Newsletter December, 2011

If you anticipate coming to FotoFreo 2012, remember to Register on the FotoFreo website – and if you are coming with a partner, register them as well. Registration will entitle you to a range of discounts and other benefits.

We are still looking to recruit volunteers. For those who have already signed up there will be an orientation meeting about mid-January. 

We expect to be calling for entries for the three Magnum scholarships to attend the Magnum workshops held during FotoFreo 2012 within two weeks. This announcement will be made in a newsletter and on the FotoFreo website.

WA Life photography competition

FotoFreo has finalised the arrangements for the inaugural WA Life photographic competition. WA Life is expected to become a regular event in future festivals. The theme of the competition is to capture some aspect of life in Western Australia – living in WA; at work in WA; our leisure time in WA, etc.

For FotoFreo 2012 there will be a prize pool valued at $10,000 and the First Prize will be $5,000 cash. Other prizes will include The Runner up and a Popular Choice. The competition will be open as from Monday, 12th of December, 2011 and close on Sunday,  29th of January, 2012. The winners will be announced at a special function to be held in the Moores Building on Sunday, 25th of March, the second weekend of the festival.

The WA Life competition is open to all photographers – professional, students, and enthusiasts. Employees and immediate families of the judges, promoters, printers, suppliers, providers and agencies associated with the competition are ineligible. Unless FotoFreo Volunteers are any of the above, they are eligible to participate in the competition.

There will be an entry fee of $50 per photographer and up to three (3) photographs may be submitted. 
For more information go to the website.

Wayne Quilliam

RMIT Adjunct Professor Wayne Quilliam is one of Australia’s leading Indigenous photographers and curators.  His awards include the coveted National NAIDOC Indigenous Artist in 2009, the 2008 Human Rights Media Award for his work on the Apology, and he was a joint winner in the prestigious Walkley Awards for a social documentary on the Redfern Riots.

Over the past 15 years his work has covered the documenting of significant Indigenous events including the Garma, Laura, Burunga, Dreaming and Yeperenye festivals.  Wayne has worked with Indigenous groups in Mexico, Bolivia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Guam and is currently developing an intercultural exchange between Indigenous photographers around the world.  He runs photographic workshops in remote, rural and urban communities and lectures at universities, secondary and primary educational facilities in Australia and overseas.

Wayne’s work has been toured extensively – to Vienna, Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Tokyo and Moscow.  His ‘Towindri’ exhibition in Cairo earlier this year attracted critical acclaim and went on to Riyadh and Beirut.

Wayne will be exhibiting as part of the core festival programme and his work will be showing at the Japingka Indigenous Fine Art Gallery at 47 High Street in the West End of Fremantle. 

The FotoFreo Open Section – The Fringe

Submissions for the open section of the festival have now closed. It was gratifying that more than 150 entries were received (compared to 90 entries in 2010), 26 being from overseas and 22 from interstate.  However, this may prove to be more than the number of venues we have available to us.

All applications are being processed in the order they were received and we are still looking for (and finding) new venues. Completed applications will be dealt with first and just a reminder that for an application to be considered complete, FotoFreo must be in receipt of the application fee.

Incomplete or problematic applications will be dealt with last, but if we can find a venue and overcome the difficulties in the original application we will accept them.

If a venue cannot be found the application fee will be refunded.

David Sargeant, The Paradise Bay Series
(An Open Section exhibition)

Remote destinations have long been an attraction for photographers with a sense of adventure. David Sargeant is such a photographer and he travels extensively. This series of photographs were taken earlier this year in the Antarctic. The remoteness of  this  location once implied it was infrequently visited, but this is no longer the case, and the wilderness experience was, and still is, a part of the attraction. The awareness and the grandeur of the setting is akin to a religious experience – a legacy of Ansell Adams!

Landscape photography, along with wild life photography, has not received much attention in past festivals. However, landscape photography is of particular interest to FotoFreo 2012 and there will be an Incite panel discussion on the subject with Murray Fredericks, Gael Newton, Richard Woldendorp and Alasdair Foster as the moderator. 

Our Supporters

Fremantle Markets

The iconic Fremantle Markets may not look much like an exhibition venue but that is about to change.  The Freo Markets, as they are affectionately referred to, are the subject of a FotoFreo commission being undertaken by Bo Wong and the Fremantle Markets, as one of our new sponsors, is supporting the commission.

The markets are in two parts, The Hall, at the front, and the Yard, at the back. The Hall is an incubator for local talent; young designers who share a common creative drive for innovative, cutting edge fashion, designs which in turn appeal to customers who are seeking originality and quality.  The Yard is now home to ‘grower direct’ produce, quality local food retailers, and a community space for locals near and far who seek quality food on the spot.

As the stall holders will tell you, come to the Freo Markets and take a Journey to the heart of Fremantle

Other News

The Perth Centre for Photography (PCP) collaborates with FotoFreo to conduct the FotoFreo Festival and wishes to announce, but not as a part of the festival, that it is inviting photographers to participate in Collective, a photography exhibition and auction showcasing an eclectic mix of collectable work by local emerging and established, local, national and international photographic artists. Full details can be obtained for the PCP website. 

Photographic artists are invited to participate by submitting original work for exhibition and auction. Participating artists may opt to donate either part or full sales proceeds towards the gallery program fund. The Entry fee is $25 for non-members and free to all new or renewed 2012 PCP Members. (Participants may choose to become a member during submission). To participate, simply register by emailing collective@pcp.org.au with ‘collective’ in the subject heading. You will then be supplied with instructions and submission details.

Registration deadline is 11:30 a.m. (Western Standards Time) on 15th of December, 2011. The exhibition and auction will be from 9th February – 12th of March, 2012.