DARK LOVE: Stories of the darkroom @ Maud Gallery
It seems that in the digital age many photographers still pine for the days past when the darkroom was familiar territory. While older photographers may have fond memories, today they share their darkroom love with new-comers, mainly younger and digitally native photographers. To honour the past and to celebrate the future of the darkroom we worked with the Director of Maud Creative Gallery Irena Prikryl recently to host a series of events and workshops to recognise analogue photography in contemporary photographic practice.
On November 8 a group of photographers responded to the call to attend an event at the gallery called DARK LOVE: Stories of the Darkroom. They were asked to come along with something special about the darkroom and tell a story associated with it. On arrival at the gallery their photographs were prepared and then hung on the wall. The presentations were timed at around 5 minutes and were quite fascinating.
Part of the Dark Love exhibition at Maud Gallery
What follows is a photo of the attendee, their print and a brief comment about their stories …
Alex Buckingham
Alex spoke about working with Liquid Light emulsions
Victoria Cooper
Victoria Cooper discussed the making of this pinhole biscuit tin photo and the challenges of printing the 6x18cm negative
Thomas Oliver
Thomas spoke about his current academic research in the multiple printing of a single negative.
Tammy Forward
Tammy discussed the making of a studio portrait.
Sandy Barrie
Sandy spoke of the dangers of shooting large format in busy Sydney traffic.
Robyn Hills
Robyn told the story of the making of this award winning print – from its origins from a point-n-shoot camera to darkroom high contrast printing ‘Tipp-ex” and a little bit of marker pen… A great animated performance….
Rob Crapnell
Rob discussed his interest in the darkroom and work with a 6×7 Pentax documenting how old heritage buildings in Brisbane are being cramped by the skyscraper…
Peter Pescell
Peter discussed his use of an ‘ancient’ bellows camera and reloaded 120 aerial film on spools to make this image… the old and the outdated still have currency in analogue…
Michael Stephenson
Michael discussed his modern printing of a series of lantern slides that represented a panorama of Brisbane made in the 1870s(?) by the photographer a Mr Wilson(?).
Louis Lim
Louis spoke of a camera obscura that he made in a children’s hospital as part of an artist in residence. He described the view of Vulture Street in Brisbane on the ceiling of the room and how children visiting the space were enthralled by the images on the ceiling and walls…
Jeff Ryan
Jeff discussed the taking of this photograph and its connection personal connection with he and his brother’s lives. The photo was made relatively recently at a place where Jeff and his brother played as kids 40 years earlier.
Irena Prikryl
Irena’s story related to buying her first serious camera – a Hasselblad and then taking some photos in Grand Central Station in New York. The camera was balanced on a railing and the shutter speed was long… The photo was recently printed in a Fine Art Print workshop at Maud with Doug+Vicky.
Chris Bowes
Chris Bowes was unable to attend but had come by earlier to install his personal investigation of self and sweat by placing un-exposed B&W photopaper against his body. The prints are then process yield a ‘Chemigram’. Chris will present a floortalk at the gallery. Check the Dark Love page for details…
David Symons
David discussed that the origins of his 1980s photographic series was a response to the work and photobooks of David Hamilton. Hamilton was well known for his ‘soft-porn’ photos of young girls. Symons spoke about how he appropriated Hamilton’s photos by double printing copy negatives through a cracked mud image. Texts from Hamilton’s book were adapted by Symons using a redactive process to reveal an alternative story….
Doug Spowart
I commented about how a recent re-connection with pinhole photography during the Pinhole workshop last weekend had helped to resolve a need for a new project that Vicky and I will be working on next year. I passed around an 8″x10″ film pinhole negative that had revived my interest and love of the darkroom. PHOTO: Victoria Cooper.
Edwin Wecker
Edwin discussed his experiences with film photography whilst on tour to India with his friend Russell Shakespeare.
Gail Hoger-Neuman
Gail showed some photographs from her early 1990s exhibition ‘Hollywood Stills’ that was shown at Imagery Gallery.
Sandy Barrie demonstrates ancient portable daylight enlargers – the oldest was made before 1859.
Conversations continued after the presentations
The DARK LOVE works were enjoyed and discussed
CHRIS BOWES FLOORTALK – 26 November – details to be confirmed
A FINE ART PRINTING WORKSHOP WILL TAKE PLACE ON – Postponed to 2017
A CYANOTYPE WORKSHOP – Details HERE
AND THE FRONT GALLERY WILL BE CONVERTED INTO A CAMERA OBSCURA on November 26 (to be confirmed)
Festival of the Darkroom logo
All portrait photographs and gallery documentations unless credited otherwise ©2016 Doug Spowart
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STUDIO WEST END: REPRISE
Adele Outtridge photographed in the new Studio by Doug Spowart
Wim de Vos photographed in the new Studio by Doug Spowart
Adele Outteridge and Wim de Vos are like ‘family’ for many artists and creatives in Queensland, and I’m sure around Australia and beyond. Their Studio West End has provided a space for artists to access printing technologies, be supported by mentoring and teaching provided by Adele and Wim, and also connect through the social meeting place that the studio was.
Over the years both Vicky and I have connected with them in many different ways; as co-teachers in an art college, as collaborators on art projects, attending events that each other had organised, learning and sharing skills and, at times, just sitting around – as other do – talking about art and artists…
Helen Cole opens the Studio West End artists book show Photo: Doug Spowart
Adele and Wim have for many years operated their business Studio West End in the suburb of West End in Brisbane in an old soft drink and later and ice-cream factory. They made these places little palaces of art, inspiration and creativity. The workshop was often converted into an exhibition space and example of which would be the project launch of EX LIBRIS: WHO OWNS THIS BOOK
However the creeping menace of gentrification and the scourge of massive high rise development meant that earlier this year they had to pack up and leave their premises in the ABSOE building.
Vicky and I attended the last day party on the 23rd of April and I made some photographs of the state of the studio and its conversion into neat stacks of crates on pallets. What follows is a small selection of the ABSOE Studio West End wake…
Invitation to the Farewell Party
The farewell Absoe Building wake…
Moving out of West End
On October 30 Adele and Wim re-opened STUDIO WEST END at a new location –
241F Station Rd, Yeerongpilly 4105. Come to Gate 4, YCP (Yeerongpilly Corporate Park)
A large opening party was held on Friday evening with the new consecration of the new studio being performed by artist and raconteur Janet de Boer OAM. Acquaintances and friends were invited to visit the studio over the weekend and we went along for lunch the next day. We wish them all the best for the Studio’s continued operation.
What follows is a documentation of the new space and its migration into a new space for art making, teaching and mentoring artists…
The NEW Studio West End
In the new Studio West End
ALL photographs and text ©2016 Doug Spowart
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ANA PAULA ESTRADA’s new book “MEMORANDUM”
Brisbane City skyline
Brisbane is not a place not known for its photobook makers… there’s not much happening. Occasionally a gem from Dane Beesley, a few college student publications made for assessment and, every now and again, artists’ books/photobooks from yours truly and Victoria Cooper. So it is an exciting time when a new book is made as a total production from concept to printing and binding in Brisbane. That book is by photographer and photobook self-publisher Ana Paula Estrada and is entitled Memorandum. The book was completed as a project associated with Estrada’s Siganto Foundation Creative Fellowship in the Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland.
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Memorandum is a conceptual bookwork and is concerned with concepts of aging and memory, remembrance and the recounting of stories. In this book Estrada presents evocative associations where the photograph infers a memory or moment re-called.
At a first glance Memorandum could seem to be just a book of straight portraits featuring old people. The are multiple images on successive pages occasionally interspersed with a range of other photos and ephemera. Each of the people pictured in this book have been interviewed by Estrada and shared with her stories of their lives. Fragments of their memories, exhumed from the depths of memory, or in some cases, from lost recesses of the mind caused by age-related memory impairment or varied stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Estrada’s portrait sequences present the subjects with subtle expression changes. Turning the pages of the book are like a conversation with the person – animated and suggesting a dialogue is taking place.
Page openings – Memorandum
Facing pages are sometimes blank to create a punctuation or pause in the conversation. Sometimes images and other ephemera are on the verso pages. These act as windows to the conversation – they need no caption, they are physical evidence of existence, substantiating the memory. They act as memory maps placed before the reader as additional information. Many of these images have been sourced from the person in conversation. Other photographs have been sourced by Estrada from the archives of the State Library of Queensland to illustrate the memory relayed to her in conversation with the subject.
Memorandum has achieved the notice of the world-wide photobook community:
Harvey Benge comments on the book https://harveybenge.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/ana-paula-estrada-memorandum-new.html
The Royal Photographic Society’s curated photobook exhibition https://issuu.com/bjsdesign/docs/photobook_exhibition_2016_catalogue
Shortlisting for the Artspace Mackay Libris Artists’ Book Awards 2016-librisawards_illustratedlistofworks
Shortlisting for the Encontros da Imagem Festival (Braga, Portugal)
A review by Gabriela Cendoya (in Spanish) can be seen HERE
The State Library of Queensland BLOG about the development of the book can be read HERE
The Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland and the National Library of Australia have both bought copies.
I was honored to have Ana Paula approach me to write an essay to accompany the book. My text is printed as a broadsheet page folded and inserted into a pocket in the book’s cover. My essay is as follows….
PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY
Sitting here, I’m trying to recall the earliest memories of my life as a child. In this process of reflection I attempt to delve back into my memory searching for images, thoughts, experiences and feelings. What I find are personal, unique and fragmented memories that seem to have the appearance of photographs.
As I remember more of my childhood, I wonder if there is another way of visualising memories? But what emerges again in my mind are stilled photographic moments in particular, one of a family group. These photo memories have no colours, just black and white and slightly sepia. Wide white borders surround each memory and the corners are slightly bumped showing the patina of being handled. It even seems plausible to me I could even turn the memory over, and there would be a caption there in someone’s handwriting.
How could I, at 3 years of age, have known the significance and the outcome of my father’s posed group – my brother, mother and me? Other aspects of the photograph, like how youthful my mother appears, or how my father was not yet bald, give me something to base what I think should be my memories of that time. Could it be that I remember the photograph and have forgotten the moment of its making?
Writer and critic John Berger claims that, ‘All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget.’[i] Does this mean that because we have photographs, we allow ourselves to forget? What I do know is when we want to remember – we look at photographs. And when it comes to remembering there are social rituals that help us do this. Every family, for example, at some time or another, gathers together and the musty pages of photo albums are turned, old yellowed Kodak print packets thumbed through and the slides are held up to the light with everyone squinting to see some glimmer of recognition in the tiny frame. We have seen the archived baby photos, the wedding couple, holidays and kids playing at the beach, the new house and the other treasures that vernacular photography presents as a personal record. Through this ritual we encounter the rich archive of our family and ancestor’s lives. These now become ‘conditioned memories’, whether real or fiction. When we next see these photos we will think we remember the moment of their making and not necessarily our moment of first encountering them.
This conceptual bookwork by Ana Paula Estrada is concerned with the human condition of memory. Perhaps more specifically this work deals with concepts of ageing and memory, remembrance and the recounting of stories. The work also comments on the interpretation of stories and the retelling of what could be referred to as meta-stories in the form of a book.
As the pages of Memorandum are turned – people will be met. There will be conversations through the sharing of photographs, documents and news-clippings of these people’s lives. Through the process of making this book, memories have been revisited, refreshed and retold anew. These stories are offered for reader’s contemplation, perhaps even for future remembering. Memoranda, such as these, may be about other people’s stories – but in many ways they may stir our memories and become part of our stories as well.
Doug Spowart
[i] Berger, John. Keeping a Rendezvous [in English]. Granta in association with Penguin, 1992.
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- Black soft cover, Section Sewn (Exposed Spine), 21 cm x 15 cm Stock: Ecostar Uncoated It contains a small 8pp booklet, fold out pages and a tipped in 112gsm translucent page
- 170 pages and 86 photographs
- Selling price $80
Other details about the book:
Photographs & Text:
Ⓒ2016 Ana Paula Estrada
Subject´s personal photographs.
John Oxley Collection, State Library of Queensland.
Design & concept: Ana Paula Estrada
Essay: Dr. Doug Spowart
Artwork: Linda Carling
Colour management: Martin Barry
Printing: Allclear in Brisbane, Australia
Typefaces: Chronicle Display and Aparajita
Paper stock: 120gsm &140gsm Ecostar
First edition, 2016
Print run: 200
Ana Paula Estrada’s Memorandum makes a significant contribution to the contemporary photobook genre in her ability to resolve the conceptualisation, capture – in photographs and recorded interview, the design and coordination of a complex concept into the simple form of of a book. And in doing so give us an opportunity to consider contemporary issues of our time through the photobook.
Doug Spowart
October 31, 2016
PHOTOS OF THE BOOK LAUNCH
AVID READER IN WEST END BRISBANE
Louis Lim bought a book
Annette Green and Ana Paula
Looking at the book
Doug Spowart reading his essay from the book
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ARTLANDS: Our missing presentation
Artlands Dubbo Webpage
ARTLANDS DUBBO CONFERENCE: Regional voices missing
Today we were to present a paper at the ARTLAND DUBBO REGIONAL ARTS AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE. Earlier this year we made a submission based on one of the conference themes and were excited to learn that our submission was accepted and that we were going to be able to add our story and project activities in regional arts in Australia to the conference.
However, then we found that the conference fees, despite ‘early bird’ and presenter discounts, combined with the costs to get to Dubbo and be accommodated were enormous. We had to look at support options for grants in Arts Queensland and the Regional Arts Fund and we found that none either ‘fitted’ with our needs or could be responded to in time to register. We therefore withdrew our presentation.
As regional artists, although we’ve been in Brisbane of late, and also independent researchers we have noticed many opportunities at conferences and seminars now require presenters to fund their place in the program. Now that might be affordable to academics, those employed in arts management or facilitation or those who have taxable incomes where such can be an allowable income tax deduction, but others just cannot afford to bear such costs.
It seems to us that many voices in the field of art in Australia are being kept out of the conversation by the cost of participation and the lack of grant support.
There is no doubt that ARTLANDS DUBBO will be a success and all who attend will benefit greatly from the shared experience and networking possible but for us, on this occasion, we stayed at home and worked on our art.
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For those interested what follows is our proposal that related to the conference theme – REGENERATION: Exploring arts and cultural development using creativity that positively impacts on community vitality and well being.
ABSTRACT
Artists in residence programs provide unique opportunities for artists to explore their practice while contributing to the community’s cultural development. We will discuss ‘3 tiers’ of community engagement in our Nocturne AIR Projects: artist as creator, community as creator, and social media as a creative flux for interactive engagement.
OUR PRESENTATION
We will present a background on the Centre for Regional Arts Practice (Centre) that we formed in 2007 as a response to the circumstances and challenges of artists living in regional Australia. From the beginning the ‘Centre’ has engaged in advocacy, representation, commentary and the development of projects for regional artists and the communication of regional art perspectives.
Nocturne Projects
The ‘Centre’ engages in artist in residency programmes that enable the development of community based Nocturne Projects. These projects have been sponsored through the regional galleries of Muswellbrook, Grafton, Bundaberg, Miles and Armidale. We have also self-funded Nocturne documentary projects across eastern Australia and Tasmania.
3 Tiers of Engagement
In developing the methodology for our AIR Nocturne Projects we identified 3 tiers of community engagement, these are:
- artist as creator;
- community as creator: artist as facilitator; and
- social media as creative flux for interactive engagement.
Artist as creator:
We will talk about how our AIR work allows us to explore themes, both personal and collaborative, in the investigation and representation of “site” and “place” in the Australian landscape. We work to connect contemporary social issues with historical, scientific and mythological insights intrinsic to each site. Critical to, and inherent in, this work is these visual narratives that are deeply rooted in the recording and interaction with each place.
Community as creator – artist as facilitator:
Beyond our own work Nocturne AIR Projects we develop, in conjunction with the local gallery education officers programmes that provide creative development to suit each community’s needs. Included in these programmes may be workshops, practical digital photography shoot-outs and assignment work, image enhancement and file optimisation, one-on-one mentoring, developing social media skills as well as photobook and zine making.
Participants, whether they use hi-tech DSLR cameras, point-n-shoot cameras, tablets or smart phones, connect through meetings and workshop sessions. To provide a continuous stream of inspiration, feedback, instruction and support we establish closed Facebook groups for participants.
Social Media as a creative flux for interactive engagement:
All of the major Nocturne AIR Projects are connected to the broader community by a Facebook page. It enables an online space for sharing and presenting the project work. In the more recent projects, where there was an issue of distance for the regional community members to participate in the project, we managed two FB pages: one for those closely involved in the creative development of the Nocturne Project and another for the gathering and sharing stories through the broader community.
Using the methodology of the three tiers of engagement we believe we explore arts and cultural development using creativity that positively impacts on community vitality and well-being.
Western Downs Regional Council’s Community Development Officer Carollee Murphy stated the following about our Nocturne Miles Project:
Thank you for empowering our community with practical photography and book-making skills. Nocturne Miles installed a greater sense of shared space and community pride. The multi-modal outcomes of this project have been far-reaching, especially through social media and have painted Miles and district in a new light.
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A LINK TO OUR NOCTURNE PROJECTS CAN BE FOUND HERE
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ORPHEUS PHOTO WORKSHOP WRAP-UP
An Orpheus sunset
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We came to Orpheus to share our knowledge, skills and experience of photography and the book. We were ready to assist and encourage – motivate and create with the participants… We had plotted and planned for months – but nothing could have prepared us for the Orpheus experience we were to have!
We were amazed with the boundless energy and enthusiasm for all things photography. In particular:
• Everyone’s participation in the lecture presentations
• The amazing camera obscura that John de Rooy & Spyder Displays had made
• The fun everyone had with pinhole imaging, lumen printing and other ‘photo play’ projects
• The playful and the deeply considered work made by everyone
• The individual creative development towards making books
• The joy that everyone expressed from making and crafting fine images and books
With Les in the lecture room
Our Spyder Camera Obscura
A DUO View of the scene and the Camera Obscura image
We appreciated the special access to the incredible equipment from Kayell, Hasselblad, Nikon, Epson and ProPhoto.
The support workers and organisers were photo experts, construction workers and logistical whizzes while always with a smile and good humour. So much happens behind the scenes of the great Orpheus Drama. But there was another endless creative space – the kitchen. And it was those that worked from dawn to well after we all had dined that we owe our sustained creative energy, fed our bodies and delighted our taste buds.
The lecture team – D+V and Les
All this made the working environment possible as we, with the amazing Les Walkling, worked together to share our knowledge, passion and inspiration for photography. It was inspiring for us working with Les – his dedication to sharing his great knowledge and experience. He is truly unique in Australian photography. Thank you also for your words about our contribution to the Orpheus Photo Workshop …
… I loved every minute of the ‘Doug & Vicky Roadshow’, and I even ‘re-named’ the main lecture theatre the ‘Doug and Vicky Studio’. What memorable times were had in and around that space. Every aspect of Doug and Vicky’s presentations were informative and entertaining, and I don’t think I have ever loved photo books so much, nor ‘played’ so joyfully with my photography. What a difference it makes working with skilled presenters who are at the top of their field and not afraid to share their love and devotion to what we all adore; our photography. I can’t thank them enough for their contribution to Orpheus 2016, their generosity and tireless expansiveness, and the difference they have made to our photographic lives.
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The Doug and Vicky studio
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WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN ALBUM OF PHOTOS FROM THE WORKSHOP
Light painted ‘Orpheus’ on Orpheus Island
A ‘millpond crossing’ they said…!
But it did smooth out – heading towards Orpheus Island
The arrival — unloading the boat
A Photoshop power session with Les
The Doug and Vicky ‘White Gloves Event’ showing a range of our artists’ books and photobooks
The order of the day
A photobook narrative development exercise
The D+V Roadshow….
An early evening conversation
‘I made a photobook!!!’ Sarah shows her bookwork
An exhibition of student work at the end of the workshop
Orpheus Group Shot 2016
Saying goodbye to the participants…
The ‘staff’ take a break in a pinhole time-lapse movie made by Ross Eason…
Les takes a last look as we leave the island behind…
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Special thank you to:
John and Pam de Rooy our hosts and organisers – the rocks that underpin Orpheus
Tutors Murray, Ross and Rod for their ever-present support
Brenda, Dave and Nikolaj – an amazing Chef team
Marta and Jimmy from the JCU Research Facility – where would we be without their support?
Libby and Geoff from MomentoPro for their enthusiasm and collaboration in the book projects
Epson, Kayell and Canson for the fabulous papers and printers
William from Hasselblad and John from Kayell for the exceptional access to the gear
Nikon and the wonderful range of quality professional camera equipment.
AND… A very special thank you to all the photographers, now new friends, with whom we shared the experience of Orpheus 2016 …
Cheers
Doug+Vicky
Cyanotype in rice paper, Broadsheet artists book
We are now getting ready for our next island workshop: on the Greek island of SKOPELOS
May 2017 for 2 weeks of art photography about ‘place’ making cyanotypes and photobooks + Greek culture, wine and food. SEE HERE FOR MORE INFO
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COVERING: The 2016 Libris Artists’ Book Award
Artspace Mackay
A COMMENT ON THE 2016 LIBRIS ARTISTS’ BOOK AWARDS
In his announcement speech for the 2016 Libris Awards at Artspace Mackay judge Sasha Grishin makes the observation that: ‘The contemporary artists book is characterised by boundless freedom’, and adds that: ‘… it has absorbed many conceptual frameworks, many art mediums and technologies and goes across the spectrum of the senses.’
Visitors to Artspace and the Libris Awards encounter an open space with islands of book presentation devices. Plinths of all sizes – some encased, others at floor level, there are shelves on walls, books as mobile installations hung from the ceiling and other books with ‘pages’ covering large expanses of wall. This is not an easy walk-through exhibition as each work beckons, siren-like, calling for the extended gaze of the reader.
The Artspace Libris exhibition
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On this occasion the winners were:
- Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal National Artists Book Award $10,000 Acquisitive Award went to George Matoulas and Angela Cavalieri, with the text by Antoni Jach, for Europa to Oceania.*
George Matoulas & Angela Cavalieri, with the text by Antoni Jach, Europa to Oceania
Grishin’s comments about the work were:
After much soulsearching I decided to allot the winning entry for the major prize to a collaborative and fabulous artists book by two Melbourne‐based artists, George Matoulas and Angela Cavalieri, with the text by the novelist and playwright Antoni Jach, titled Europa to Oceania. The three linocuts are by Angela, the three collographs are by George and there are another two collaborative foldout prints. The two artists, one of Greek extraction, the other from Calabria in Italy, with wit, profundity and beauty explore the migrant experience at a time when the Australian social fabric is under stress with the question of refugees and migration.
Highly commended in this award were:
Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison’s Closer to Natural
Monica Oppen’s Metropolis
Tim Moseley’s Kange pholu wandaPeter Lyssiotis’ Blind Spot
- Mackay Regional Council Regional Artists Book Award for a local artist went to May‐Britt Mosshamer for Tapping the knowledge.*
May‐Britt Mosshamer Tapping the knowledge.*
Grishin’s comments about the work were:
As much as one fought the temptation, the $2,500 award had to go to the local artist, May‐Britt Mosshamer and her effective piece Tapping the knowledge. In art you can say very important things with a bit of humour in your back pocket. This work is all about the flood of information and the drought in knowledge.
The highly commended, or runner‐up entries in this category were:
Denise Vanderlugt’s I used to wrap rainbows
Jo Mitchell’s For Mary
- Artspace Mackay Foundation Youth and Student Artists Book Award (under 26years), went to Brooke Ferguson and her The Small Garden (for M.S.).*
Brooke Ferguson The Small Garden (for M.S.).
Judge Grishin’s comment on the work:
This is an award that is about taking risks, a punt and choosing the unexpected, the promising and the challenging. It is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity for an emerging artist to gain national recognition plus a handy fistful of dollars. I selected the work by the 25‐year‐old Brisbane‐based artist, Brooke Ferguson and her The Small Garden (for M.S.) The MS stands for the wonderful veteran artist, Madonna Staunton, where young Brooke Ferguson was inspired by a poem by Staunton and with gouache, pen and ink and pencil has created a fragile concertina – a beautiful sensibility from a promising young artist.
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In my opinion some books call for special mention. Caren Florance’s Pleasure demolition is transfixing. The suspended brown paper sheets with a hand printed letterpress phrases from poetry by Angela Gardner are animated by the flow of air and movement in the space. Forever moving, the oscillation of the pages becomes a machine for the generation of concrete poetry… phrases twirl and merge, poetic moments where new meaningful/less messages materialise.
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Jamian Stayt’s Soulless evolution
The individual pages of Jamian Stayt’s Soulless evolution are pinned to the wall making what may seem like a vast wallpaper pattern. However, Stayt’s work invites a closer reading of the cipher hidden within the layers of the image. He presents some big questions where contemporary notions of tradition are challenged and rapidly changing technology has intertwined agency in the evolutionary pathway for humanity.
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Julie Barratt Blair Athol recut
Julie Barratt’s Blair Athol recut refers to Solastalgia: a theory on the contemporary human condition for a deep loss of place. In one part of the installation there is a book of dark photolithographs where maps are encroached upon by black inks. For the reader this growing blackness evokes a gloomy absence. Facing the dark pages in the clamshell container are vials of coloured soils, plant fragments and found objects. Although collected from this disturbed place, these samples are vibrant and alive – perhaps they are the vestiges of childhood memories that recall a different time before the destruction of the physical place by coal mining.
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Ana Paula Estrada Memorandum
Many books feature photographs as the primary carrier of the narrative. Ana Paula Estrada’s Memorandum employs the medium to document elderly people and their connection with life through personal photographs and how their memories are re-lived through viewing these photos. The book, conceived and made through the Siganto Foundation Creative Fellowship in the Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland, is a complex assemblage of contemporary portraits, photo-glimpses from family albums and a narrative conveyed through the turning of pages.
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Exhibition view
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As usual the artists’ book as exhibition defies direct touch and the turning of pages for narratives to be revealed and for the book to speak of what it has allowed the artist to create. But for the 72 books in the exhibition to be read the visitor would need to stay for the duration of the exhibition, working through the night with white gloves and torchlight. The exhibition reconnects and continues the significant contribution of the Artspace Mackay’s Libris Award to inspire artists and create a space discourse on the book in all its forms. In doing so the assembled exhibition represents cutting edge survey of Australian artists’ book practice.
Some works will become part of the Artspace Mackay collection; others will be re-packaged and returned to their makers. While the exhibition is dispersed its spirit will continue in the form of the gallery’s excellent illustrated catalogue, the text of Grishin’s speech, reviews, videos and other commentaries such as this, as well as the memories of the readers who viewed the show.
In two years time – the next iteration of this important event in the Australian artists’ book calendar will take place again. Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole collection could be purchased and held in perpetuity as a record of the discipline? Until then …
Dr Doug Spowart
16 October 2016
DOWNLOAD THE CATALOGUE: 2016-librisawards_illustratedlistofworks
Click to access 2016LibrisAwards_IllustratedListofWorks.pdf
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A VIDEO FLY-THRU OF THE EXHIBITION
OTHER BOOKS FROM THE EXHIBITION
Denise Vanderlugt with her highly commended bookwork I used to wrap rainbows
Peter LYSSIOTIS Blind spot
Martha BOWMAN You could have sent an email or a text
Jamian Stayt’s Soulless evolution (Detail)
Bernard APPASSAMY Constellation of endearment (Detail)
Deanna HITTI Assimilated museum
Gracia HABY and Louise JENNISON Closer to natural
Caren Florance’s Pleasure demolition
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All photographs and videos ©2015 Doug Spowart. Main text (except Judge Sasha Grishin’s words) ©2016 Doug Spowart With thanks to Victoria Cooper for her suggestions and edits.
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ADVANCE NOTICE: SKOPELOS-A Greek Island Workshop
Wooli Beach Junk a cyanotype by Doug Spowart
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IMAGINE COMBINING ARTMAKING – PHOTOGRAPHY + BOOKS, eating Greek food and drinking wine, watching the blue of the Aegean Sea, experiencing Greek lifestyle and the mythical landscape?
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In May 2017 we will be presenting a 12 day workshop on the Greek island of Skopelos with Australian artist and printmaker Steph Bolt.
Vicky and Doug
We plan to work with participants to capture the experience of ‘being there’ and to tell stories about the place in books and photographs.
The workshop topics will include:
- The cyanotype process to produce prints on paper and cloth to reference the Aegean blue
- Working with found objects and inkjet negatives from photos made on excursions
- Making bespoke photobooks that you will handcraft during the workshop
- Aspects of documentary ‘placemaking’
- Using online photobook making services to design books
- A sharing of our techniques to optimise and enhance digital photographs.
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A detailed website has been prepared by Steph Bolt and SKOPELOS WORKS ON PAPER
http://www.skopelosworksonpaper.com/spowartcooper-workshop.html
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Supernova a cyanotype book by Victoria Cooper
FESTIVAL OF THE DARKROOM WORKSHOPS: MAUD D/Art – November
Pinhole image: Victoria Cooper – Byron lighthouse pinhole
.PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY
(This workshop has been completed)
Session 1 of 2 (November 1, Tues – Melbourne Cup day) 6.00-830pm
Session 2 of 2 (November 6, Sun) 9.30am – 4.00pm
KEY THINGS YOU WILL DO IN THIS WORKSHOP:
- Make a pinhole camera
- Make a pinhole
- Take, process and print black and white film and paper pinhole photographs
- Introductory B&W darkroom
- Experience the aesthetic of retro-photography, photo history & hands-on image making
NOTE: THE PROGRAM HAS 2 SESSIONS
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Irena processes film…
FILM PROCESSING WORKSHOP
(This workshop has been completed)
(November 2, Wed) 5.30-830pm
This session will provide you with an opportunity to experience the dark art of B&W FILM PROCESSING. Importantly this session is intended as a ‘see how it’s done’ as well as a ‘do it yourself’ activity. You will be invited to bring along a 35mm-24 exposure or 120 black and white film that will be processed by you as part of the workshop.
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The Maud D/Art Darkroom space
INTRO B+W PRINTING WORKSHOP
(November 9, Wed) 5.30-830pm
(This workshop has been completed)
In this session you will encounter and experience the Dark Art of PRINTING B&W NEGATIVES. The topics will cover all of the key information required to setup and work in a darkroom making your own prints. If you processed negatives in series 1 you will have a contact sheet made.
This session is a ‘show and tell’ of the following topics. Handouts and URL links to useful sites are included in the session notes provided.
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Making prints in the darkroom
PRINTING SUPERVISED WORKSHOP
(November 12, Sat) 1.00-6.00pm
(This workshop has been completed)
A supervised printmaking session using your negatives. After being introduced to an enlarger for the session you will make test prints, select the appropriate contrast grade and use basic print enhancement techniques to produce your own prints.
- You will work with a specialist darkroom practitioner to direct and support the printing session enabling you to make the most of this special opportunity.
- This session will include a critique of the work created.
- After completion of this series participants will be able to hire the Maud Gallery darkroom either as an individual or with mentored support.
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CYANOTYPE WORKSHOP
(November 20, Sun) 9.30am – 4.00pm
(This workshop has been completed)
The Cyanotype Workshop will provide for participants an introduction to the creative potential of the process.
Topics will include:
- Sourcing and mixing your own chemicals
- Selecting suitable subjects to image
- Selecting the best materials to print on
- Handcoating paper and cloth
- Sunlight exposures as well as using UVexposure units
- Processinng and drying
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FINE ART PRINTING WORKSHOP
(This workshop has been postponed to 2017)
In the FINE ART Print workshop you will learn from the experience of working alongside Doug Spowart & Victoria Cooper hand-making a Fine Art print.
- In this fine art printing session we will work with one of your negatives so you can learn how to select the best image to work with, print and finish a photograph to the highest FINE ART standard.
- Working in a small group of 2-3 participants, advanced darkroom techniques, equipment and processes as well as creative printing controls will be demonstrated and performed.
- At the end of this workshop you will have a finished FINE ART print ready for framing.
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Photobook workshops planned for November 14+15
PHOTOBOOK CONCEPT, DESIGN & PHOTOSHOP
(These workshops have been completed)
‘You are here…” a photobook by Cooper+Spowart
HANDMAKING PHOTOBOOKS
A COMMENT ON JUDGING PHOTOBOOKS
In a photobook judging…
The photobook: And the winner is…
Any field of human endeavor seems to have connected with it a need for measurement, for qualification and quantification – a need to find the best, the fastest, tallest, smartest, dumbest, prettiest and ugliest. The photobook is no exception. Every year when the call goes out for entries to be submitted, or when the winners of numerous awards are announced the worldwide photobook community responds.
To attract those who make, or share an interest in, the photobook there are many incentives to participate in awards including:
- Winning an award leads to sales for the book
- Winning awards enhances reputations and future opportunities for the maker/s
- Winning awards can provide opportunities to publish through prize money and/or ‘in-kind’ services
- Entering awards provide an opportunity to present your ideas, your stories and your creation process to other participants of the discipline
- By entering an award your concepts and narrative expression can reach extended audiences.
Additionally those who coordinate awards also receive compensation. Companies promote their products and services through organising and/or sponsoring awards. Organisations like art museums, professional associations, and significant commentators of the discipline all stand to gain prominence through the awards that they support. An interesting cross-section of photobook awards could include: The Kassel Photobook Dummy Awards, InFocus Photobook Exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum, Photobook Bristol Festival, New Zealand Photobook of the Year Award, and The Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. The income from entry fees can also go towards offsetting the costs of prize monies and running the award.
Any award would not take place without a judging, but how are judges selected? What are the attributes of a good judge? Generally judges come from the various, and sometimes disparate, groups within the discipline for example: a photographer, a publisher, a book designer, a printer or a critic. As each judge brings to the judging his or her ideas and opinions regarding what makes a great photobook, the assessment session can be an interesting space to witness.
There is one common discussion point for any photobook judging – What is a photobook? The diversity of the discipline defies a standard definition and may include: newspaper styled items, funky zines, and the bespoke hand-made ‘artists book’, self-published books using digital POD technologies, trade published books and designer confections. Photobooks can contain photographs only, they can be books with photographs and accompanying texts, prose, poetry, captions and they also can be complex and sophisticated design experiences – book as object. In a photobook competition all these can compete for the overall award title. It’s like all the Olympic pool-based events being run simultaneously in the one pool, from high diving to the 100 metre dash –– Chaos…!
Getting a result requires consensus that can only be achieved through a process of review, discussion and the sharing of opinions and insights. Perhaps the assessment task would be simpler if there was a solitary judge.
Another concern is the number of books could a judge be reasonably expected to fully engage with before being overcome by the inability to fairly and consistently consider each entry. Other questions arise: Do strong and articulate judges sway the panel decision? Does every book say the same thing to every reader? And how does bias for or against certain book styles, photographers, and publishers or photographic content affect the judging outcome?
In the world of photobooks one thing is for certain – awards and competitions are not going to go away anytime soon. Social scientist Pierre Bourdieu in his book ‘Photography: a middle brow art’ commented that:
It is no accident that passionate photographers are always obliged to develop the aesthetic theory of their practice, to justify their existence as photographers by justifying the existence of photography as a true art. 1
Perhaps all those who, through organizing, entering and judging awards ultimately help to create dialogue, definition and an aesthetic that justifies the photobook’s existence as a ‘true art’.
Dr Doug Spowart August 25, 2016
- Bourdieu, Pierre. Photography: A Middle-Brow Art. Translated by Shaun Whiteside. Stanford, USA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Text+Image ©2016 Doug Spowart
COOPER+SPOWART – JOURNEY NORTH
Travelling along highways north….
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We are travelling up to north Queensland at the end of September for a month of artists’ book and photography projects, workshops and lectures.
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The artists in tropical garb with palm trees…
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Our Journey …
Capricornia Printmakers logo
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September 27 ROCKHAMPTON: CAPRICORNIA PRINTMAKERS
We will present an evening talk about our artists books/photobooks and the Siganto Foundation Research Fellowships work we have been doing in the Australian Library of Art at the State Library of Queensland.
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September 29 MACKAY: ARTSPACE MACKAY as part of the LIBRIS AWARDS PROGRAM
Here are the details…
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October 2-8 ORPHEUS ISLAND
Here are the details…
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October 16-22 WINTON: NOCTURNE WINTON – To be confirmed
See our other Nocturne Projects … HERE
A few images like those we could be making at Winton follow…
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Walker’s Hotel, Grafton
Trucks through town…
A group of Nocturne photographers
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Nocturne Winton FB Logo
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CONTACT US FOR DETAILS OF ANY OF OUR JOURNEYS NORTH ACTIVITIES
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