FotoFreo 2008 Seminar

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Venue: UNDA Medical School theatrette
Dates: Saturday the 12th of April and Sunday the 13th of April
Time: 1pm – 5pm with a 20 minute afternoon tea & coffee break.
Cost: $100 + GST for two half days; $60 + GST for each half day

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DAY 1

“Picture Editing – Future Challenges”

• Particular challenges of being a picture editor and the role of ‘pictures’ in modern day magazines and newspapers.
  

Looking at the competing issues of changing styles of newspaper and magazine formats, the need for revenue, changing roles of editors and photographers, etc

• The new technologies being introduced to image capture for newspapers and magazines.

What are these technologies, what are the implications for the photo editors and the photographers and where is the technology taking the newspaper and magazine business? Where do ‘bloggers’ fit in?

• Iconic and other remarkable images

Images encountered by the speaker that have outstanding merit. These would be shown as projections and the speaker would give an explanation about why the images are considered so good and in so doing provide some insight into the ‘eye’ of the picture editor.

FACILITATOR/CHAIR FOR THIS SESSION

Robert Pledge (USA) Director of Contact Press Images

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE

Lisa Botas (Singapore) former picture editor for TIME Asia
Wen Huang (China) senior photo marketing analyst Xinhua News Agency
Shaune Lakin (Canb) curator and author
Michael Bowers (Syd) Managing Editor Photographic, Herald Publications
Jennie Ricketts (Ireland) Former picture Editor of the Observer magazine

FORMAT

The format for this section of the seminar will consist of a series of presentations of not more than 30 minutes and each followed by a short ‘questions and answer’. Each speaker will be asked to address all of the topics in the outline below but in reality some speakers will have their own priorities and speak more about those. The presentations will all be supported by projections.

SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHIES

Wen Huang was born in Beijing and studied photojournalism at Renmin University of China in Beijing. Subsequently, in 1989 she joined China's national Xinhua News Agency as picture editor and in the late 1990s she was based in Germany by the agency. In 2000 Wen Huang published Target, a book about the war in Kosovo.
Wen Huang has also hosted a TV program on photography for China Central TV Station and during which time she received her PhD degree in communication studies.
In 2002-2003 she was based at Stanford University as a Knight Fellow.
Wen was a jury member of the 49th (2006) and 50th (2007) World Press Photo Contest. Recently, she was appointed to be an advisor of the National Geographic Society’s All Roads Photo Project and in 2007 a member of the Executive Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of Alexia Foundation in the US. She has also worked as a jury member at the 65th Pictures of the Year International (POYi), an historical photojournalism contest to be held at the Missouri School of Journalism in February 2008. Wen Huang has been a curator of Pingyao International Photo Festival since 2004 and Deputy Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of China International Press Photo Contest (CHIPP) since 2005.
Currently, Wen Huang is employed as senior photo marketing analyst of the News & Information Center at the Xinhua News Agency.

Shaune Lakin is Senior Curator of Photographs at the Australian War Memorial. He is a graduate of the Department of Fine Arts, Classical Studies, and Archaeology at the University of Melbourne, where he completed his doctorate in art history in 2001. He has taught art history and theory at the University of Melbourne, and was Curator of International Painting and Sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia before joining the Memorial in 2005. His book Contact: photographs from the Australian War Memorial collection, a history of Australian war photography and of the Memorial’s vast photographic collection, was published in 2006. His exhibition Icon and Archive: photographs and World Wars, opening in Canberra 6 June 2008 before travelling to various venues interstate, will present an account of the photograph in Australia during wartime.

Jennie Ricketts started work with photography as an art buyer in 1986. In 1987 she was invited to work at the ‘picture desk’ for the Observer magazine and for over 17 years was engaged in a range of photography-related activities including commissioning and editing all forms of photography. From 1996 – 2004 she was the Picture Editor of the Observer magazine, after which Jennie went on to establish Jennie Ricketts Photographers online gallery in March 2006, exhibiting and selling fine art photographic prints, while writing and lecturing. Jennie relocated to the Republic of Ireland in September 2007 and, amongst her many gallery and writing assignments is currently investigating starting a photography festival in the Irish Republic.

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DAY 2

‘Photojournalism in the 21st Century’ or ‘Photojournalism Today’

• What are the differences in the way photojournalists do their work today compared to the way they worked in the latter part of the last century?

Look at the changes that have taken place to the way photojournalists undertake their work today and, where possible, examine the causes of these changes. What are the changes as a result of new and emerging technologies and what are the changes due to changing commercial and social environments?

• Will there be a role for the photojournalist in the future and if so what will be the nature of that role?
• What makes a great piece of photojournalism, or an iconic image and is it ‘ART’?

FACILITATOR/CHAIR FOR THIS SESSION

To be decided

SPEAKERS TO INCLUDE

Robert Pledge (USA) Director of Contact Press Images
Jack Picone (Thailand) free lance photographer
Jodi Bieber (S Africa) free lance photographer
David Dare Parker (Perth) free lance photographer
And more

FORMAT

The format for this section of the seminar will involve a panel of all the speakers sitting on the stage or at the front of the audience together with a seminar facilitator or chairperson who would ‘set up’ the presentations and then drive the subsequent discussion. Again each speaker will make a 15 – 20 minute presentation of their views on the issues outlined above, supported by projections, and followed by a discussion involving, firstly, all of the panel and then the audience.
Ideally, the speakers from Day 1 would also be present as a ‘second tire’ panel to offer additional comment and insights to the debate/discussion.

SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHIES

Jodi Bieber started her career after completing three short photographic courses at the The Market Theatre Photography Workshop in Johannesburg and after which she was selected to participate on a photographic training programme at the Star newspaper by the late Ken Oosterbroek in September 1993. She continued to work there as a photographer leading up to and during South Africa’s first democratic elections. In 1996 she was chosen to participate in the World Press Master class held in Holland and started working on assignments for publications like NY Times Magazine, Geo and Stern magazine. She now also works for non- profit organizations like MSF and Amnesty International on special projects for booklets and exhibitions.
Over a ten-year period (1994 – 2004) Jodi Bieber has worked on her own projects focusing on the country of her birth, South Africa – portraying youth living on the fringes of South African society. This work was finally published in the book, “Between Dogs and Wolves – Growing up with South Africa” which was released in five countries in 2006.

Stephen Dupont is an international award winning Australian photojournalist and film maker and a member of Contact Press Images. He works on long term projects around war, conflict and social issues.
His reportage has been featured in The New Yorker, Newsweek, French and German GEO, Liberation, The Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and Time, and has earned him photography’s most prestigious prizes, including a Robert Capa Gold Medal citation from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2006, and first places in the World Press Photo and Pictures of the Year International. In 2006 he received Walkley Awards in TV Current Affairs, International Journalism and Photography, all for work from Afghanistan.
In 2007 he was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Prize for Humanistic Photography, the world’s most distinguished documentary photography award. This was for his work on Afghanistan. Having exhibited his work in London, Paris, New York, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, and at Perpignan’s Visa Pour L’Image Festival, in 1999 Dupont was a founding member of the first festival of photojournalism in Australia:  Reportage - A Celebration of Australian Photojournalism. He is currently on assignment back in Afghanistan working on a feature length documentary film and his 15 year book project. He is represented by Byron McMahon Gallery in Australia and Contact Press Images in New York.

A Walkley Award winning photographer, David Dare Parker has photographed for many national and international magazines throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australasia. Publications include LeMonde, Stern, L'Express, Focus, Australian Geographic, The Bulletin, Time Australia and The New York Times. He is represented by OnAsia Images (Asia) and °SOUTH (Australia).
Recent projects include coverage of East Timor’s struggle to gain independence and Indonesia’s first steps towards democracy. In January 2002 he was asked to co-ordinate a safety awareness course for Afghan Journalists in Peshawar, Pakistan for the International Federation of Journalists. During April and May of 2003 he was the Official War Photographer for the Australian War Memorial during Operation Falconer in the Middle East, the first time an Official Photographer had been assigned by the AWM since the Korean War.
In 2004 he was appointed journalist in residence at Murdoch University. He has also worked extensively in film, television and the performing arts. He is currently a Director of FotoFreo, the City of Fremantle Festival of Photography, and has been responsible for the selection, editing, formatting and presentation of the audiovisual projections during three festivals including 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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