FotoFreo 2010 Projections
FOTOFREO PROJECTIONS 1
Andy Drewitt
Diamond Creek Donkey Shelter
A rugged bush block on the fringe of north-east Melbourne is the sanctuary for a motley herd of donkeys who for most of their lives have toughed it out as victims of neglect, ill health and even torture. Many donkeys, sensitive by nature, arrive at the shelter depressed and it can take months, sometimes years, for the shelter’s band of volunteers to nurse their long-eared charges back to physical and mental health.
Music: Blackbird: Sarah McLachlan: I Am Sam
Juan Manuel Castro Prieto / Agence VU
Etiopia (2009)
Comparison between a mythic image of Ethiopia and an abrupt but fascinating and bewitching reality.
Music: Bushes: Baaba Maal: 1 Giant Leap
Biography:
Spanish, Born in 1958 in Madrid. Lives in Madrid.
A scientist by training and a lover of photography, he has managed to combine his passions and become one of the most aware, demanding and subtle European photographers.
In Cuzco he created, from original glass plates, shots by Martin Chambi which gave us the chance of discovering this hugely important portraitist from the thirties. He then developed a passion for Peru. Ten years later, he crossed the country on a “journey to the sun”, during which he portrayed with finesse his tenderness for the people, the beauty of the landscape, his curiosity for an often unspoilt culture, and the poverty which accompanies this condition.
He then grouped together the strange “images he developed twenty years ago, of bare landscapes and nature morte, an exploration of the limits of the photograph which involved, with an in depth knowledge of light, the tension between fiction and representation.
He has also worked with colour, recently, using highly personal tonality which, from Ethiopia and India, has allowed him to create visions which are both mental and based on a troubling realism, a form of travel, between dream and reality, based on the delicacy of impossible shades.
Contact in Australia :Isabelle Rouvillois Australian agent, Sydney. Mob : 04 05 51 39 30 i.rouvillois@free.fr
Lung Liu
Haiti Aftermath
When I first came to Haiti, the tent cities and camps that sprung up to provide shelter for those displaced by the earthquake held an interest for me as I had spent several months in a refugee camp as a child. What I witnessed reminded me of all the things that I went through - in this, I suppose, all refugees are alike. Two weeks have passed and the journalists, save for a handful, have left. Interest seems to have waned despite the development of ever increasing problems. Everyone I talked to was in desperate need of most or all of these four things: food, potable water, shelter, and medication. They stood angry and upset, waiting for aid that never came while being portrayed as criminals and looters when scavenging for food and supplies that they need to survive. How easy it must be for us to judge when we are not dying ourselves from a lack of the basic necessities of life, In the words of Anatole France, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." Problems arise from more than just the earthquake itself - issues that predate the quake were not wiped away, but rather exacerbated. All the social troubles before the quake from crushing poverty to lack of infrastructure that made life difficult for the average Haitian were only compounded. Health and sanitation are now starting to become a major concern. Infections are increasing as well as disease. Wounds inflicted during the quake are not healing properly as it is nearly impossible to keep them clean and immune systems are compromised due to stress and lack of proper nutrition. Each day, more and more people show up at hospitals, clinics, and volunteer medical sites. Despite all this, there remains hope. They find hope in the surviving members of their families, in each other, and in their religion. They will live on and they will rebuild.
Music: Philip Glass - For Your Own Benefit
www.lungliu.com/
Laurent Weyl / Collectif ARGOS
KOKARAL: Life restakes its claim The Aral Sea
Barely 50 centimetres of ice, just enough to carry the camel which pulls the sled and to support the hopes of bringing it back brimming with fish. When the ice is too thin, the men pull the sled themselves - this carcass of wood and fish fillets - or attach it to a motorcycle. They've stopped counting the number of times they've fallen into the icy water beneath. Today it's -18°C. This winter is not cold enough for the fishermen. Jakslik Kinjinbaev knows it, although it always seems strange. Why would one hope for a colder winter? He breaks into a gold-toothed, complicit smile: "When it's mild the salt prevents the mud from hardening. The ideal temperature is between -25°C and -40°C. Even the shore is compact and the ice is thicker than a metre deep. The camels can get across without a problem and there are more fish." The fish, a type of turbot, approach the coast in winter, seeking warmer water. The cold is an ally. So Jakslik smells the air, looks at his dog digging itself a snowy coffin and concludes: "Tomorrow it will be cold." Jakslik Kinjinbaev is the son and grandson of fisherfolk. He is one of the rare few who didn't leave the village of Tastobek after the collapse of the USSR, when the last few to cling to the hope of a revival of the Aral Sea slowly deserted its shores. Jakslik only left his village for two years, to serve in the Soviet army. There he learnt some basic Russian, three guitar chords and a string of sad songs which he uses to hum his second son, aged 8 months, to sleep. His voice may distort the words, but not their meaning. For Jakslik, the Aral Sea is far from dead. It is his daily reality, his larder and his principle source of income, along with his herd of camels. He fishes and lives off his fishing. Jakslik is one of the 600 fisherpeople grouped together as cooperatives who accepted in 1996 to be "taught fishing" by a Danish NGO, the Society for the Living Sea. "Noone fished or ate this flat fish. It was even a little frightening with its black back, white belly, and eyes both on the same side", he says, while cleaning dried seaweed out of a net from the pevious season. He has 15 nets, of which several have been produced in China and are illegal because "their holes are too small. But it must be understood: if we don't fish, we don't live". Squatting on the ice, he shouts instructions to his colleagues Kadirbai Ibragiev, a childhood friend, and Ertaz Akhkoshkarov; now in Russian "Davai!" ("Go for it!"), now in Kazakh "Tokhataïteu!" ("Wait"). The camel, attached to the sled by the nose, watches the men's labours with indifference and chews branches gathered on the shore, or a fish stolen from its master.
Music: Mantra - Organics: Dead Can Dance: Baraka
Biography:
Born in Strasbourg, he has lived in Paris since 1985. He has been a member of the Argos collective of photographers and writers since its foundation in 2001. The human struggle for survival has been the theme of his in depth investigations of subjects such as urban poverty in the emerging mega cities and the refugees of climate change to more ethnological work such as the life of the ice fisherman on the Aral sea. His work has been shown regularly at international photo festivals in France such as Arles, Vannes and Visa Pour L’Image at Perpignan. He has also been published in French and international press (Geo France, Geo Germany, Flair Italy, Figaro Magazine, Marie Claire, El Pais...) Since 2008 he has been represented by the galleries Jour et Nuit and Chambre avec Vu, in Paris.
Contact in Australia :Isabelle Rouvillois Australian agent, Sydney. Mob : 04 05 51 39 30 i.rouvillois@free.fr
Tom Williams
Neighbourhood: The Redfern-Waterloo public housing estate
Redfern - Waterloo is situated three kilometres from Sydney's CBD. Its large public housing estate is home to around 9,000 people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Incomes are typically very low, unemployment is high and drug use and family violence are ongoing problems. There is a large population of elderly people, many of whom have lived in the area since the first high-rise tenement blocks were built in the 1960s.
In 2004 The NSW State Government announced its intention to redevelop the entire area in partnership with private property developers. A large amount of debate has ensued about where current residents will live, especially considering the area's long history as a centre for Sydney's aboriginal community. Should more private housing be introduced into the area in an effort to 'improve services and help lift the community out of poverty'?
As housing becomes less affordable in Sydney and more families are becoming homeless during hard economic times, many people in this area feel uncertain about their future. At the same time, others are keen to escape the problems associated with this place and start life afresh somewhere else.
Music: Cat Power - Paths of Voctory - The Covers Record
Biography:
Tom Williams was born in 1971 and began working as a photojournalist while studying at the National Art School in 1997. His first interest was in documentary and street photography. His focus has always been on telling the human side of a story, often looking at people or communities that are not frequently considered in mainstream media.
Tom's photographic work has been featured in festivals and galleries in Australia, South East Asia and Latin America. These include the Reportage festival of photojournalism (2006 and 2008), Foto Freo, The Angkor photography festival in Cambodia, The CCP Documentary Photography Award (2007 and 2009) and Art & About (Sydney Life).
In 2009 He was awarded the 7th CCP Documentary Photography Award for this series.
Conor Ashleigh
Bricks of Bakhtapur
Music: Shehnai Song : Sheila Chandra: The Zen Kiss
Biography:
I tell stories. I believe in the power of images to challenge ones reality and hopefully evoke change. My work focuses on under reported environmental, political and social issues, I have spent time photographing in Egypt, Gaza, South Africa and Uganda while I am also engaged on long term projects in India, Nepal and Timor-Leste.
My photos have been published in New Internationalist, Sydney Morning Herald and the Newcastle Herald, while my international NGO clients includes The Asia Foundation, Catholic Mission and Oxfam.
In 2009 I had a solo exhibition based on my coverage of coffee production in Timor-Leste ‘The journey of coffee, from the tree to the cup’. My story ‘Futu Manu’ on the cock fights in Timor-Leste will be exhibited in Australia’s FotoFreo photography festival in 2010.
http://conorashleigh.com/
Maximishin / Cosmos
The Last Empire - Russia
The goal is ambitious: a collection of passionate, visual comments that bravely narrates the ineffable: Bits of everyday life in the former USSR, whose territory spreads over 11 time zones, Since the Gorbachev period, the West has tried to be reassured regarding the Eastern European giant, alternating sympathy and optimism with a variety of sudden attitude changes. The fact, however, remains: 20 years after Perestroika, for those who live on my side of the Iron Curtain, what happens in the former empire of the Communist Czars is still a mystery. A true artist, Sergey Maximishin relies on the language of his images – elegant, convincing, recognizable, and always clear. He does not want to soothe our anxieties, he does not want to give us answers. From Moscow to Kamchatka, from St. Petersbourg to Chechnya, Russia has a lot of enemies: poverty, diseases, greed, riches obtained unjustly and outrageously. He has no time to praise beloved heroes. The favorite protagonista of his wordless tales are often nameless. Specific times, specific places. Sergey catches the essence of each and every character. Masterfully, switching his narrative tones, mixing drama and irony, he does not resort to cynicism or useless flattery.
Biography:
I was born in 1964. Spent my childhood in Kerch,the Crimea. Moved to Leningrad in 1982. Served in the Soviet army as a photographer the Soviet Military Force Group on Cuba from 1985 to 1987. Graduated from Leningrad Politechnical Inctitute in 1991 with a B.A. in physics.Worked in the laboratory of scientific and technical expertise in the Hermitage Museum. Graduated from St-Petersburg Faculty of photojournalism in 1998. In 1999-2003 was a staff photographer for the "Izvestia" newspaper. Since 2003 I work with a German agency "Focus"
Curated by Françoise Callier Program Coordinator Angkor Photo Festival
Kosuke Okahara / Agence VU
Almost Paradise, illegal migrants in Latin America – 2008
“We are a Colombian, 2 Brazilians, 3 Salvadorians, and 3 Guatemalans, waiting for a small motor boat on the Guatemalan shore that is supposed to take us to Mexico, the country just next to the paradise we dream of. The trip takes 12 hours on a small motorboat in the complete darkness. If the boat sinks, there is no way to survive”.
This is only a part of the long journey for illegal migrants traveling from Colombia to the U.S. The way to paradise is full of danger -- conflict infested jungle, border coyotes, and in Mexico, the threat of gangsters, kidnap and murder.
Music: The Journey: Elliot Goldenthal: Frida
Biography:
Japanese. Born in 1980. Lives in Japan. Kosuke Okahara began his professional career at age 23, after his college graduation. Since the beginning of his career, he has devoted himself to the theme of "Ibasyo" which refers, in Japanese, to "the place where people can physically and emotionally exist" ; including refugee crisis in Darfur, the choices of the people who are involved in illegal activities at the bottom of the social ladder in Colombia, and young Japanese people who are struggling with self-mutilation. He has already produced a large number of stories in Asia, Africa, and South America.
His work has been widely published in Japan, and U.S, and exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Kiyosato Photo Art Museum, Nikon Gallery Tokyo, and Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand.
www.kosukeokahara.com/
Contact in Australia :Isabelle Rouvillois Australian agent, Sydney. Mob : 04 05 51 39 30 i.rouvillois@free.fr
Scott Thode USA
Venus Williams Story
I first met Venus Williams in the spring of 1987. I had just finished a two-year photo essay on Bailey House, one of the first residences for homeless people with
AIDS in New York City and wanted to start a new photo project on what it was like to be homeless and living on the streets with HIV. I had spent several weeks traveling the subways talking with homeless people trying to find a single individual to focus on. One day while I was going up to Manhattan’s Upper East Side to view the Whitney Biennial as I exited the subway on 77th Street and Lexington Avenue I saw her panhandling right outside the entrance. I walked around the block once, then twice to build up my courage to introduce myself. The third time as I walked by she said, “Well don’t say Hi”. I stopped, sat down and began a 9-year adventure. An adventure that took us from a methadone clinic to a shooting gallery, from a hospital bed to church steps, from the streets to a room of her own and from the subject of a story to a dear friend. I became a part of Venus’ family and she a part of mine.
Venus’ individuality, as conveyed in her often humorous, painful and insightful understanding of life seeped into your pores and carried you away. She was capable of making jokes about her own death one minute, and crying about the death of a close friend the next. She lived a life that spanned the socioeconomic worlds of the middle class neighborhood in Montclair, New Jersey where she grew up, to a shooting gallery in East Harlem. She worked in a library and danced in burlesque. She lived a diverse life that fascinated and repelled those who knew and loved her. It was her intensity, her fierce independence, and most importantly, her tremendous love and caring which grabbed you by the heart and refused to relinquish its grip. A grip she still has on all of us who knew and loved her.
I’m often asked whether I ever gave Venus money for drugs, the simple answer is yes. I also bought her food, clothing and other things she needed. I realize this creates a certain journalistic ambiguity but over time this essay evolved from a journalistic story to a very personal one. If you have a friend and they are in pain you do whatever needs to be done to help and that’s what I did.
Venus died on August 7, 1997. My photos are a tribute to our friendship.
Music: Perfect Day: Lou Reed
Biography:
Scott Thode is currently a freelance curator and photo editor. He was the Deputy Picture Editor at Fortune Magazine. In 2007, he was nominated for a Lucie Award as Photo Editor of the Year. As a photographer Scott was the recipient of numerous photography awards and his work has been exhibited at The Bienalle Internazionale di Fotografia in Turin, Italy, Visa Pour L'Image in Perpignon, France and The Colonnade Gallery in Washington, D.C. Scott teaches at The International Center for Photography and participates in many photo symposia, workshops and judges numerous Photography Awards. He is also on the Advisory Board of LOOK3 Photo Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia. In 2011 Scott will co-curate the festival with Kathy Ryan. Scott lives in New York City with Kathy and their daughter, Sylvie.
Curated by Françoise Callier Program Coordinator Angkor Photo Festival
David Hogsholt / Getty Images
The Haenyeo, The Sea Women
On the island of Jeju, south of the Korean peninsula, elderly women plunge into the cold sea, disappear for small eternities and return to the surface with octopus, sea urchin, seaweed and shellfish. They are the Haenyeo, the Sea Women.
The Haenyeo have been “fishing” these waters for hundreds of years and until a few decades ago 30,000 women would take to the sea almost daily. Now, the Haenyeo hardly number 5000 and more than two-thirds are over 60 years old, many are even in their 80s. But this is the last generation - soon they will be extinct.
Music: Any Other Name - Newman - Chilled Classics
Biography:
Danish photographer David Høgsholt came upon photography in 1997, when at five in the morning at a wedding a photographer friend of the groom suggested he give it a try. At the time, he had been procrastinating university studies for a few years in favour of spending hours biking through Copenhagen as a courier, racing sailboats and teaching kids to brave the elements as a sailing instructor. He went on to be an assistant at a collective in Copenhagen. In 2000 David enrolled in the art photography school Fatamorgana and a year later the Danish School of Journalism. He interned at Berlingske Tidende—a Danish daily, and later worked as a staff photographer at Ekstra Bladet before relocating to Bangkok and recently Shanghai to work on stories in the region. He devotes most of his time to social issues and human rights stories and is eight trips into a long term project about life in the military regime of Burma.
David was awarded the Ian Parry Award Scholarship in 2004 for Mia: Living Life Trying, his long-term project about a prostitute and drug addict in Copenhagen. The Mia story later won him awards at the World Press Photo two years in the row. Other awards include Picture of the Year International 2005 & 2006, NPPA/BOP 2004, 2006 and 2007 and PDN’s 30. David’s work has appeared in The New Yorker Magazine, Newsweek, Paris Match, Time Magazine, Colors, and Sunday Times Magazine and a range of other European and Scandinavian magazines and newspapers.
A.K. Kimoto
Tariyak : The Dark Secret
Opium Addiction in Badakhshan, Afghanistan
In the remote North-Eastern province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan, opium and heroin addiction are ravaging isolated mountain communities, and the staggering numbers are only getting worse. In some places, it is said that 70% of the population use drugs in some form, from hashish, to raw opium and refined heroin powder. It is not uncommon to find three generations of a family smoking together behind closed doors.
Traditionally, Opium was used as a cure-all, the magic medicine that could work wonders on anything from back pains to headaches to the nagging cough that every one has during the brutally cold winter months. The residents of Ishkashem, on the Tajikistan border say that it was never a problem before. Now, the situation is changing. In Ishkashem, it is said that at least 50% of the population are addicted to opiates. Isolated villages at higher elevations are said to have an unbelievable 70-80% addiction rate. Children are born into addiction every day, and thus, the cycle is perpetuated.
Music: Peter Gabriel - Wall of Breath - Passion
Biography:
A.K. Kimoto is a Japanese photographer currently based out of Bangkok. After a successful career in the I.T. sector, A.K. decided to pursue his passion for travel and photography by moving to South-East Asia. Shortly after his arrival in Indonesia, a strong earthquake and tsunami devastated the Sumatran coastline around Aceh and a few days later he accepted his first assignment to cover this tragic story. Over the following years, A.K. worked with various international NGOs to document the recovery efforts in Aceh, and on many social issues in the region.
His most recent work focuses on the lives of Afghans who try to lead a normal existence while conflict and violence threaten their survival.
Adam Ferguson/VII Mentor
Afghanistan, US Troops in Wardak
By most accounts, Wardak, a province on the doorstep of Kabul, has become a hot bed of the anti-coalition insurgency in Afghanistan. While U.S. Army efforts to stifle the insurgency have focused primarily on the southern and eastern provinces that border Pakistan, Wardak has been left to simmer. Between the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 and early 2009, there was a thinly spread ground force of no more than one company of U.S. troops – approximately one hundred and twenty soldiers to secure the entire province.
The Tangi Valley, an area in southern Wardak devoid of central government presence, had not seen a permanent coalition force until the arrival of the U.S. Army’s Apache Company on July 12, 2009. In the weeks before late August of 2009, this 102-man company had seen twenty-six soldiers injured and one killed in action, all from Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs.
Troop morale was low. Military intelligence in the Valley believed the insurgents to be local, with little outside influence. The locals knew the terrain and had learned to pick their fights. They knew they were outmatched in a gun fight with American forces, so their fight was waged with IEDs planted in the one road that winds the through the Valley, and in cornfields or on grassy trails. After seeing friends get injured and lose limbs, the soldiers of Apache Company had grown disillusioned with the war. Many of them had joined the army in the spirit of post 9/11 nationalism, but they had trouble seeing how the fight in the Tangi related to a larger war on terror. It has been almost eight years since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, and there is no resolution in sight.
Music: Song of Complaint: Antranik Askarian & Khatchadour Khatchaturian: Passion - Sources
Biography:
Adam Ferguson was born and grew up in New South Wales, Australia. He received a Bachelor of Photography from Australia's Griffith University in 2004, and in 2006 he interned with VII Photo Agency in Paris. From there he went on to work as Gary Knight's assistant. In 2007 Adam moved to New Delhi, India, where he is currently based, working as a freelance photographer covering South Asia. Adam’s work has explored the many tensions, both social and political, that undermine the images of an economically booming India. Recently, he has focused on the war in Afghanistan.
Adam's photographs have been published internationally by Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, Courrier International, The Financial Times Magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald, UNICEF and Human Rights Watch.
In 2009 he was selected as one of the Photo District News 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch.
Zalmai
Promises and Lies – Afghanistan
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Zalmaï left the country after the Soviet invasion in 1980. He traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he became a Swiss citizen. Following his passion for Photography, which he discovered very early in life, Zalmaï pursued combined studies at both the school of Photography of Lausanne and at the Professional Photography Training Center of Yverdon. In 1989, he began to work as a freelance photographer, traveling around the world from Indonesia to Egypt, from Cuba to the Central African Republic, and eventually returned to Afghanistan, where he continues documenting the ongoing war and plight of the Afghan people.
Music: Dead Can Dance
Biography:
Zalmaï has spent most of his life between Europe and Asia. His work has been published in several magazines and newspapers including the New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, Le Temps, Newsweek, and La Repubblica, while he has worked for a number of International Organizations and NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, International Committee of the Red Cross, UN Office On Drug and Crime, and the UN Refugee Agency. His work has been exhibited around the world at museums, galleries, universities and cultural centers and has earned him several international awards, the latest being the Visa D'Or at "Visa pour images" and a grant by Getty Images.
Curated by Françoise Callier Program Coordinator Angkor Photo Festival
Jason P. Howe
Colombia Civil War or Turf War?
Colombia has become synonymous with drug trafficking and violence. Left wing rebel groups that once had strong political ideals appear to have become little more than armed gangs fighting for territory. Their sworn enemies, the right-wing Paramilitaries, battle against them with at least the tacit approval if not full support of the government. Atrocities are committed against the civilian population by all sides. Each group seeks to take control of the land and its valuable resources whether it be oil, coca or more recently in some areas, African palms. The lives of young Government soldiers, rebels, paramilitary fighters and civilians are being wasted in a war that is not improving the lives of the poor as some claim, but is rather enriching those who control the assets of each group. The gap between rich and poor remains as vast as ever. Each year thousands are killed, thousands more kidnapped and approximately 3 million displaced by the conflict.
Biography: Jason P. Howe
Self-taught photographer Jason P. Howe was born in Ipswich, England in 1971. His passion for photography began at school and survived 10 years working in photographic retail. During these years he expanded his technical knowledge and made his first visits to Latin America. After a decade of travel in the region varying from a few weeks up to a year at a time, Jason has had opportunity to work in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. In late 2001 Jason had began concentrating on reportage and documentary assignments. In late 2002 he was invited to join World Picture News one of their original contract photographers. Between December 2003 & February 2005 Jason spent over 13 months in Iraq covering daily news and features for World Picture News clients. He documented the war in Lebanon in 2006 and has also made visits to Afghanistan, most recently in 2007 to cover combat operations against the Taliban in the volatile Helmand province. Other assignments and stories have taken him to the Middle and Far East as well as S.E Asia. Jason is currently spending 6 months of the year based in Kabul, Afghanistan and splitting the remaining time between Europe and SE Asia.
Rennie Ellis
AC/DC - Moorabbin Town Hall c.1974 and Atlanta, Georgia 1978
In the 1970s Australian music dominated the airwaves and television screens, and the Sunbury Pop Festival was Australia's answer to Woodstock. Ellis not only documented the high voltage energy of the musicians on stage, but also captured the exhilaration or exhaustion of fans, and the backstage escapades of roadies and groupies.
Music: High Voltage: AC/DC
Biography:
Rennie Ellis is an award winning photographer and writer with 17 books to his credit. His photographs have been widely exhibited in Australia and overseas and his work has been acquired by various collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Australian Centre for Photography, France's Bibliotheque National, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Australian Embassy in Beijing, the CUB Malthouse Collection, the ACMP Australian Photographers' Collection, the Port Phillip Contemporary Visual Arts Collection, the State Library of NSW, the Monash Gallery of Art and private collections in Australia, UK and USA.
Ellis had received grants from the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, won an Art Directors Club Award for Photojournalism and a United Nations Habitat Award for photography. He was the founder and director of Brummels Gallery of Photography, Australia's first photography gallery.
Rennie Ellis saw his photographic excursions as a series of encounters with other people's lives. His photos can be as straightforward and blatant as a head-butt or infused with enigmatic subtleties that draw on the nuance of gesture and the significance of ritual. Often his images ask more questions than they answer.
Over 30 years his quest for recording the idiosyncrasies of human behaviour has taken him to locations all over the world. He was as much at home photographing Carnival in Rio de Janiero with all its extroverted sexuality as he was recording the backstage preparations of the celebrated Kirov Ballet. At other times, in pursuit of the illusive photo, he had been lost in the souks of Marrakech, rowed up the Ganges at dawn, embraced the dust and flies of cattle stations on the edge of the Simpson Desert and given his minders the slip in Shanghai. He had been welcomed to the White House and thrown out of the Moulin Rouge.
http://www.rennieellis.com.au/
Contact: Manuela Furci Director - Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive
Special thanks to:
Isabelle Rouvillois Australian Agent, Agence VU, Sydney i.rouvillois@free.fr
Françoise Callier Program Coordinator Angkor Photo Festival
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