FotoFreo e-Newsletter

Issue 2: 18 December 2007

Welcome to our e-newsletter

Dear Subscriber,

Well the gremlins are still a force to be reckoned with. Our 'first' newsletter was, in fact, not a newsletter but rather a test run sent (I thought) to 'my eyes only'. The text had not been finalised, the images were not inserted and the formatting had not been undertaken. However, the system does work (mostly), although we did find out that the password retrieval has a few bugs. And we did get a nice number of responses from our call for volunteers. So thank you to all the people who got in touch to offer their services. This is the first 'real’ newsletter.

We are still looking for more volunteers and if you are interested in being a part of the FotoFreo 2008 Team, please visit the website at http://www.fotofreo.com/volunteers.php.

On a more informal note, the Board of FotoFreo and the FotoFreo 2008 Organising Committee wish you all the very best for the festival season and a happy Christmas.

Editor

Exhibiting photographers and invited speakers

Photographers who have already confirmed they will exhibit in the festival and visit Fremantle for FotoFreo 2008 include Edward Burtynsky (Canada), Jodi Bieber (South Africa), Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin (UK), Paolo Pellegrin (Italy), Christophe Bourguedieu (France), Hayden Fowler (NZ), Marian Drew (Qld), Chris Koller (Vic), Stephen Dupont (NSW), Megan Lewis (WA), Connie Petrillo (WA), Dow Wasiksiri (Thailand), Chen Nong (China) and Robert Frith (WA).

A major new development in the form of the festival has been the commitment by unrelated third parties to undertake significant photographic exhibitions in mainstream and commercial art galleries throughout Perth, with the express purpose of contributing to and being a part of the main festival programme. These include exhibitions at the Art Gallery of WA (Roger Ballen), the John Curtin Gallery (Brook Andrews), Lister Art Gallery (Tony Nathan), the CMC Tafe Gallery (Focus: Photography and War 1945-2006 from the War Museum in Canberra), the Johnston Gallery (Polixeni Papapetrou) and the Turner Galleries (Darren Siwes).

Speakers presenting at either the conference or the seminar include: Helen Ennis (ACT), Daniel Palmer (Vic), Anne Marsh (Vic), Marian Drew (Qld), Robert Pledge (USA), Brook Andrews (Vic), Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin (UK), Penny Martin (UK), Jodi Bieber (South Africa), Shaune Lakin (ACT), Michael Desmond (ACT) and Philip Blenkinsop (Thailand).

Edward Burtynsky in Australia

Earlier this year FotoFreo Inc (FotoFreo) commissioned Edward Burtynsky to come to Australia and create a series of images depicting large scale open pit mining operations and resource developments in Western Australia, and for this series of images to be the centre piece of the photographic exhibitions to be shown during FotoFreo 2008: The City of Fremantle festival of Photography.

The series comprising the new work, entitled Australian Minescapes, consists of images depicting iron ore operations at Mt Whaleback and salt mining in the Pilbara, the Kalgoorlie super pit and a variety of open cut nickel mines in the vicinity of Lake Lefroy in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Edward Burtynsky is currently one of the world’s leading contemporary landscape photographers. However, the focus of his work is on ‘man made landscapes’ or, in his words, “manufactured landscapes”.

Regardless of the subject matter, the images are exquisitely beautiful, insightful and non judgemental.

In his artist’s statement, Burtynsky says,

“Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.”

The Burtynsky exhibition will be held at the Western Australian Maritime Museum (WAMM) on Victoria Quay, Fremantle commencing 5th April and finishing at the end of May (which is one month longer than the festival). The exhibition will consist of the newly created Australian Minescapes (26 images) and a selection of his earlier work (12 images) looking at ship building in China and ship breaking in Bangladesh.

In addition, there will be an audiovisual projection surveying his extensive photographic career, and a showing of the award winning, full length feature documentary film, Manufactured Landscapes, at the Film and Television Institute.

This project was made possible by the co-operation and generous financial support of BHPBilliton Iron Ore and the FotoFreo Angels.

For more information about Edward Burtynsky view his website at www.edwardburtynsky.com.

Roger Ballen at FotoFreo 2008

Robert Cook, assistant curator at the Art Gallery of WA, says of Roger Ballen, “(He) is one of the world’s most unique and challenging photographers.  Born in New York city in 1950, he has been living and making work in South Africa since 1982. Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal: Roger Ballen Photography reveals the depth of his work over more than a quarter of a decade.  It moves from photography in a documentary manner of the poor white populations of the ‘dorps’ outside Johannesburg, to his more recent intensely subjective images.   

“Working solely in black and white, and within the square format, his photographs are often incredibly confronting but always full of richly poetic detail.  They capture the continuing expressive possibilities for this now traditional medium to create compelling worlds that are part real and part intensely loaded imaginative spaces.  Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal: Roger Ballen Photography is an Artist in focus exhibition produced by the Art Gallery of Western Australia.”

Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal: Roger Ballen Photography is currently showing at the Art Gallery of WA and the exhibition will close at the end of the FotoFreo 2008 festival. As a part of the core exhibition programme, Roger Ballen will come to Perth during FotoFreo 2008, give a floor talk about his work at AGWA and participate in the lecture series to be held at Kulcha during the first week of the festival.

FotoFreo 2008 Fringe and FotoFreo Perth

The 2008 FotoFreo Fringe and FotoFreo Perth Festival will be the biggest yet. A record number of applications have been received and over 50 photographers, both local and international, were selected to participate. The range of work being exhibited is diverse and covers the whole gamut of photographic styles and genres, making the Fringe a perfect compliment to the FotoFreo 2008 core exhibitions. With this in mind, we have endeveaoured to cluster the exhibitions within easy walking distance of the main venues in Fremantle and Northbridge. 

The destinction between Fringe and FotoFreo Perth exhibitions is primarily in terms of the nature of the space with the FotoFreo Perth venues being mostly more formal, dedicated exhibition spaces or commercial galleries. The main consideration is, however, that the exhibitions held in these venues are generally arranged by the artist's themselves or by the venues, and FotoFreo Inc, the organiser of the FotoFreo 2008 festival, is only involved to the extent that it facilitates and coordinates the exhibitions.

Josh Robenstone & Richard Wainwright at Code Red Gallery, a FotoFreo Perth Event.

“AH-YEAH, NYC Live feat. KRS-ONE”, Josh Robenstone (Aus)

In this new body of work, “AH-YEAH, NYC Live feat. KRS-ONE”, Josh Robenstone looks at New York City as the birthplace of Hip Hop music and its cultural evolution. The work focuses on one of Hip Hop's founding fathers, KRS ONE and on the environment in which he performs, lives and breathes. Photographed over a 4 week period in New York City during 2006, street photography meets fashion, architecture and music, and together paints an abstract interpretation of Hip Hop today in the city that never sleeps.

Josh Robenstone is a Melbourne based freelance photographic artist with shows in 2007 at both the Leica and Obscura galleries in Melbourne. Josh’s work can also be seen in some of Australia’s leading news publications including, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review.

Eastern Chad- Surviving Darfur, Richard Wainwright (UK)

Eastern Chad - Surviving Darfur documents the refugee crisis in Eastern Chad, a region beset by conflict and yet neglected by much of the Western media. Richard Wainwright’s moving images from the refugee camps of Darfur are not to be missed.
Since taking up photojournalism at the age of 25, Richard’s work has always had a human rights dimension to it. Working closely with aid agencies he aims to highlight situations not always on the radar of the mainstream press. A journalist at heart he believes photography still remains the foremost medium to understand and inform the public about what is happening in the world.

The Code Red Gallery is at 158 Canning Highway, East Fremantle and the exhibitions run from April 4-May 7, 2008

The Workshop Programme

The workshop programme is currently being finalised and a detailed schedule will be published soon. Workshops will include: Cyanotype; Vandyke; a pinhole camera workshop (Steve Lobo); Photo Fashion (Penny Lane & Yolander Stapleton); Photo Photocopy (Mark McPherson), Creative use of Polaroid Materials (Lynette Zeng); Painting with Light (Greg Hocking) and a Digital Print Fine Art workshop (with Les Walkling).