Sydney Photo Events

[Michael W]

This Sunday, Oct 21st is the Sydney Camera Market at Ultimo community centre. I always turn up late, when stall holders are getting ready to pack up so I tend to see the dregs. Presumably the keen people get there early & grab the good stuff. At the last one I did get a Hansa bulk loader for $10, marked down from $20. There are bargains at the end of the day & I like to sleep in.


http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/artandabout/EE/SydneyLife.asp
The Sydney Life exhibition is on in Hyde Park until the 22nd October. I haven't been yet so can't make any comment. Very large prints hung between trees down the central pathway.


I saw quite a nice show at Somedays gallery - Paid By Clothes, photos by Jessica Matino. Shot on square medium format, a Mamiya C330 based on one shot. Medium size prints that have the feel of natural light & colour neg. The subject matter is moments observed backstage at fashion shows.
The gallery is part of a clothes shop & on the same level as the Blanco Negro facility, so you could pop in there to buy some Kentmere or Foma paper.
72b Fitzroy St, Surry Hills.

 

[Tony Egan]

Thanks for the reminder and gallery tips. I have been fasting from buying the photo trader mag which is where I generally see the advert for the Sydney camera market. Bought a $5 portable CD player last time I went and listening to some fine Bill Evans piano through it while I write this!

Also been meaning to drop in to Blanco Negro and inquire about FOMA following some recent correspondence with Richard White.

Cheers,

Tony

 

[tony lockerbie]

Those camera fairs are dangerous places, best leave your wallet at home. Can't make the Sydney show but will be at the Canberra markets on the 28th. There are always things too good to pass up, like the gent who had large amount of APX100 in 120, selling it for 50c a roll.... I kid you not!
Leaving your shopping till the last minute is a good idea, vendors a keen to offload stuff rather than taking it home.
I usually have a table or two at the Canberra market and other dealers comb through all the good stuff even before the public are allowed in.
Tony

 

[Matthew Gorringe]

Thanks for the reminder, I'll probably try to get in line early and see if I can pick up some darkroom stuff.

If you're there early Goldie wear a white carnation and I'll say g'day.

 

[Michael W]

Cross Projections

The annual Cross Projections screenings are on next week. I've been to the last two & it's worth a look. You see recent projects from a range of photographers shown on a big screen. It is data projection but quality last year looked OK. One thing that does bother me with these new style of slide shows is that everyone feels obliged to add music to their show & then they feel the need to edit the photos to match the music. It can end up looking more like a music video than a showing of photographs. But I'll grit my teeth & put up with that aspect because I want to see recent work.
http://www.crossprojections.com.au/cp_flash.html

 

[Michael W]

Murray Fredericks at Boutwell Draper

Murray Fredericks has a show opening at Boutwell Draper gallery next week. Colour photos shot at Lake Eyre on 8x10 colour neg. I think there will also be some video that he shot there. I saw him do a presentation of this work recently & it's very good.
http://www.boutwelldrapergallery.com.au/contact.php

 

[Michael W]

There seems to have been some type of merger between Vision Graphics & The Lab. (For those outside Sydney, these are two of the bigger & long established pro labs). I was at Redfern yesterday & saw a sign outside Vision Graphics facility that they will be moving to 10 Danks St Waterloo (The Lab's address) in a couple of weeks. The name is changing to something like 'Vision Lab'.

 

[Michael W]

Photoactivism - panel discussion at the ACP

Wednesday 26th March 6pm
there will be a panel discussion about Photoactivism.
Free admission

Speakers are
Dean Sewell (excellent photographer)
Robert Knoth (photographer) & Antoinette de Jong (writer)
plus someone from Greenpeace & a politician from the Greens.

Knoth & de Jong are exhibiting at the ACP their project 'Certificate 000358' a photojournalistic project that looks at the aftermath of nuclear testing in the former Soviet Union.

I'd probably be there but I'm working that night. I also missed the night a few weeks back where Stephen Dupont gave a presentation. I heard that was standing room only.

Australian Centre for Photography
257 Oxford St
Paddington

 

[Michael W]

Museum of Sydney

There's also a few things worth seeing at the Museum of Sydney. Haven't been yet but told they're good.

The 1970s: a decade of protest
photographs by Roger Scott
until June 1st '08

Roger Scott is an excellent street photographer who did a lot of good work in the '70s.

Sydney now: new Australian photojournalism
until April 27th
group show of 24 photographers
incl Tamara Dean, Trent Parke, Marco Bok, Dean Sewell, Narelle Autio.

Museum entry is $10, I think.

 

[David Grenet]

Thanks goldie - looks interesting.

Don't forget the Moran Prizes at the State Library too!

 

[Michael W]

Photo Technica

I've heard from a few sources that Chippendale pro lab Photo Technica went out of business this week. Not sure of the full story. The past year or so has seen a big shake out in the local pro lab scene. A couple of years ago there were at least 7 labs that did pro level E6 & other services within a 30 minute drive of me, including one lab that processed Scala. As of today I can think of only two.

This is what has happened since late 2005
Icon at Artarmon, who did Scala & E6 gave it up when Agfa went down. Reinvented themselves as a digital bureau.

Trannys at Crows Nest stopped processing film last year.

Vision at St Leonards stopped processing film & became a drop off & pick up spot for the Redfern branch.

Then Vision Redfern merged with the Lab to become Vision Imagelab.

With Photo Technica gone that leaves just Vision Imagelab & the Lighthouse.

Hard times for the big old pro labs.

 

[David Grenet]

Sad news - thanks for the update goldie

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Im Still Here

Well as the owner off the lighthouse lab and having just celebrated the businesses second successful year. I want to say I ain't going anywhere but further forward into analog!

 

[Matthew Gorringe]

Nice one Stephen,
I'll have to drop by if I'm in the eastern suburbs. Any discounts for APUG subscribers?

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Hey Mattg look forward to seeing you, and yep I discount 10%

~Steve Frizza
The Lighthouse Lab

 

[Akalai]

"Conversations with the Mob" by Megan Lewis
...from the Sydney Writer's Festival website:
http://www.swf.org.au/component/option,com_events/task,view_detail/agid,221/year,2008/month,05/day,24/Itemid,192/

"In 2002, Walkley Award-winning photojournalist Megan Lewis went to live with the Martu people – one of the last indigenous groups in Australia’s vast Western Desert to come into contact with Europeans. Through this stunning collection of photographs and oral stories, Conversations with the Mob captures the beauty, humour, sadness and friendship of a traditional Aboriginal tribe at odds with western culture."

Free lecture/presentation by Megan Lewis on Saturday, May 24 2008 (12:30 - 13:30) to be held at;

Bangarra Theatre
Pier 4/5, Hickson Road
Walsh Bay

To get a better idea of her work it's worth reading the newspaper article below;

THE AUSTRALIAN: Private lives of the Mob
A photographer joined an Aboriginal community to record their lives in a book.
by Victoria Laurie | March 29, 2008
Dead Link Removed

...and Megan Lewis' website;
Dead Link Removed

If you plan on attending take an extra $49 with you... her book is amazing! The printed photos are much better than any of her work displayed on the web and the additional stories and information included make it a lot more than just another photo book, it's a really fascinating read and a lot can be learned from it... oh yeah and having had the chance to already hear her speak I can say she really shines as a human being!

 

[Michael W]

I heard something about a Bill Henson exhibition in Paddington ...

 

[Tony Egan]

Per the ABC news tonight the opening has been cancelled due to claims of child pornography on exhibition with police examining the images on the Roslyn Oxley gallery web site. The gallery web site appears to be down as I write this. In the Sydney Morning Herald today it seemed arch-conservative columnist Miranda Devine may have been on the soapbox about this. (I never read her articles on principle but the mention of a photographer caught my eye) I assume some of Miranda's fans rang the authorities full of righteous indignation and the cops were brought in?

I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to Bill Henson's work. Some work I find very beautiful and compelling, others a bit disturbing and discomforting.

 

[Michael W]

Hi Tony, yes I was alluding to that blow up in my earlier post. Was driving to visit a friend & the talkback radio was going off about this. 2GB Philip Clarke was interviewing Miranda Devine (arch right wing ratbags, both) & was ranting about a 53 year old man photographing naked teenage girls. I'm cynical enough to think that these creeps don't even believe most of what they're saying - it's just content for them. I'm not a huge fan of Bill Henson but I do regard him as a very good, sincere artist. I believe that he works with youth a lot because that was a key period in his own life that he wants to explore. I think it's the dirty minds that see filth where others don't.

 

[Wyno]

Hi Goldie and Tony,
I must admit I find some of his work disturbing but some is really good, and Goldie I agree about dirty minds seeing filth where there is none. I had this discussion this morning with the photography education manager at the TAFE where I work and we were both agreed on that point. He had taken his students to see the last Henson exhibition in Melbourne and was quite OK with the content. There was another thread about this sort of problem with some work by Nan Goldin (I think) in London. Bloody wowsers using their own problems to stop anyone else seeing something controversial.
Mike

 

[David Grenet]

I wonder why this is happening now, and why it didn't happen at the (presumably larger) exhibition of Henson's work at the Art Gallery of NSW a few years ago.

 

[Ross Chambers]

It's the Australian way, folks: place you on a pedestal, send you off to Venice as official Biennale artist, NSW goverment pays for major retrospective at the State Gallery and publishes book for the occasion, ABC screens documentary then they stick it to you when you're least expecting it.

I look forward to Edmund Capon and the curator being arrested for their part in the retrospective and the book, the Commonwealth arts minister responsible for the Biennale selection and owners of all bookshops carrying the AGNSW and Scalo books being burnt at the stake in Martin Place, with our priggish new PM lighting the match.

My only worry about Bill Henson is the archival quality of that black tape that he uses to hold his montages together.

Regards - Ross (sticking to landscapes!!)

 

[Paul.A]

The Megan Lewis exhibition is absolutely superb. I saw it as part of FotoFreo earlier this month. There are not many exhibitions that have me buying the book at the gallery but this was one. The subject was shot with great sensitivity and honesty. Plus it was shot on film too !!!

 

[Matthew Gorringe]

Hi Tony,
I read Miranda fairly often, but only if I'm in good humour. I thought I was yesterday morning but it didn't turn out that way. I'm still waiting for her to reply to my email...

In my view the work is not at all sexual (thanks to the outrage and digust of channel 9 I was able to view them on national television at 7:30am this morning). Having said that there is an element of exploitation involved in my view and I wonder whether the kids were able to consent to their images later being embroilled in controversy and labelled pronographic (the law says they can't make that decision themselves). If I was their parents this possibility would have crossed my mind even if I don't agree with the rabid right.

P.S. poll in the 'Herald today showed more than half of people thought that they were "art", ~21% thought there shoud be prosecution. A moral minority on a witch hunt.

Matt.

Per the ABC news tonight the opening has been cancelled due to claims of child pornography on exhibition with police examining the images on the Roslyn Oxley gallery web site. The gallery web site appears to be down as I write this. In the Sydney Morning Herald today it seemed arch-conservative columnist Miranda Devine may have been on the soapbox about this. (I never read her articles on principle but the mention of a photographer caught my eye) I assume some of Miranda's fans rang the authorities full of righteous indignation and the cops were brought in?

I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to Bill Henson's work. Some work I find very beautiful and compelling, others a bit disturbing and discomforting.

 

[Tony Egan]

Hi Matt,
I'm sure she gets a lot so be patient! I agree with Goldie that she is one of the new school of "journalists" (post 9/11 - be afraid, be very afraid) who proudly and unashamedly brand themselves as conservative rather than independent or objective. Not that any journalist is ever 100% objective, but you know where the likes of Miranda and Piers Akerman et al are going to come from purely for effect. Cynically reactionary and predictable. It's best just to ignore them! She's a wimpy Ann Coulter wannabe who gets off on rubbing up left-leaners and moderates the wrong way in order to establish a 'reputation'. Yawn....