developments in photography
06 August 2013
All content in this magazine is Š 2012 of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale and participating artists, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the BIFB. Inc save for fair dealing for the purposes of research, study, criticism, review, reporting news. All other rights are reserved.
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76 SHEENA MACRAE Odyssey
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Claudia Fährenkemper Pflanzen Fotogramme
Sonia Macak
Russell Joslin
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Tony Hewitt Beach
Terence Stewart Bogue
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18 Jackie Ranken Aerial Abstracts
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Elisabeth Zeilon House of Katarina
Francisco Diaz Big Bang (World Within Worlds).
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156 Vikk Shayen
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Meredith O’Shea Test Drive
Guy Vinciguerra Metropolis
Marrigje de Maar Pilgrimage
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Kara Rasmanis An Alphabet of Found and Fallen
Doc Ross Lost City
Hester Scheurwater Zine Garden Delight
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64 John Cato
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Welcome to the sixth issue of BETA – developments in photography. In this issue we preview most of the artists featured in the Core Exhibition of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale 2013 which kicks off in a few weeks time, presenting more than 200 photographic events, and featuring the work of more than 500 artists, at 80 venues throughout the City of Ballarat. One of the features of the BIFB Core Program work, [with the exception of our tribute show – which this festival features work of the late John Cato] is that all shows are previously un-exhibited in Australia. The taster that is this edition of BETA features images not from our Core artist’s shows, but images from other bodies of work. So we would ask you to indulge us as we build the suspense for another few weeks until BIFB’13 launches on Saturday August 17th.
We hope to see you all in Ballarat for Australia’s most important international festival of photography some time over the next month, and if circumstances dictate that you can’t make it to BIFB’13, you can still keep abreast of all the best in international contemporary photograph in the pages of BETA – developments in photography.
Jeff Moorfoot Festival Director Ballarat International Foto Biennale
PS: We are always interested in seeing folios of work suitable for publishing in BETA. If you think your work is strong enough send a submission. Specs at www.beta.org.au
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Pflanzen Fotogramme
Claudia Fährenkemper www.claudia-faehrenkemper.com
Summary of my residency at Fermynwoods Contemporary Art Ltd, Kettering (UK) in summer 2009
My aim for the residency was first to collect and prepare parts of the plants of the Fermyn Woods wildflower meadow, focussing especially on their blossoms (pollen and stamen), then using the scanning electron microscope for a carefully exploration of their forms and structures. But in the process there came up one technical problem after the other with the scanning electron microscope at the University of Northampton. The scanning of the wet plant material caused loading problems with the, so the results had extreme contrasts, which couldn’t get under control. I had also to deal with a digital result. The possible high resolution image capture gave out only small 1MB files, which contains not enough information for a real stunning image with an illusion of plasticity of the form which I expected and was used to at the SEM in Bonn, where I took analogue film for capturing the image. All these problems with the complicated technical tools and processes let me think of an easier, more direct and faster way of preserving the plants, also with very poor instruments.
Staying in the cottage directly besides the wildflower meadow I decided to do photograms, which I did just before in a workshop in the fields with the students of Kingswood School Corby. I collected the plant specimen in its whole like I need it to find out exactly its name. Then I put it on old silver gelatine paper with fixed smooth gradation and arranged the single plant in its best shape and with an interesting composition on the paper, pressing it with a thick piece of glass, laying it outside on the bottom ant let it exposure by sunlight for 1-3 hours. Finally I take glass and plants away and give the image only in a fixing bath for 10 minutes and washed it out later. This simple photogram process reminds me on early times of photography when Fox Talbot did his photogenic drawings of fern and Anna Atkins these of algae. Realizing this series “Fermyn Woods Wild Flower Project” the extension of the plants energy was always exciting.
During the image process there is a reaction of the plants substances and fluids with silver gelatine paper areas just around the plants, caused by sunlight and warmth under the glass. The pressure of the thick piece of glass helps to evoke a clear shape of the plant and some brilliant details of blossom and leave structures with a rich variety of red, brown, yellow, grey colours beside the white shape of stem and blossom. The impression is in a way ghostly, the real object is gone but its certain character still remains in the image. In a way the plants “aura” is fixed in it. This series “Fermyn Woods Wild Flower Project” is a statement of my photographic work as a refusal to more and more highly processed photographs with a loss of individuality, singularity, treasure and “aura” in the sense of Benjamin. The series is not about fixing the shadow but fixing a part of the plants life and energy, something originally of it before it dies during the process of the photogram.
“Aura” (Greek), the goodness of the morning is so called. It means also the spiritual aura as a religious symbol. And “aura” is also used by Walter Benjamin “The art work in the age of mechanical reproduction”. The images aura can only be experienced in front of the original but no more in any mechanical reproduction of it.
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Claudia Fährenkemper was born 1959 in Castrop-Rauxel (Germany). First she studied Art and Geography at the University of Düsseldorf for getting a teacher. In 1987 she decided to study Photography initially in the class of Arno Jansen at the University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, from 1998 at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf under Bernd and Hilla Becher. In 1994 she transferred into the class of Nan Hoover where she finished her studies as a master-class student in 1995. In 1994 her son Christian was born. Between 1993 and 1996 she taught photography at the University of Siegen. In 2000 she was invited by Canadian photographer Lynne Cohen as visiting artist to the University of Canada in Ottawa. During 1989 and 1993 she worked with a grand view camera on an extensive documentation of huge mining machines in opencast coal mining areas all over Germany.
In 1994 she made a big change into the opposite dimension and started with her photomicrographic series of tiny insects, plant seed, amphibian larvae, crystals and planktos, using the scanning electron microscope at the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig in Bonn. In 2009 she was an artist-inresidence at Fermynwoods Contemporary Art in England. Staying in a cottage directly besides a wildflower meadow and after exploring it carefully she decided to preserve the plants in photograms. The series is called Fermyn Woods Wild Flower Project (FWWFP) She lives in Werne (Germany).
Jackie Ranken
Aerial Abstracts www.jackieranken.co.nz
These photographs are more about abstract imagery than landscape views. They are landscapes of pattern, line, tone, form and texture. Through my lens I transform the familiar man made landscape into abstract shapes and ideas. Each image was made while upside down in a biplane called a Stampe, piloted by my father Dick Nell. I wanted to shoot straight down to the ground, and the best way I found to achieve this in a bi plane was to perform a loop. At the top of the loop when I look up, I am in fact looking straight down to the ground. This is when I made the exposure, pushing the camera up away from my face and against the centrifugal force that was created by the aerobatic manoeuvre was a lot of fun. I was so fortunate to have a father who was also a wonderful aerobatic pilot. Without him the images would never have been made. Dad called us the ‘Shadow Hunters’; we would go out late in the day when the low angle of light made the landscape come alive.
These images were made when the Landscape was in drought. In many ways the landscape is nude and the marks in the landscape are scars. I continue to look for new ways of ‘seeing’. What is up when you are looking straight down? Created between 2001-2003 Mamiya 7 medium format analogue camera Film- Neopan 400, Ilford XPII For the project we flew approximately 12 hours and performed approximately 360 loops.
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Elisabeth Zeilon
House of Katarina www.zeilonphotography.com
As a photographer I have continously searched for my own language of expression. Stories of life have been my source of inspiration.
After fifteen years I moved back to Sweden where besides my commercial commissions I explored my own art photography.
I started photographing in my late teens, initially inspired by painting. My passion for the many layers of textures in art inspired me to developed a photographic language expressed through layers.
Lately I have become increasingly fascinated by classical stories of women. I started with a series of images inspired from the world of opera where women often were the heroines yet victims of tragic dramas.
My models were often posed in natural settings covered by materials such as plastic, branches or bandages. These photographs were staged and not spontaneously captured. Indirectly and intuitively I was making a portrait of myself. After studies in Graphic Design at Anders Beckman School of Design, Stockholm, and Photographic Studies at Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, I travelled to the USA and photographed the various landscapes. Finally settling in California, I began working as a commercial and editorial photographer collaborating with clients across the continent. I was given creative freedom to translate a commercial message of often medical, psychological or technical nature, into a photographic image with a personal collage style of layers. This technique became my signum.
The classical stories represented by the sculptures found in Parisian gardens became my next subject . These stories in combination with the beauty of the sculptures, inspired me to create my latest series “Passion Paris”, which is now exhibited in Ballarat. My story of “House of Katarina” is another story of a lonely woman called Katarina.
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Guy Vinciguerra
Metropolis www.vinciguerra.com.au
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Guy Vinciguerra is a photographer based in Perth, Western Australia. Guy has undertaken several long-term photographic projects including capturing images of people and place encountered along the Silk Road in China and Uzbekistan. He has documented youth culture and city life in Tokyo. Guy has also photographed extensively in the USA, Indonesia and Europe as well as his home town of Perth. Guy has published two books of his photographs, Crossing the Line, documenting social and urban change within the city of Perth and Cosplay, a celebration of Tokyo’s youth sub-culture. Over the last ten years Guy has had several solo exhibitions in Perth and his works are held in many collections both in Australia, the USA and Europe.
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Image credits – Top row from left: Taylor-Ferne Morris, Adrian Dennett, Graeme Passmore, Emma McEvoy 2nd row: Emma McEvoy, Emma McEvoy, Rachel Gedye 3rd row: Georgia Portelli, Adrian Dennett, Jason Treloar, Adrian Dennett Bottom row: Steph Doran, Catherine Bailey, Adrian Dennett
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developments in photography
submissions to our online photography magazine invited www.beta.org.au
Image credit: Rod Schaffer
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Doc Ross
Lost City www.gallery464.co.nz
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This series “Lost City� is part of an ongoing body of work based around the changing social and physical landscape of Christchurch New Zealand post earthquakes. Christchurch is currently in state of uncertainty somewhere between disaster and recovery, everything and nothing is happening, as with all my Post earthquake work Lost City is an attempt to put the current mood of the people into visual form.
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Photographer Doc Ross has traversed, surveyed and captured society through the lens in all its altering seasons and environments since the 1980’s. As a photographer he approaches his work as a translation of his reality and as this has evolved, alongside technological processes, so then has the influences and subject matter for his work which ranges from ‘landscapes, urban observations, constructions, personal and social commentary’. The diversity of his subject matter is clearly evident and purposeful, but the underlying desire to capture contour and light remains consistent throughout. A clear vision in the pursuit of fleeting moments where the mundane becomes monumental or the bleak comes to life, and at the core a sense of isolation in the transience of existence is ever present in his work.
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John Cato Doc Ross www.johncato.com.au
Lost City www.gallery464.co.nz
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John Cato was born in Hobart, Tasmania in 1926. From the age of 12 years he was apprenticed to his father the photographer Jack Cato. John had been a press photographer with the Argus newspaper and a commercial photographer in partnership with Athol Shmith for 20 years before experiencing ‘a kind of menopause’. He walked away from a successful career, quietly burned all his commercial work and became an educator and fine art photographer. John was involved in the foundation years of the Photography Studies College, still in South Melbourne, and a lecturer there and at Prahran College of Advanced Education becoming Department Head in 1979 until he retired in 1991 by which time it was called Victoria College. He felt ‘duty bound’ to hand on his experience. He loved teaching and he was a much-loved teacher. Many of his past students are now highly regarded photographers, whilst others hold important positions in universities and art institutions around Australia.
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John Cato was one of the first photographers in Australia to consider the lyrical and poetic aspects of landscape and to create extended series of photographic essays. He wanted to ‘explore the elements of landscape’ and gave himself 10 years to complete his study, two years for each of the five elements. His practice would take him into the desert for extended periods of time. He would spend 40 days, seeing, observing and waiting for the perfect conditions for the shot; on one occasion exposing only 3 rolls of film and being satisfied enough to use only 11 photographs from them. These powerful images, free of manipulation, capture the essential qualities of natural elements and indeed how John Cato saw the world. John exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions and his work is featured in many public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
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SHOOT. STAGE. EXHIBIT - fine arts printing - studio and equipment hire - photographic gallery - events venue.
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SHEENA MACRAE
Odyssey www.sheenamacrae.com
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Odyssey collapses Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” into a series of image slices, the complete film redelivered in 7 minutes, 20 layers deep. The thin strips of data reveal the film like an overzealous Op Art painting, pacing us through colour modulations in a hypnotic configuration. In an installation at the Musée d’Art Contemporain Val-de-Marne (MAC/VAL) in Paris, the single channel video was reflected into three giant mirrors, creating an infinity chamber of lines. Endless stripes extend into the reflected image, drawing on the original narrative of the film. Speculations of infinity and eternity are accentuated, while the mirrors emphasize the false nature of the sci-fi world in which Odyssey resides.
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Sheena Macrae graduated from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, Canada with a BFA in 1999 and from Goldsmiths College, London, UK with an MA in Fine Art in 2002. She has won awards and exhibited internationally, most notably with a monograph exhibition at the Musée d’Art Contemporain Valde-Marne in Paris, at Whitechapel Gallery in London, and at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin; she has also been the artist-in-residence at Monash University in Melbourne. Beginning as a filmmaker, all of her work is filtered through film language and theory, with an emphasis on how meaning is contrived and what an audience adds to the experience. Macrae’s work manipulates popular iconography in film and video through compression, exploring the modern fascination with speed, nostalgia, information and entertainment. She misappropriates the readymade formats of cinema and television through digital media technologies, fixating obsessively on pivotal, recurring narrative junctions. These works parody and reconstruct the dynamics of Hollywood clichés, collective memory, and the standardization of film narratives. Co-opting the syntax of film language, she develops alternative meaning through a post-production remix.
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Sonia Macak www.soniamacak.com
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My work has been always known as the out of time one. After so many years of trying to prove myself otherwise I am learning to accept who I am and allowing to create freely for the gift I was given to live with is extraordinary ‌ My journey here is to capture the timeless moments, the untold tales of soul beyond lifetimes, where every single imperfection, every single breath, smile, tear or blink of an eye matters eternally and to continue sharing these moments just the way they happened to be. Keep on sharing the divine truth of that who we are and how we see matters the most and living in such truth is the most important and amazing thing one can do ‌ including failures and victories, everyday moments, lost and found memories, moments easily missed by the eye.
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Born in 1979 in Czechoslovakia. Sonia grew up in Northern Bohemia during the last decade of communism and first decade of post communism. She moved to Australia with her then one year old son and husband in 2002. Sonia learned photography with Nikon digital SLR which she received as a gift from her husband in 2006. With no formal studies Sonia has started creating from her heart photographing her boys with a great influence by love for a collection of family images she was given to from her grandmother. Her deep love for long lost in time lead her to exploring and learning traditional darkroom, starting with 35mm black and white film through much adored medium format black and white film to large format photography with strong connection especially to collodion process and salt printing. Sonia works from a home based studio located not far from Buninyong Mountain in country Victoria. For her work she uses Rollei SL66, Anthony Bellows 8x10in wetplate dedicated camera, and Nikon d700.
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Tony Hewitt
Beach : www.tonyhewitt.com
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“Vision is the art of seeing’ what is invisible to others!” Tony Hewitt’s photographic journey has seen him explore the genres of Portrait, Landscape and Fine Art Photography. He has exhibited both within Australia and Overseas, and been consistently invited to critique & judge both nationally and internationally since 1995. With a passion for visual expression, and an instinctive sense of the moment, Tony brings a unique combination of award winning photographic vision and simple creativity. His images of people often look to present the person within the context of their environment, while in simple yet revealing ways. Tony has a wealth of experience in photographing people of all ages, from newborns to the elderly, from celebrities to families.
In other explorations, Tony has enjoyed capturing our environment including ˜Altered Landscapes, which seek to illustrate the hand of man and its’ impact on his surroundings. ‘Creating something from nothing’™, is a common theme behind images such as those in his ‘Concrete Series’. In 2010, 2011 & 2012 he has exhibited jointly in several exhibitions including “52 weeks on - the Pilbara Project”, and “Southwest Light”, and featured in the publications from the same projects. He is currently collaborating on several new projects for exhibition in 2013/2014. Tony conducts many workshops and seminars to both professionals and enthusiasts including annual workshops with other highly regarded professionals. He has been invited to host the annual ‘Nikon Event’ conference in Australia since it’s inception in 2010, and has also been the Master of Ceremonies at the Australian Professional Photography Awards since 2002.
As a professional speaker and presenter Tony brings a broad skill set in the areas of vision, creativity & interpersonal communication, often utilising his amazing images to illustrate various aspects of his message. He has conducted ‘Personal Development’ workshops for professional photographers to fulfil a growing need amongst fellow professionals in dealing with the mindset often needed to address the changes & challenges continually confronting the photographic industry. A qualified Master Practitioner of NLP, (Neuro Linguistic Programming), he has also coauthored a series of 9 books, which stimulate and service the growing demand for information in the area of lifestyle and wellbeing.
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Francisco Diaz
Big Bang
(World Within Worlds). www.fdiazphotos.com
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Marrigje de Maar
Pilgrimage www.takeadreamforawalk
Wild Azalea / 40sec
In April this year I walked a part of the Shikoku Pilgrimage – the 88 temple route on Shikoku Island, Japan. I walked on the footsteps of Takamure Itsue – a young woman who walked this route (ca. 1400km) in 1918. I went on sturdy hiking boots, she only on straw sandals. I often wondered how she must have struggled on those steep slippery hills. A number of these centuries old footpaths are still in use. Other parts of the route are now motor highways. I never walked alone on these trails. I felt strangely connected with those who went there before me. I could almost hear them whisper their stories. To get more distance from reality and more space for reflections, I had planned a special photo experiment. In my backpack I carried two pinhole camera’s ZENO 612F. One was filled with Fuji Reala (color neg.), the other with good old KODAK Tri-x. Every image was taken both in color and B/W. The two neg’s will later be merged in the darkroom.
This complicated procedure is mostly done by intuition. With a pinhole camera framing becomes more guessing than knowing. Mine have no view finders. Also I have to merge the two neg’s in the back of my head. Because of the wind everything keeps moving. Every shoot is a great adventure with little control on what comes on the neg’s. The first step is mine, then I have to let go. Isn’t this the essence of a doing a pilgrimage? This series of pictures are intermediate outcomes of this experimental approach. The merging is here still done digitally, which is not so complicated. But the final images will be printed analog. This will mean double printing – first lighting the color neg, then the B/W on top. Normally one would not publish such early results. The project is still very much “in progress”. But I find these images so interesting, that I am happy to share them with the Australian photographers community. I am very much interested in your reactions. Perhaps we will meet in Ballarat. Otherwise through face-book or e-mail.
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Hell of Sparrow / 20sec
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Mixed Forest / 90sec
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Wild Forest Flowers / 20sec
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Rhodon Denderon / 10sec
Originally I am trained as a social scientist. In 1998 I went to Art School, only in the last year to concentrate on photography. I graduated in 2004 – one week before my 60th birthday. My photographs have been included in several important collections and are extensively exhibited at home and abroad. The highlight was in 2011 with the exhibition “RED ROSES YELLOW RAIN” in the The Museum for Photography Huis Marseille in Amsterdam. At the same time the book with the same name was published by Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart. In this book the work of 6 years has been brought together - over 60 pictures of interiors from China. Last year I traded my Hasselblad in for a pinhole camera. This has changed my work decisively. Instead of being in full control, I now trust on my intition. Time is still an important issue, but in a more active way. Exposure with a pinhole can take up to 45 minutes. All that happens during that period is deposited on the film. In contrast to my former ‘still life’s’ my photo’s are now ‘stacked actions’ – a layered video of one image .
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Hester Scheurwater
Zine Garden Delight www.hesterscheurwater.com 126
Doc Ross
Lost City www.gallery464.co.nz
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The mirrored self-images encompass my private fantasies. They are my way of reacting on the imitated and fake media images, which are constantly calling upon our imagination, without intending to be taken too seriously. I try to deconstruct this call’s effect with my reactions by switching the ’subject-object’ relationship, without being victimised by it. My self-images show I am not a victim of an imposed sexually charged visual culture, instead I give a self-aware answer, in which I try to show my feelings and/or views on the unreal and fake imagery, which is forced upon us daily. This series of photos emerged from a collection of daily uploads on Facebook and my personal blog. In the digital public space, I try to reinforce the exhibitionist nature by presenting them in the context of a living room or a living room setting. In this context exhibitionism and voyeurism come together. Using my own body as a sex object in corresponding poses and an autoerotic gaze I study voyeurism and exhibitionism.
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Hester Scheurwater (1971) studied monumental art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. Under the guise of self-portraits, she investigates and critiques the role of woman as a sex object. Photographs of herself posing before a mirror reflects both Scheurwater’s inner thoughts and outward appearance. “The mirrored self-images are my way of reacting on the imitated and fake media images, which are constantly calling upon our imagination, without intending to be taken too seriously, “ she explains. “ I try to deconstruct this call’s effect with my reactions by switching the ‘subject-object’ relationship, without being victimized by it.” Scheurwater’s work is sexually explicit, and therefore well known.The explicit images in her work are shocking and prompt discussion about the purported sexualisation of society. At the same time, her works also share links with international feminist art. Scheurwater’s videos were part of feminist programs and exhibitions, including those at the Brooklyn Museum and the Blanton Museum of Art in the USA.
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Russell Joslin www.russelljoslin.com
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It is commonly believed that the primary function of dreams is to psychologically balance and compensate for matters left unsettled during our waking hours. In the dream world, the censors of our mind dissipate and the material in our heads becomes fluid and nonlinear—our past memories, fears and desires all surface symbolically, revealing to us a deeper understanding of ourselves. Metaphorically, this is how I have come to understand my photographic work. I see my photographs as visual manifestations of my subconscious mind—images that bypass intellectualization to reveal authentic feeling.
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Russell Joslin has worked primarily in photography beginning in the early 90s. His work has been internationally published and exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. In addition to being a photographer, he is the sole Editor & Publisher of SHOTS Magazine, an independent, reader-supported quarterly journal of fine art photography that reaches an international audience. He lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Terence Stewart Bogue www.tbogue.com
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I am intrigued by façade, costume, uniform and adornment – their role in perception and prejudice. How social mores change with time and place and culture. Where models are cast out and outcasts become models. Where restraint produces freedom, yet freedom is restrained. Where nudity conceals and dress reveals. How social circles wind through circus and burlesque – craving the very passion they condemn. The eye is far quicker than the brain, yet it kindles lasting fantasy. Part of the fascination with photography is that it is such an unpredictable lie. We can only interpret based on personal experience and that experience is so subjective, so momentary, that a strong photograph often produces strong emotions that transcend the mere document. As such it will always be the better for what is left out This is why I see a photograph as merely a trigger to our own memory of substitution.
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Born Brazil 1945, arrived Australia 1974 Born in Brazil and strongly influenced by pioneering photographer Otto Stupakoff. Studied at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, then worked for Adrian Flowers in London before moving to Australia in 1974. Set up a studio in South Melbourne in 1979, specializing in photography for artists, galleries and museums. Photographs are held in private and public collections in Brazil, UK and Australia Including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Castlemaine Art Gallery And the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.
Vikk Shayen www.vikkshayen.com
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I have always been attracted to things and situations that bring out the extraordinary in the ordinary; that plays with your perception of what is real; and that surprises you when seeing the familiar in the unfamiliar and vice-versa. My end goal is very much to bring the audience to a place where the beauty of fantasy is very much real and believable.
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Vikk’s work has been published in various newspapers and magazines and frequently curated on Fashion Served as part of the Behance Network. She studied black and white film photography formally for 2 years and was also shortlisted in the 2004 VCE Top Arts Exhibition. In 2012 Vikk was a finalist in the 2012 Take a Bow Exhibition and Competition; she also participated in the 2012 Kodak Salon that year. Vikk’s commercial work is currently centred on the fashion, performing arts, and commercial advertising industry. Her interest in the visual aesthetics of theatre and film serve as an important source of inspiration when composing or setting up a scene. Her personal work is primarily concerned with perception and how it is created and altered; but she also takes an interest in the notion of displacement, placing the familiar in the unfamiliar and vice-versa. Her main medium is in digital and although she frequently creates digital composites for clients, she prefers to create all her images in-camera where possible. Vikk is a SingaporeanAustralian Photographer based in Melbourne; Performanscape would be her first large-scaled personal work and exhibition.
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Meredith O’Shea
Test Drive www.meredithoshea.com
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My photographs are about people and their stories. I live with my subjects and document what I see. Nothing is premeditated. The images take us to a place that is normally private, sometimes forbidden. Through my lens you see human beings at their most vulnerable. The photographs are confronting to some, but they are everyday realities to many. My photography is not intellectual, but intuitive and comes from my own memories and path in life. I photograph all my people in their own environment. Exploring the classic themes of desire, conflict, and the struggle of humanity, I allow myself to enter complex worlds - their worlds - examining the struggle for power and the domination of individuals. The relationship that I share with my subjects is directly reflected in my images.
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Photojournalist Meredith O’Shea was born and raised in Australia. After traveling Australia in her twenties she settled back in Melbourne and studied photography. Meredith has become known internationally for realistic and haunting images of people within Australia. Over the last 7 years Meredith has walked the streets and suburbs of Melbourne, gaining entry to the homes of her people. She is uniquely able to immerse herself in their lives thus producing evocative images of people at their most vulnerable times. Personal bodies of work have turned into substantial assignments which appear in the Sunday Age newspaper with whom she continues to work for on a freelance basis as one of their senior photojournalists.
In 2008 she was invited to be an exhibitor in the prestigious Angkor photo festival and in 2010 she won a United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award for promotion of multicultural issues for a print and multi-media special, ‘A Passage From India’, created with Senior Sunday Age journalists Michael Bachelard, Martin Daly and Nathaniel Scott the judges called it ‘a superbly revealing study about the issues confronting Indian students’. Again in 2011 she was a Finalist in the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards 2011 - Best Photojournalism Award with her series ‘Westies’. She constantly fights for dignity and equality. To date she remains an optimist.
Kara Rasmanis
An Alphabet of Found and Fallen www.kararasmanis.com
“An alphabet of found and fallen� created by Kara Rasmanis is a series of images shaped from a collection of organic found objects combined with calligraphic Script. With an ever growing collection of insects, seedpods, leaves and grasses the images draw from a rich pool of inspiration. The work is a combination of elements, beginning with photographs as the base and digitally adding many layers of texture and text, all to create something beautiful which would be unachievable using traditional photography alone. Prints on paper and fabric show a patchwork of details which would normally go unnoticed.
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I was born and raised 100km west of Melbourne in Ballarat, a 19th century gold rush town, and grew up in a household of arts and crafts (padded tissue boxes that gave way to elegant and sophisticated embroidery from my mother, and functional and solid woodwork from my father). A passion for all things creative guided me through childhood. In high school I explored the worlds of art and drama where, with the help of my father’s camera, I discovered photography. I received a Bachelor of Illustrative Photography from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2000 and as the world of photography changed from analogue to digital, I continued my education and in 2003 received a Masters of MultiMedia Design from Monash University. My images are a photomontage of lovingly collected objects such as leaves, pins, butterfly wings and lost buttons; items which are normally forgotten but inspire new meaning within my work. I digitally harvest and layer rustic textures with found objects. Taking these images, I then allow hand printed techniques such as my etching press to have the final say in bringing the image to life.
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