Introduction
FotoFreo 2012: The City of Fremantle Festival of Photography is almost upon us.
FotoFreo 2012 Festival will be comprised of a series of photographic exhibitions (the Core Exhibitions) curated by FotoFreo Inc. in dedicated venues which include the Fremantle Arts Centre, the Western Australian Maritime Museum, the Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery, the Fremantle Prison and a number of commercial art galleries. The festival will also host evenings of audio visual projections, panel discussions, floor talks, book launches, portfolio reviews, screenings of films about photography and a number of workshops, including three run by photographers from Magnum Photos.
Most of the events that involve visiting photographers and speakers will take place during the first 10 days of the month long festival period.
Following on from the 2008 and 2010 Festivals, FotoFreo has again commissioned new photographic projects for the 2012 Festival and these include a major commission undertaken by Martin Parr, in which he visited and photograph in Broome, Port Hedland, and Fremantle, and a commission by W.A. photographer Bo Wong to investigate the Fremantle Market, a local destination icon.
A major focus of FotoFreo 2012 will be photography from India. The programme will feature a solo exhibition of the work of
Raghu Rai, showing at the WAMM on Victoria Quay. Also, a group exhibition of six photographers (including
Bharat Sikka,
Dileep Prakash,
Ketaki Sheth,
Gauri Gill,
Vidura Jang Bahadur and
N Pushpamala), curated by
Devik Daulet-Singh will be showing at the Fremantle Arts Centre. An audio visual projection involving 20 emerging and mid-career Indian photographers curated by
Sohrab Hura.
A major new initiative, set to become a regular feature of ongoing FotoFreo festivals, is the FutureGen project showing the work of the best graduating photographers from Australian photography courses and involving an exchange with China and the Pingyao Festival where a similar project involving more than 50 Chinese universities is being undertaken.
A photo competition, entitled WA Life, has also been initiated with a prize pool of $10,000 and this too is set to become a regular FotoFreo event.
The call for submissions in the Open Exhibition programme, otherwise known as the FotoFreo Fringe, was a great success with over 150 submissions received.
FotoFreo Inc. is an incorporated non-profit association, established as a community based organisation for the purpose of organising and running the FotoFreo Festival of Photography in the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia.
Why Fremantle?
The port city of Fremantle is a popular destination for visitors to Western Australia. It is a very interesting and visual place, with a bustling port, a substantial fishing industry, surrounded by beaches and with a city centre (the West End) containing an outstanding collection of Federation and other historic buildings. Fremantle is also renowned for its coffee houses, small restaurants, numerous museums as well as significant historical landmarks such as the Round House and the Fremantle Prison.
But, from the point of view of an arts festival, there is substantial exhibition infrastructure and the town is compact, making it easy to get around on foot or on the free public transport.
Participation
Participation in the core FotoFreo exhibition programme is by invitation only. However there are no restrictions to participation in the Fringe (the 'open' section) exhibition programme.
The Future of FotoFreo
Photographic festivals are now important cultural events in many countries, particularly in Europe and North America. It is the intention and the hope of the board of FotoFreo Inc that the FotoFreo festival will continue to grow as a significant photographic and cultural event both nationally and internationally.
A Little Bit of History
In 1996, a group of photographers and other interested people tried to establish FotoFreo Mark 1. This group put together the outline of an event very much along the lines of FotoFreo 2006. But this first attempt was a much more ambitious project and probably, with hind sight, ahead of its time.
Subsequently, the inaugural FotoFreo festival took place in late March, 2002. This festival was more of a pilot and did not include any dedicated exhibition venues. It was considered a qualified success despite the many problems encountered. It ran at a loss that was covered by some of the organisers all of whom were volunteers. However, the consensus was that to grow the festival it could only be done as a biennale.
FotoFreo 2004 was three times bigger than the inaugural festival and included a number of dedicated exhibition venues and a fringe festival. All agreed that this event was an unqualified success. One of our sponsors, Fremantle Ports, won an award from the State Government for "The most innovative partnership" with a cultural organisation or event. The event broke even.
FotoFreo 2006 was more than twice the size of the 2004 festival and was again entirely organised and run by volunteers. For the first time during this festival there was a full range of the activities envisaged for the event besides the exhibitions and audiovisual projections - a conference, a seminar, lectures, floor talks, films and workshops.
While very similar in scope and structure to the previous festivals, FotoFreo 2008 proved to be a significant development in that much of the nature of the Festival was consolidated. However, as with previous Festivals it was organised and run entirely by volunteers.
Again FotoFreo 2010 was a bigger Festival with more exhibitions and events, especially the Fringe Festival, and with increasing number of visitors from interstate and overseas. However, for the first time the Festival was sufficiently funded to be able to employ a number of key personal. Even so the Festival remains highly dependent on the volunteers who continue to give their valuable time to the event.
The current board members of FotoFreo Inc. are Jude Savage (chair), Felicity Johnston, Juha Tolonen, Mark Stewart and Bob Hewitt (FotoFreo 2012 Festival Director).
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