Paul Graham
Marshall Weber: Street Our Street – Dana Smith & Marshall Weber
David A Williams: Avedon Fashion
Konrad Winkler: Emmet Gowin the new Aperture book
Simon Woolf: F Lennard Casbolt Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue
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All photographs and texts remain the copyright of the submitting photographers.
SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY 2015 – A photo essay
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Well, we visited the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair on September 12 — Well, what can I say … perhaps photos can tell it better …
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SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY FACTS:
A five-day fair with 90 galleries
$14 million in art sales
The fair was held in Sydney’s Carriageworks exhibition space
From Wednesday 9 to Sunday 12 September, was the centrepiece of Art Week in Sydney
Was attended by 30,000 people.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION – ABC ONLINE REPORT: Sydney Contemporary art fair records $14m in sales as art market booms
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-17/art-fair-success-signals-booming-art-market/6784548
PAPER CONTEMPORARY Presented in association with The Print Council of Australia Inc
Helen Cole, Akky Van Ogtrop + Victoria Cooper
Brigita Oppen Ant Press
Sue Anderson + Gwen Harrison
Victoria Cooper, Jan Davis + Trent Walter
Ron and Jonathon McBurnie
Noreen Graham’s stand @ Paper Contemporary
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Well, until next time … two years from now…
All photographs ©2015 Doug Spowart
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PUMPING-UP the VOLUME on PHOTOBOOKS
Screen dump on Volume site
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I attended Volume: Another Art Book Fair in Sydney on the weekend of September 11+13, 2015. The event was a collaboration between Artspace, Perimeter Books and the American artists’ book not-for-profit book shop Printed Matter. Packed into the Artspace building in Woolloomooloo were around 100 ‘Art Book’ makers, publishers and sellers all vying for the attention of potential purchasers. The table holders had spread before them all things book – let’s not try and get into discussions around what an ‘art book’ is, but rather celebrate the range of published products from thin stapled zines and comics, to self-pub photobooks, artists’ books and gallery catalogues, and further to trade-styled ‘fine art’ books and livre d’artiste productions.
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Some of the Volume Art Book Fair table participants included:
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Shannon Michael Cane from Printed Matter
Cameron Cope
The Perimeter Books table
Bloom Publishing Lloyd Stubbers + Jay Dymock
Bloom Publishing: Lloyd Stubbers + Jay Dymock
Richard Tipping and Max Ernst (David Dellafiora)
Thorny Devil Press: Richard Tipping
George Voulgaropoulos
Pneuma Publishing: George Voulgaropoulos
Deanna Hitti
Libby Jefferies MomentoPro after a long day on Sunday
Anita Totha Remote Photobooks NZ
Kate Golding
John Ogden Cyclops Press
Helen Frajman – m.33
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Selling books to interested collectors and lovers of books is one thing but as is the case with the emergent trend in self-pub everyone wants to have their own book. To cater to this growing group of keen makers the program included many free forums, workshops and lectures by a variety of key makers and commentators on various aspects of the disciplines of writing and self-publishing (self-pub).
Why Publish panel
As my interest is in topics related to photobooks I attended two sessions: Why Publish and Designing Photobooks. The why-pub panel consisted of Helen Frajman (m.33), Daniel Boetker-Smith (Asia-Pacific Photobook Library), Brad Haylock, Jack Harries and Geordie Cargill and Shannon Michael Cane from Printed Matter. Attendees, of which there were around 30, heard discussions relating to the usual issues of publishing, getting a designer, edition numbers, marketing, selling and getting your work into the right hands including the international market. Brad Haylock suggested the key themes for photobooks were:
- Technologies and organizational forms
- Social relations
- Institutional and administrative arrangements
- Production and labor processes
- Relations to nature
- The reproduction of daily life and the species
- Mental conceptions of the world
Ultimately the overall message seemed to be ‘Give it a go’!
The Designing for Photo Books panel
Associate Professor Christopher Stewart from University of Technology Sydney chaired the Designing for Photobook panel. Each speaker showed examples of their work and discussed design concerns associated with their books. Heidi Romano from Unlessyouwill spoke of her history in design, her passion for the photobook and her experience of the international world of book design. She cited her interest in advancing Australian photobook design as being a driver for her establishment of Photobook Melbourne. Esther Teichmann, and artist from the UK discussed her exhibition work and the challenge of bringing wall-work into the space of the book as well as her experiences, not always pleasant ones, with book designers. Tom Evangeledis, Black Eye Gallery described his interest in encouraging exhibitors at his gallery to consider a book to support the exhibition but also to enhance the opportunity for the artist’s work to be extended beyond the exhibition dates. Chloe Ferres, probably kept the most on track with the topic of book design by presenting a range of works that in some ways subvert the idea of the book being a vessel to hold photographs that express a narrative – she considers the book structure as also important to the narrative and uses a range of design interventions to disrupt the preciousness that many photographers seem to consider important when they make books.
Christopher Stewart posed questions to the panelists to draw out aspects of the topic but when asked if there were questions from the floor Daniel Boetker-Smith asked about how we can make photobooks that are more about the ‘fetish’ of the book – ‘some books all look the same – I’m interested in all kinds of books. A young photographer in Myanmar stapling a bunch of photographs together to make a book is just as important to me as some “coffee table tome”!’ An attendee agreed and responded that books often look the same as they as designed from a dummy where all decisions about the book are considered at the beginning and immutable – whereas another less formal method is the development of a book in a process where opportunities for review and discovery are made along the way allowing the book to be like a collaborator with the artist…
Bella Capezio making Insta Photobooks for APPA
Make your own Photobook with Garry Trinh
While some attendees attended these lecture sessions others were busy making books. The print-on-demand company BLURB offered bookmaking workshops over the weekend led by photobook self-publisher Garry Trinh. Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive presented a selection of their books at the event and founder Daniel Boetker-Smith and Bella Capezio led photobook-making sessions as well.
Victoria Cooper and Ruyin Yang
The biggest book-making venture over the weekend was a special project coordinated by Onestar Press who, with Artspace and other supporters including Surry Hills Print & Design Konica-Minolta, design students from University of New South Wales – Art &Design. The project, entitled ‘Book Machine’, brought together a designer with a ‘content provider’ (artist or photographer), and over the course of 3.5 hours the two work together to design a book. Overnight the book was printed and made available to its collaborative participants.
Alexie Glass-Kantor – introduces the Book Machine commentators
Late on Sunday afternoon the Artspace coordinators drew together a distinguished panel of erudite book critics and commentators including Brianna Munting – NAVA, Simon Barney Artist, Alexie Glass-Kantor – Executive Director Artspace, Maddalena Quarta – One Star Press, Bella Capezio – Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, Philip Keir – publisher and artists’ book collector and Nicholas Tsoutas – Curator and Art management executive. A crowd gathered to hear this discussion and celebrate this unusual project.
Book Machine
Towards the end of the day on Sunday I rushed around to catch up with people that I still hadn’t spoken with and books not yet seen. I felt something of the heightened energy levels with which these table holders had been operating in the preceding days. Did they sell enough books…? Did they make contacts with people who will do future business with them or provide content for future books…? Did they get a chance to check out what everyone else was doing…? Did they get to do a Book Machine project…? Buy a pie at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels or take-in the harbor, the Finger Wharf and the view of naval ships at Garden Island.
Harry’s Cafe de Wheels
Volume: Another Art Book Fair was a major undertaking for the visionaries who conceived it and then brought it into fruition. There were so many activities, add-on events, presentations and booksellers and books available for artbookophiles in which to luxuriate. There was a real sense of community created in this art book fair that can only advance the disciplines associated with it. One thing is for certain, at least for me, is that I know I have just attended one of the most significant art book fairs to be held in this country to date. When, and where the next one will be is something we’ll await with much anticipation…
Doug Spowart
14 September 2015
PHOTO EXHIBITIONS @ The Ballarat Int’l Foto Biennale
Looking at Andrew Campbell’s astro worlds
When visiting the Ballarat International Foto Biennale you very quickly find out that photography is a diverse and amazing communicative medium for storytelling, information transfer and as interior decoration. The 100 or more exhibitions cover walls in and around Ballarat in places as austere as the Ballarat Art Gallery, to classic Victorian halls and buildings and boutique coffee shops. Most exhibition spaces are within walking distance of the centre of town so the visitor becomes a foto flaneur…
This was out 3rd BIFB, in 2009 we were part of the Core Program with our Borderlines exhibition at the Post Office Gallery, so it was easy for us to slip into the exhibition walking process. I might say, it rained – or drizzled, as usual. It was cold, as usual. But people encountered along the way – old friends, new acquaintances were past of the ‘as usual’ BIFB experience.
Presented below are some images from the streets of Ballarat. What follows are some images of exhibitions seen. Occasional and brief comments about the shows, (some from the program), will be given as well as a link to the BIFB Program. Get there if you can —- there’s still weeks to go with workshops, talks and tours to add to the exhibitions.
A wrap-up report posted by the BIFB Committee is available HERE
CHECK OUT THE PROGRAM BIFB Program
BALLARAT: the view from the street
We began @ Sam Harris’ exhibition – The Middle of Somewhere
Sam Harris’ ‘The Middle of Somewhere’ Post Office Gallery
It was interesting to see the translation of book images into the space of the white walled gallery.
The Mining Exchange exhibition area – @ a very quiet time…
Part of David Williams’ exhibition alcoves
A portrait of me made by David in the 1990s as ‘The Cardinal’
Some great conceptual portrait work by a true master of portraits – David Williams
Alejandro Chaskielberg’s ‘La Creciente’
Alejandro Chaskielberg’s ‘La Creciente’
A Paraguayan immigrant travels together with an Argentinian islander, who is his employer. They are loading 3 tons of Willows, taking them to the principal port of the Delta in order to sell the wood.
An amazing exhibition of large format photography with images taken under moonlight conditions. Although the photographer claims that no flash or other lighting is used in his work …
Stephen Dupont’s ‘Piksa Niugini : Portraits and Diaries’
Dupont covers the walls of the gallery with a panoramic portrait of New Gineau tribes men and women. His ‘hold up the sheet’ separates the subject from the background which would imply a purely ethnographic recording. Now the subjects become art…
Leon Bird ‘Mrs Patronis Guest House’
Leon Bird
Jane Long’s
‘Dancing With Costica’
The Dancing with Costica series initially came about when I decided to brush up on my retouching skills. After finding the Costica Acsinte Archive on Flickr I became fascinated with the images and their subjects. I wanted to bring them to life. But more than that I wanted to give them a story (from the catalogue).
AN amazing exhibition of not just Photoshop technique but more importantly the conceptual construction of narratives and haunting places for these subjects to inhabit and live on…
Silvi Glattauer holding a gravure plate of an image from ‘Organic Balance’
One of Silvi’s gravures
Some beautiful images enhanced by the best way to make photographic images – Gravure…!
BLURB’s ‘One for the book’ Photobook Award display in Trades Hall
20 Books from around the world were selected as finalists for this award – some interesting works including one of my own… It’s a public vote to select a winner —Vote for mine!!!
The St Patricks exhibition hall
Boryana Katsorova’s
‘Freezing’
The exceptionally cold weather and snowstorms that hit Europe in February 2012, caused traffic chaos, road closures, straining emergency services, grounding flights and pushing the death toll past 300 people and left entire villages cut off. I have documented this event in my series ‘Freezing’ capturing the distant stares of passengers (from the catalogue).
Michelle Vannier’s
‘Car Graveyard’
Thomas Kellner
‘Genius Loci – Two German Gentlemen of Siegen in the Land of the Tsars’
Film-based mosaics – each full width of the subject being a 24 exposure film. Individual frames are ‘wiggled’ to deconstruct the real subject. A detailled plan of each image’s deconstruction is shown alongside the finished work.
Amber McCraig’s ‘Americana Now’
Astronomical Society of Victoria’s
‘Wonders of the Universe Exposed’
A stellar exhibition by the astronomers with cameras – Include work by our telescope here Andrew Campbell.
Marie Watt ‘After the Rush’
Marie Watt’s series After the Rush uses infrared photography to emphasise the atmospheric solitude of the lesser known gold rush sites – in a bid to remind us of a wider vibrant, though harsher, past (from the catalogue).
An exhibition in a coffee shop…
OH!! It was such a busy couple of days…
ABBE: Artists books Brisbane Event 2015
ABBE Logo
For many years Queensland had a diversity of artists book activities: the bi-ennial Artspace Mackay Artists Book Forums and Libris Awards, the once yearly Noosa Artists Book Events and the Southern Cross University Acquisitive Artists Book Awards. Also contributing to this fertile artists book environment the State Library of Queensland’s Australian Library of Art which included the SLQ’s Siganto Foundation fellowships, ‘white glove’ presentations and events. Added to this were exhibitions and artists book fairs coordinated by Grahame Galleries and other shows at scattered venues. With the recent demise of the Mackay, Noosa and Southern Cross events their absence was felt by the artists book community. Now a new event has emerged to add to the SLQ and Grahame Galleries support of the art – the Artists Book Brisbane Event (ABBE). Over July 16, 17 and 18 ABBE featured a triptych of activities; a conference, an exhibition of books, an artists book fair and allied exhibition events at the State Library of Queensland, Grahame Galleries, The Studio West End, the IMA and Impress Printmakers Gallery.
The conference sought to address 3 main themes relating to the artists book:
- post literacy
- materiality/the haptic
- the nature of reading artists books.
Three keynote presenters lead the program:
- Sarah Bodman – Senior Research Fellow for Artists Books, CFPR editor of the Blue Notebook
- Brad Freeman – Founder and editor in chief of the Journal of Artist’s Books
- Dr Lyn Ashby – Australian artist and scholar making books
Sarah Bodman presents her keynote lecture
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SARAH BODMAN (Abstract)– ARTISTS’ BOOKS AS A PHYSICAL SITE OF PRACTICE
If a post-Literate society might also encompass new ways of thinking about reading, we could think of contemporary artists’ books as a site of practice beyond that of McLuhan’s sign posting of the invention of moveable type as fundamentally responsible for how the Western world physically reads: “along the straight Lines of the printed page.”
We seem to have already moved from Linear to non-linear reading; we are used to flitting through digital screen-based texts, and losing our attention through a multitude of online multi-tasking. Physical engagement with artists’ books provides us with spaceto breathe, a slower rhythm of ingesting information and time to reflect, so what about the artists who are making them? How are artists engaging with the physical book now?
These examples focus on celebrating the book as a physical container used by artists to: re-present language, offer performative reading, view how reading is perceived, appropriate text from novels and instructional manuals into new works, or to transform information from the virtual into the physical.
Brad Freeman presents his keynote lecture
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BRAD FREEMAN (Abstract) – JOURNAL OF ARTISTS’ BOOKS
Brad Freeman’s Lecture focussed on JAB, the Journal of Artists’ Books, that supports critical inquiry into artists’ books. Since 1994 JAB has published interviews with contemporary artists whose primary medium is the artist book, reviews of artists’ books, and essays about historical issues and contemporary artists and their work. JAB has a two pronged approach to culture creation via publication arts; an educational approach with critical writing and documentation of current activity; and second, a creative approach with publication art-exploring the creative potential of print and the book by commissioning artists’ covers (letterpress and offset), artist designed pages, and artists’ books made especially for insertion into JAB.
Lyn Ashby presents his keynote lecture
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LYN ASHBY (Abstract) – POSTLITERACY AND ARTISTSBOOKS: Coming to our senses with a modern mythic form
This presentation is a speculation on the idea that contemporary artistsbooks may be the laboratory for a new literacy, and that in honor of the quietly evolutionary nature of this new literacy, we might call it “postliteracy”.
As background, it explores how our centuries of standard literacy and its attendant conventions of pictorial space and chronological, narrative time, have privileged a specific code in the representations of our language systems (both image and text) and their operations across the page and through the book. The prescriptions of these conventions and the domination of the line and the grid onto the look of language have come to minimise the participation (and uncertainty) of the senses in the direct process of apprehending meaning with language forms.
But the pages of artistsbooks are often filled with the explorations of other ways that language forms can activate a lively, sensory involvement with the page space, or how meaning can be formulated beyond the limitations of chronology.
Some of these experiments involve the invocation of pre literate, oral language structures that work more by the devices and grammars of music, song and myth than the usual strategies of standard literacy. in this way, the contemporary artistsbook may be the hardcopy home of a modern, mythic form.
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Doug Spowart performs his lecture ‘I’m about to ‘read’ a book’
Victoria Cooper presents her lecture ‘The Grafted Image: The Montage’
Tim Mosely presents in the lecture room
Presenting/Participating at the conference
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- Lyn Ashby
- Sarah Bodman
- Sara Bowen
- Deidre Brollo
- Helen Cole
- Victoria Cooper
- Marian Crawford
- Daniel Della-Bosca
- Fiona Dempster
- Caren Florance
- Jenny Fraser
- Brad Freeman
- Angela Gardner
- Noreen Grahame
- Bridget Hillebrand
- Joel Lardner
- Marian Macken
- Tim Mosely
- Adele Outteridge
- Mikhail Pogarsky
- Doug Spowart
- Kym Tabulo
- Wim de Vos
- Gabriella Wilson
Invite – ‘books by artists’
- books by artists’ in the Webb Gallery, QCA
The ‘books by artists’ exhibitors
- Isaac Brown
- Blogger_dad
- Penny Carey-Wells
- Victoria Cooper
- Caroline Craig
- Fiona Dempster
- Hesam Fetrati Angela Gardner
- Annique Goldenberg
- Alannah Gunter
- Institute of Modern Art Cassandra Lehman-Schultz
- Alison Mackay
- Judy Macklin
- Heather Matthew
- Tess Mehonoshen
- Christine Mellor
- Tim Mosely
- night ladder collective
- Naomi O’Reilly
- Adele Outteridge
- Mona Ryder
- Rose Rigley
- Glen Skien
- Doug Spowart
- Wim de Vos
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THE ABBE ARTISTS BOOK FAIR
Artists Book Fair
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Artists Book Fair stallholders
Sue Anderson + Gwen Harrison
Lyn Ashby
Sara Bowen (no image taken)
Deidre Brollo with Christene Drewe and Helen Cole
Penny Carey-Wells
Centre for Regional Arts Practice (Cooper+Spowart) (no image taken)
Marian Crawford with Sarah Bodman
Daniel Dell-Bosca with Victoria Cooper
Robyn Foster + Fiona Dempster
Caren Florance
Robyn Foster (no image taken)
Brad Freeman JAB
Angela Gardner
Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research (no image taken)
Impress Printmakers: Sue Poggioli + Jennifer Stuerzl
Institute of Modern Art
Sheree Kinlyside
Clyde McGill
Heather Matthew
Anita Milroy book – ‘Biography of a Physicist’ (Image supplied by the artist)
Adele Outteridge + Wim de Vos
QCA Gold Coast (no image taken)
silverwattle bookfoundry (Tim Mosely)
Peta Smith
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ABBE participants also visited Grahame Galleries, The Studio West End and the State Library of Queensland
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The SLQ White Gloves team Christene, Helen and Jeanette
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ABBE Logo
ABBE was an initiative of the Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research and was coordinated by Dr Tim Mosely and Dr Lynden Stone.
All photographs © 2015 Doug Spowart
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
COOPER+SPOWART NOCTURNE MUSWELLBROOK – Revisitied
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2015 was the INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LIGHT – Our Nocturne projects celebrate light and to celebrate we presented a major exhibition entitled NOCTURNE MUSWELLBROOK: Revisited at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre.
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Nocturne Muswellbrook: Reflections on Light
As the sun goes down and the last light fades–cars pass by with commuters heading home for respite at the end of a days work or others just embarking on a nights work. Trucks move through the town with little thought for the places they pass through. People meet and have a conversation…. The street lights come on one by one up the street. The illuminated advertising signage lights the buildings along with the internal lights of the building.
This transition from daylight to night is rhythmical–a diurnal phenomenon–but one that is also pervaded with the uncanny or un-homely sense of place. At nocturne and into the night everyday places change, becoming mysterious as the shadows replace familiar surrounds. A sense of melancholy also grows with the passing of the day–a lament born from the relentlessness of change.
Yet these ephemeral moments can also be seductive and evocative, experiencing the aesthetics of the nocturne can inspire new imaginings of everyday places. The colour and chiaroscuro compositions of light and shadow replace the tired and indifferent prose of daily life. A magical narrative evolves from the personal memories of a shared living history in these laneways, streets, buildings and spaces.
.
A selection of Nocturne Muswellbrook: Revisited images
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COOPER+SPOWART NOCTURNE PROJECTS
Cooper+Spowart Nocturne shadow
For many years we have engaged in nocturne projects. These have included artists in residency programs in the regional galleries of Muswellbrook, Grafton, Bundaberg and Miles as well as self-funded projects across east coast Australia. The Artist in Residence (AIR) projects are associated with a Facebook page to connect the community with the photographs and evoke stories about the places photographed.
A sample of community Facebook responses can be seen here:
Catalogue-Comments-interact-FP3
.
Nocturne AIR Projects include workshops, mentoring in photography, image enhancement, social media as well as photobook and zine making. Future Nocturne Projects are in the planning stage and we seek expressions of interest from communities looking to participating in a Nocturne light project.
.
Participating community members from the Nocturne Miles Project
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A link to a collective of NOCTURNE PROJECTS can be found: HERE
.
THE BACK STORY: Nocturne Muswellbrook
The Nocturne Muswellbrook Facebook page was launched in June 2013
From 23rd June we began a 2week Artist in Residence in Muswellbrook. Our studio was a vacant shop in the Campbell’s Corner building fronting onto the main street, Bridge Street
.
Our gallery and workspace
We set up our digital studio workspace to:
- Master the nocturne photographs for the Facebook page
- Print out the mastered images for a small display in the shop
- Greet anyone that wanted to come by and share their story about Muswellbrook
- Prepare for the evening’s shooting around the town
Photographing a coal train from the Bell Street bridge
Each night and day, once the images were uploaded onto the Nocturne Muswellbrook page we invited everyone to tell their stories about each place photographed. We were excited to engage with the community and a deeper knowledge and experience of Muswellbrook through this process.
An early FB Cover
Many people that visited the page were once residents of Muswellbrook but now live in other parts of Australia and some were international expats. The number of ‘Page LIKES’ grew quickly – today the number stands @ 620. There was a pride and a melancholy for this once rural town. Some stories were full of humour and the irony of the Aussie yarn. While others shared poignant moments of their lives from the memories evoked by the photographs.
Video projection on MRAC wall
We also created a Youtube video that was uploaded and premiered at our artists talk held in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre on the July 5. In evening we projected our images as a visual performance on the outside of the Gallery for public viewing and to extend the experience of the nocturne project.
Even though our 2 weeks in residence had come to an end on July 6, we still continued to connect with the Facebook page: uploading images and connecting them with the community’s stories.
SETTING UP THE EXHIBITION
Vicky arranging the hang
The MRAC exhibition space
In 2015 we came back to show an exhibition of the work on the walls of the Gallery. The Sunday after the opening we presented a workshop for participants wanted to upskill or engage with how we captured and mastered these nocturnal images.
Workshop at the MRAC
Now the works are on the wall for all to come and see… and we are inviting anyone who visits to write down their story and place on the wall next to the image. The gallery is now a physical “Facebook page”. We look forward to seeing your written stories on the walls of the gallery.
2013: with Silvana & Roger Skinner – MRAC AIR Coordinator – 2015 with Elissa, Jade and MRAC Director Brad Franks
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We want to express our thanks to the MRAC Team, Roger Skinner, ILFORD papers and Maud Gallery.
.
2015 is the INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LIGHT – Our Nocturne projects celebrate light and this year at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre we are showing a major exhibition entitled NOCTURNE MUSWELLBROOK: Revisited.
Nocturne Muswellbrook: Reflections on Light
As the sun goes down and the last light fades–cars pass by with commuters heading home for respite at the end of a days work or others just embarking on a nights work. Trucks move through the town with little thought for the places they pass through. People meet and have a conversation…. The street lights come on one by one up the street. The illuminated advertising signage lights the buildings along with the internal lights of the building.
This transition from daylight to night is rhythmical–a diurnal phenomenon–but one that is also pervaded with the uncanny or un-homely sense of place. At nocturne and into the night everyday places change, becoming mysterious as the shadows replace familiar surrounds. A sense of melancholy also grows with the passing of the day–a lament born from the relentlessness of change.
Yet these ephemeral moments can also be seductive and evocative, experiencing the aesthetics of the nocturne can inspire new imaginings of everyday places. The colour and chiaroscuro compositions of light and shadow replace the tired and indifferent prose of daily life. A magical narrative evolves from the personal memories of a shared living history in these laneways, streets, buildings and spaces.
.
A selection of Nocturne Muswellbrook: Revisited images
.
COOPER+SPOWART NOCTURNE PROJECTS
Cooper+Spowart Nocturne shadow
For many years we have engaged in nocturne projects. These have included artists in residency programs in the regional galleries of Muswellbrook, Grafton, Bundaberg and Miles as well as self-funded projects across east coast Australia. The Artist in Residence (AIR) projects are associated with a Facebook page to connect the community with the photographs and evoke stories about the places photographed.
A sample of community Facebook responses can be seen here:
Catalogue-Comments-interact-FP3
.
Nocturne AIR Projects include workshops, mentoring in photography, image enhancement, social media as well as photobook and zine making. Future Nocturne Projects are in the planning stage and we seek expressions of interest from communities looking to participating in a Nocturne light project.
.
Participating community members from the Nocturne Miles Project
.
A link to a collective of NOCTURNE PROJECTS can be found: HERE
.
THE BACK STORY: Nocturne Muswellbrook
The Nocturne Muswellbrook Facebook page was launched in June 2013
From 23rd June we began a 2week Artist in Residence in Muswellbrook. Our studio was a vacant shop in the Campbell’s Corner building fronting onto the main street, Bridge Street
.
Our gallery and workspace
We set up our digital studio workspace to:
- Master the nocturne photographs for the Facebook page
- Print out the mastered images for a small display in the shop
- Greet anyone that wanted to come by and share their story about Muswellbrook
- Prepare for the evening’s shooting around the town
Photographing a coal train from the Bell Street bridge
Each night and day, once the images were uploaded onto the Nocturne Muswellbrook page we invited everyone to tell their stories about each place photographed. We were excited to engage with the community and a deeper knowledge and experience of Muswellbrook through this process.
An early FB Cover
Many people that visited the page were once residents of Muswellbrook but now live in other parts of Australia and some were international expats. The number of ‘Page LIKES’ grew quickly – today the number stands @ 620. There was a pride and a melancholy for this once rural town. Some stories were full of humour and the irony of the Aussie yarn. While others shared poignant moments of their lives from the memories evoked by the photographs.
Video projection on MRAC wall
We also created a Youtube video that was uploaded and premiered at our artists talk held in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre on the July 5. In evening we projected our images as a visual performance on the outside of the Gallery for public viewing and to extend the experience of the nocturne project.
Even though our 2 weeks in residence had come to an end on July 6, we still continued to connect with the Facebook page: uploading images and connecting them with the community’s stories.
Exhibition invite
Vicky arranging the hang
The MRAC exhibition space
In 2015 we came back to show an exhibition of the work on the walls of the Gallery. The Sunday after the opening we presented a workshop for participants wanted to upskill or engage with how we captured and mastered these nocturnal images.
Workshop at the MRAC
Now the works are on the wall for all to come and see… and we are inviting anyone who visits to write down their story and place on the wall next to the image. The gallery is now a physical “Facebook page”. We look forward to seeing your written stories on the walls of the gallery.
2013: with Silvana & Roger-MRAC AIR Coordinator ….. 2015 with Elissa, Jade and MRAC Director Brad…………………..
.
Printing with ILFORD Galerie GOLD SILK papers
.
We want to express our thanks to the MRAC Team, Roger Skinner, ILFORD papers and Maud Gallery.
.
2015 is the INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LIGHT – Our Nocturne projects celebrate light and this year at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre we are showing a major exhibition entitled NOCTURNE MUSWELLBROOK: Revisited.
Nocturne Muswellbrook: Reflections on Light
As the sun goes down and the last light fades–cars pass by with commuters heading home for respite at the end of a days work or others just embarking on a nights work. Trucks move through the town with little thought for the places they pass through. People meet and have a conversation…. The street lights come on one by one up the street. The illuminated advertising signage lights the buildings along with the internal lights of the building.
This transition from daylight to night is rhythmical–a diurnal phenomenon–but one that is also pervaded with the uncanny or un-homely sense of place. At nocturne and into the night everyday places change, becoming mysterious as the shadows replace familiar surrounds. A sense of melancholy also grows with the passing of the day–a lament born from the relentlessness of change.
Yet these ephemeral moments can also be seductive and evocative, experiencing the aesthetics of the nocturne can inspire new imaginings of everyday places. The colour and chiaroscuro compositions of light and shadow replace the tired and indifferent prose of daily life. A magical narrative evolves from the personal memories of a shared living history in these laneways, streets, buildings and spaces.
.
A selection of Nocturne Muswellbrook: Revisited images
.
COOPER+SPOWART NOCTURNE PROJECTS
Cooper+Spowart Nocturne shadow
For many years we have engaged in nocturne projects. These have included artists in residency programs in the regional galleries of Muswellbrook, Grafton, Bundaberg and Miles as well as self-funded projects across east coast Australia. The Artist in Residence (AIR) projects are associated with a Facebook page to connect the community with the photographs and evoke stories about the places photographed.
A sample of community Facebook responses can be seen here:
Catalogue-Comments-interact-FP3
.
Nocturne AIR Projects include workshops, mentoring in photography, image enhancement, social media as well as photobook and zine making. Future Nocturne Projects are in the planning stage and we seek expressions of interest from communities looking to participating in a Nocturne light project.
.
Participating community members from the Nocturne Miles Project
.
A link to a collective of NOCTURNE PROJECTS can be found: HERE
.
THE BACK STORY: Nocturne Muswellbrook
The Nocturne Muswellbrook Facebook page was launched in June 2013
From 23rd June we began a 2week Artist in Residence in Muswellbrook. Our studio was a vacant shop in the Campbell’s Corner building fronting onto the main street, Bridge Street
.
Our gallery and workspace
We set up our digital studio workspace to:
- Master the nocturne photographs for the Facebook page
- Print out the mastered images for a small display in the shop
- Greet anyone that wanted to come by and share their story about Muswellbrook
- Prepare for the evening’s shooting around the town
Photographing a coal train from the Bell Street bridge
Each night and day, once the images were uploaded onto the Nocturne Muswellbrook page we invited everyone to tell their stories about each place photographed. We were excited to engage with the community and a deeper knowledge and experience of Muswellbrook through this process.
An early FB Cover
Many people that visited the page were once residents of Muswellbrook but now live in other parts of Australia and some were international expats. The number of ‘Page LIKES’ grew quickly – today the number stands @ 620. There was a pride and a melancholy for this once rural town. Some stories were full of humour and the irony of the Aussie yarn. While others shared poignant moments of their lives from the memories evoked by the photographs.
Video projection on MRAC wall
We also created a Youtube video that was uploaded and premiered at our artists talk held in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre on the July 5. In evening we projected our images as a visual performance on the outside of the Gallery for public viewing and to extend the experience of the nocturne project.
Even though our 2 weeks in residence had come to an end on July 6, we still continued to connect with the Facebook page: uploading images and connecting them with the community’s stories.
Exhibition invite
Vicky arranging the hang
The MRAC exhibition space
In 2015 we came back to show an exhibition of the work on the walls of the Gallery. The Sunday after the opening we presented a workshop for participants wanted to upskill or engage with how we captured and mastered these nocturnal images.
Workshop at the MRAC
Now the works are on the wall for all to come and see… and we are inviting anyone who visits to write down their story and place on the wall next to the image. The gallery is now a physical “Facebook page”. We look forward to seeing your written stories on the walls of the gallery.
2013: with Silvana & Roger-MRAC AIR Coordinator ….. 2015 with Elissa, Jade and MRAC Director Brad…………………..
.
Printing with ILFORD Galerie GOLD SILK papers
.
We want to express our thanks to the MRAC Team, Roger Skinner, ILFORD papers and Maud Gallery.
.
2015 is the INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LIGHT – Our Nocturne projects celebrate light and this year at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre we are showing a major exhibition entitled NOCTURNE MUSWELLBROOK: Revisited.
Nocturne Muswellbrook: Reflections on Light
As the sun goes down and the last light fades–cars pass by with commuters heading home for respite at the end of a days work or others just embarking on a nights work. Trucks move through the town with little thought for the places they pass through. People meet and have a conversation…. The street lights come on one by one up the street. The illuminated advertising signage lights the buildings along with the internal lights of the building.
This transition from daylight to night is rhythmical–a diurnal phenomenon–but one that is also pervaded with the uncanny or un-homely sense of place. At nocturne and into the night everyday places change, becoming mysterious as the shadows replace familiar surrounds. A sense of melancholy also grows with the passing of the day–a lament born from the relentlessness of change.
Yet these ephemeral moments can also be seductive and evocative, experiencing the aesthetics of the nocturne can inspire new imaginings of everyday places. The colour and chiaroscuro compositions of light and shadow replace the tired and indifferent prose of daily life. A magical narrative evolves from the personal memories of a shared living history in these laneways, streets, buildings and spaces.
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A selection of Nocturne Muswellbrook: Revisited images
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COOPER+SPOWART NOCTURNE PROJECTS
Cooper+Spowart Nocturne shadow
For many years we have engaged in nocturne projects. These have included artists in residency programs in the regional galleries of Muswellbrook, Grafton, Bundaberg and Miles as well as self-funded projects across east coast Australia. The Artist in Residence (AIR) projects are associated with a Facebook page to connect the community with the photographs and evoke stories about the places photographed.
A sample of community Facebook responses can be seen here:
Catalogue-Comments-interact-FP3
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Nocturne AIR Projects include workshops, mentoring in photography, image enhancement, social media as well as photobook and zine making. Future Nocturne Projects are in the planning stage and we seek expressions of interest from communities looking to participating in a Nocturne light project.
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Participating community members from the Nocturne Miles Project
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A link to a collective of NOCTURNE PROJECTS can be found: HERE
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THE BACK STORY: Nocturne Muswellbrook
The Nocturne Muswellbrook Facebook page was launched in June 2013
From 23rd June we began a 2week Artist in Residence in Muswellbrook. Our studio was a vacant shop in the Campbell’s Corner building fronting onto the main street, Bridge Street
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Our gallery and workspace
We set up our digital studio workspace to:
- Master the nocturne photographs for the Facebook page
- Print out the mastered images for a small display in the shop
- Greet anyone that wanted to come by and share their story about Muswellbrook
- Prepare for the evening’s shooting around the town
Photographing a coal train from the Bell Street bridge
Each night and day, once the images were uploaded onto the Nocturne Muswellbrook page we invited everyone to tell their stories about each place photographed. We were excited to engage with the community and a deeper knowledge and experience of Muswellbrook through this process.
An early FB Cover
Many people that visited the page were once residents of Muswellbrook but now live in other parts of Australia and some were international expats. The number of ‘Page LIKES’ grew quickly – today the number stands @ 620. There was a pride and a melancholy for this once rural town. Some stories were full of humour and the irony of the Aussie yarn. While others shared poignant moments of their lives from the memories evoked by the photographs.
Video projection on MRAC wall
We also created a Youtube video that was uploaded and premiered at our artists talk held in the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre on the July 5. In evening we projected our images as a visual performance on the outside of the Gallery for public viewing and to extend the experience of the nocturne project.
Even though our 2 weeks in residence had come to an end on July 6, we still continued to connect with the Facebook page: uploading images and connecting them with the community’s stories.
Exhibition invite
Vicky arranging the hang
The MRAC exhibition space
In 2015 we came back to show an exhibition of the work on the walls of the Gallery. The Sunday after the opening we presented a workshop for participants wanted to upskill or engage with how we captured and mastered these nocturnal images.
Workshop at the MRAC
Now the works are on the wall for all to come and see… and we are inviting anyone who visits to write down their story and place on the wall next to the image. The gallery is now a physical “Facebook page”. We look forward to seeing your written stories on the walls of the gallery.
2013: with Silvana & Roger – MRAC AIR Coordinator ….. 2015 with Elissa, Jade and MRAC Director Brad Franks…………………..
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We want to express our thanks to the MRAC Team, Roger Skinner, ILFORD papers and Maud Gallery.
BOOKEND: Photobook Melbourne — what a read?
Photobook Melbourne: Peter Lyssiotis looking at an Aperture Books
We all know that feeling when you are really getting into a book, its narrative and flow, and then you reach the point where, as the last page is turned, you wish it could go on, and on… Photobook Melbourne (PM) was something of that kind of experience. The books seen, perhaps around 300, the exhibitions seen, and the people met now all vividly reside in memory and digital capture code.
The Photobook Melbourne event took place between February 12 to 22 it was coordinated by Heidi Romano and Daniel Boetker-Smith. It was always an ambitious undertaking. Its vision was to connect international photobook world with makers and lovers of the book from around Australia… and New Zealand. This was achieved through numerous exhibitions, library displays, photobook awards, forums and workshops.
Daniel Boetker-Smith + Heidi Romano PHOTO: Courtesy of Lauren Dunn www.artdocumentation.com.au
Photobook Melbourne can only be described as a massive success. The photobook community of practice needs events like these so they can band together to affirm their interest and belief in the importance and creative power of the photobook. For once, the world of photobooks has come to us, or at least Melbourne, and for that we are a stronger and more informed cohort of makers, readers, collectors and lovers of photobooks.
Some of the attendees have responded to a request for comments – others are posts from Blogs and Facebook posts…
FROM JACOB RAUPACH: Photobook Melbourne was an amazing week full of a genuinely insightful mix of talks, exhibitions and book exhibitions, with the fair during the first weekend proving to be a great networking point for the rest of the week that followed. … I felt that the inaugural festival set an amazing benchmark for the following years! Looking forward to 2016.
FROM HARVEY BENGE‘s BLOG: On a zero to ten scale I’d give the festival a ten! Visit his site for more commentaries about photobook
FROM CHRIS BOWES: For someone naïve to the world of photobooks, Photobook Melbourne was an eye opening experience. Although coming in as a virtual outsider to this rapidly expanding art scene, I sank my teeth into as many of the talks, exhibitions and book collections I could manage, and came away a lot more informed than I was going in. Personal favourites were the Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards exhibition, where the content of the books was engaging and the calibre unmatched, and ‘The Other Photobook Forum’, where in particular Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison showed that with a little creativity and business sense one can make a buck and do what they love.
FROM LIBBY JEFFERY – Momento Pro: The number of participants, visitors, books and buyers at Photobook Melbourne were fantastic and they confirmed that small press and self publishing is alive and well in Australia. The Awards and Book Fair also proved that a selection of high standard work is being created here, but a collaborative promotion and showcase of Australian photo books to the global market would benefit everyone.
FROM: ANGEL LUIS GONZALEZ FERNANDEZ Facebook Comment Back in Dublin after an amazing first edition of PHOTOBOOK MELBOURNE, having discovered tons of new work and books from Australia, New Zealand, and more -and having met a truckload of awesome people.
FROM KELVIN SKEWES: As someone that attended almost all of the events that were part of Photobook Melbourne I can only describe it as a tour de force for lovers of the Photobook. The festival opened on February 12th at the Centre for Contemporary Photography with Robert Zhao Renhui’s exhibition
A Guide To The Flora And Fauna Of The World and with a smoking ceremony by the traditional owners to welcome the festival to their land. Also announced on the opening night was the Australian Photobook of the year which was won by Raphaela Rosella for her unpublished book ‘We Met a Little Early But I Get to Love You Longer’ and I was humbled to be the runner up with my newspaper as photobook ‘Nauru: What was taken and what was given’. …
The main event for the first weekend of the festival was the Photobook Melbourne Book fair at CCP an event at was full of frenetic energy and far too many photobooks to browse let alone buy; amongst the many booksellers highlights included the infatigable Perimeter book with titles from Mack and Spector books and Anita Totha from Remote books who is doing to sterling job promoting photobooks from New Zealand. …
Great thanks are due to the entire Photobook Melbourne team so thank you Heidi Romeo, Daniel Boetker-Smith, esteemed guests Ángel Luis González Fernández, Ron Jude and the Dysturb Photo Collective, festival partners and sponsors Momento Pro, Photography Studies College, Copyright Agency and venues CCP, MGA, Strange Neighbour, Colour Factory, Neo Space, Baron Said and James Makin Gallery and to all the volunteers without whom this could not have happened so thanks to Felix Wilson, Kate Robinson, Bella Capezio, Katrin Koenning and countless others.
See you next year!
MORE COMMENTS WILL BE ADDED AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE…
WHAT FOLLOWS IS A PERSONAL DIARY OF PHOTOBOOK MELBOURNE
Our arrival on the first weekend was delayed by my recent medical incursion so we fly into Melbourne on Wednesday. Through a friend we were able to stay in an apartment right in the middle of the city and our journeys out and about were by tram, train and lifts given by friends.
The MGA – The Home of Australian Photography
THURSDAY: We attended two book related exhibitions at the Monash Gallery of Art. Badged as the ‘Home of Australian Photography’ the gallery presented two photobook exhibitions, one of images from the collection that featured the theme of books and reading and was entitled ‘Light Reading’. The other was The Natural Collection an assemblage of books by The Photobook Club’s Matt Johnston and co-curated by Lucy Johnson. The Natural Collection brings together photobooks that explore “the harmony, tension and play” that occurs in the human relationship with nature and the natural landscape.
Heidi, Steph and Vicky discussing a book
The exhibition space was setup for readers to sit and work their way through a most interesting selection of Euro/American centric responses to the theme. Grand trade books sat next to simple fold ‘n’ staple zine-like booklets. We were there with Heidi Romano, Simone Rosenbauer from Sydney and MGA Gallery’s Education and Public Programs officer Stephanie Richter. We engaged in a spirited debate about book design; production methods and how to evaluate books.
That evening we attend a dinner for PM speakers, contributors, supporters and sponsors. By this stage it was acknowledged that the PM had been an enormous success so congratulatory statements were announced and a great feeling of an Australian photobook community being well and truly launched by this event.
Bohemian Vicky+Doug
Bohemian Melbourne portrait wall
Bohemian Melbourne
FRIDAY MORNING: A breakfast of avocado, bacon and relish was partaken at a suburban street café while being interviewed by Australian Photography contributor Anthony McKee for a feature on photobooks. Morning tea with Robert Heather and Des Cowley at the State Library of Victoria and a visit to the SLV exhibition Bohemian Melbourne – a fascinating reflection on the creative, musical and arty sub-culture of Melbourne. Rennie Ellis’ photos contributed much to this history as well as poster art, paintings and the ephemera and memorabilia of the different eras represented by the theme.
The Library Project @ PSC
FRIDAY AFTERNOON: We visited Photography Studies College to view ‘The Library Project’, a collection of photobooks brought to PM by Ángel Luis González Fernández from PhotoIreland. ‘The Library Project’ aim is to collect contemporary publications based on photography to create a public resource library. We viewed many books that are not easily available to see in Australia including Cristina de Middel’s Afronauts.
The ‘OTHER’ Photobook Forum – a question from the floor
FRIDAY EVENING: Later that evening we were involved with The ‘OTHER’ Photobook Forum – Artists’ Books, Zinesters and the Photobook took place. We have been working on this project for a couple of months now and we were able to bring together key practitioners from these ‘other’ photobook disciplines who discussed and provided commentary on their use of the photo in the book. The participants included photomonteur Peter Lyssiotis, zinesters Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison, artists’ book maker Dr Lyn Ashby, Des Cowley from the State Library of Victoria and Victoria Cooper who stood in for Georgia Hutchison who was unable to attend due to extenuating family issues.
It was an event that stirred much interest with artists like Deanna Hitti and Theo Strasser attending as well as Momento Pros’ Libby Jeffery, and photobook makers Kelvin Skewes, Daniel Boetker-Smith and Chris Bowes.
Jacob Raupach @ CCP
Aperture Books on display @ The Baron Said
SATURDAY: A day to attend artists talks at the Centre for Creative Photography by, amongst others photobookmaker Jacob Raupach and the exhibition FELL – Bought a copy of his latest book WEALTH. Following up with visits to the Momento Pro Australian Photo Book of the Year Award at the Asia Pacific Photobook Archive and the Aperture Photobook exhibition @ The Baron Said and a stimulating lunch with Peter and Tess Lyssiotis @Babkah.
Lunch with Tess + Peter
Photobooked-out we headed back to the city by tram and had a chance meeting with Lismore artist and Siganto Artists Book Fellow Jan Davis who was attending a Print Council meeting – Only in Melbourne could strange intersections like that could happen.
SATURDAY EVENING: Melbourne White Night event
450,000 Melbournians took over the streets of the CBD – everything stayed open and performances and projections, bands and music were everywhere. Amongst other things we went to see the projections in the Dome at the State Library of Victoria at 10.30 at night – queued in line for 30 minutes with 1000s of others what a night…!
SUNDAY
A day of traveling home to cyclone weather drenched Brisbane.
UNTIL NEXT TIME —- For PHOTOBOOK MELBOURNE 2nd EDITION….
wotwedid 