OCTOBER 2015
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developments in photography
BETA developments in photography ISSUE 17 editor: Jeff Moorfoot design: Penelope Anne contact: beta@ballaratfoto.org All content in this magazine is Š 2015 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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TALES OF TRANSFORMATION Dida Sundet
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A THIEF IN VENICE John Smallman
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SOUTHERN SKIES WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING Matt Thomson
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CTRL-O
Keith Melder & Jeff Paine
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‘ALTIPLANO’ 2015
Michelle Williams & Silvi Glattauer
Beta Alumni AL RAWI Basil ASFAR Hoda BACON KIDWELL Angela BARKER Mandy BIRD Leon BLACKWOOD Christa BLANCH Alice BODIN John BOGUE Terence Stewart BONANNO Simona BURNSTINE Susan CAGA Jan CARLILE Brad CARTIER F & D CASH Neil CATO John HE Chang Alejandro CHASKIELBERG CONROY Juliette CRAVER Neil CRESPO Carlos CRISPIN Judith DAWSON Alec DE MAAR Marrigje DECYK Slavo DHERVILLERS Nicolas DIAZ Francisco DINIZ Jose
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#4 #2 #5 & #16 #13 #11 & #16 #10 #5 #10 #6 #7 #9 #15 #12 #10 #1 #6 #15 #16 #10 #8 #11 #1 #10 #6 #1 #16 #6 #4
DOBSON Susan DUNPHY Peter DUPONT Stephen DYACHYSHYN Yurko ELMS Greg FAHRENKEMPER Claudia FOURNET Annette GOLDFINCH Karena GOLLINGS John GRIES Patrick GRIFFITH Tim HARDING PITTMAN Robert HARRIS Sam HARSENT Simon HAY John HEWITT Tony HOLLOWAY Craig HOPE Tim HORAN Keith JACKSON Tony JOREN Gerhard JOSLIN Russell KANASHKEVIC Mitchell KATSAROVA Boryana KEARNEY Tony KELLNER Thomas KIRKPATRICK Bear KOZHANOVA Mariya
#13 #4 #16 #4 & #16 #5 #6 #14 #1 #1 #3 #1 #9 #16 #15 #12 #6 #7 #3 #9 #8 #1 #6 #16 #16 #2 #16 #12 #11
view back issues at issuu.com/ballarat_foto_biennale/ KRUGH Kent KURLAT Galina LECHNER Jurgen LIPSKY Clay LONG Jane MACAK Sonia MACRAE Sheena MALEONN MARCIN Ben MARSHALL Steve MASON Belinda MASTERS Michael McCAIG Amber MILLER Nathan MILLOTT Richard MORAN Robert NORTON Michael O’SHEA Meredith PAGE Colin PERETTI Viviana RANKEN Jackie RASMANIS Kara ROGERS PRITZL Michelle ROPP William ROSS Doc ROTHE Frank RUOTED Robert SCHAFFER Rod
#12 #4 #13 #3 #16 #6 #6 #1 & #5 #3 #8 #16 #8 #16 #7 #16 #14 #1 #6 #1 #2 #6 #1 & #6 #13 #14 #6 #9 #5 #2
SCHEURWATER Hester SCIBELLI Anthony SCRIBA J SHAYEN Vikk SHEPPARD Gary SHERROD Judy F SHIM Jai Yon SIMONUTTI Lauren STEVENS S Gayle STONEMAN Emma TACON Dave TADROS Ingetje VANNIER Michéle VANWALLEGHEM Frederick VERSTEEG Greer VINCIGUERRA Guy VLASENKO Vsevolod VUKOBRATOVIC Rina WADDINGTON Rod WERTHEIM Andres WILLIAMS David A WITMAN Deanna WRIGLEY Ben PANG Xiang Liang ZAMMIT LUPI Darrin ZEILON Elisabeth
#6 #9 #16 #2 & #6 #7 #5 #2 #1 #5 #7 #16 #14 #16 #3 #11 #6 #15 #4 #5 #13 #16 #3 #16 #16 #16 #6
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Welcome to edition number seventeen of BETA developments in photography, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale free online portfolio magazine. Our mantra is ‘short on words – high on images’ And this month is no exception. Our featured artists in this issue are all photographers who participated in the Fringe exhibition program at BIFB’15. There were 123 shows in the Fringe this year, spread over more than 80 venues throughout Ballarat. The BIFB Fringe program is not curated. It is open entry, and any photographic artist who can come to an agreement with a venue to turn over their wall space for the duration of the festival can take part. There is no selection panel. The agreement is solely between the venue, of which we publish a list of around 100 spaces willing to take a show each festival, and the artist. As a result the BIFB Fringe program covers an extreme range of subject matter, styles and proficiencies, and that’s how we like it!
We feature here five folios from shows that caught my eye this festival. Two of these were collaborations and the remainder were solo shows. Keith Melder and Jeff Pain collaborated on ‘Ctrl-O’ which was presented upstairs at the Mitchell Harris Wine Bar in Doveton Street. ‘Southern Skies; while you were sleeping’ featured Matt Thomas’ nocturnal landscapes at the Ballaarat Yacht Club & Café on Lake Wendouree. John Smallman showed his three pronged series ‘A Thief in Venice’ at the Forge Pizzeria in Armstrong Street. Silvi Glattauer and Michelle Williams exhibited their collaboration of South American landscapes ‘Altiplano’ in the Backspace Gallery on Alfred Deakin Place and Dida Sundet showed her Norse fairytale inspired ‘Tales of Transformation’ at Wolves Children Art Space in Hummfray Street. If you didn’t make it to Ballarat for the festival, this edition of BETA developments in photography
will give you a bit of a feel for the diversity of the Fringe Program, and of course you can see the full listing of all the shows in our online BIFB’15 Fringe Guide at issuu.com/ballarat _ foto_ biennale And looking forward to the eighteenth edition of BETA developments in photography we will present five folios that were part of the BIFB’15 Projections Program for your December viewing pleasure.
Cheers
BETA Editor BIFB Creative Director
Tales of Transformation DIDA SUNDET
NØKKEN
Tales of Transformation is an ongoing body of work that explores the concept of actively displacing a selection of Norwegian myths and folktales in an Australian landscape, cultivating a space inbetween two diverse cultures. The works are created through light painting – a technique that creates a symbolic space removed from the familiar. It is almost removed from any specific location; it is a place of in-between, much like where I, as an expat, find myself. It is a place where I let past and present collide and examine the bits that disappear and the ones that merge and form new meaning; sometimes it is a slow rumble, at other times a volcanic eruption.
Through these light paintings I offer insight into traditional and emerging cultural patterns, allowing viewers to engage with meticulously constructed image worlds without the need to understand their specific symbolism. The act of translation, be it of language or cultural symbols, entails a loss of some sort; loss followed by transformation and rebirth. The tales are transformed in translation from one cultural context to another and allowed to grow to see what remains, what is lost, what translates, if anything, and what is created when past, present and future is merged to re-form an idea of home.
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KORNSTAUR
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FOX
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TRE SITRONER LEGS
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TRE SITRONER
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TYRIHANS
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L-R | TROLL 1 | TROLL 2 | TROLL 3
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SORIA MORIA
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VALEMON
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HULDRA
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Dida Sundet is a Norwegian artist living in Melbourne, Australia. She works with a number of techniques to create her work, ranging from staged photography to sculpture and installation. Since 2007 Sundet has devoted her artistic career to specialising in light painting. Her constructed and meticulously staged photographs explore identity, displacement and storytelling. Her most recent work situates the imagination as site for the construction of trans-identities and poetic realities. It unites aspects from an extensive background in theatre, film and photography in both Norway and Australia. Dida’s image ‘3 Sitroner’ [3 lemons] was awarded 1st place in the category for Night Photography, non professional, in the International Photography Awards, 2013. She has exhibited widely in both Norway and Australia.
website: didasundet.com
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HUGHR
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a thief in venice
JOHN SMALLMAN
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In my recent work I travelled to one of the most photographed spots on earth, Venice. Photographing an area so familiar to everyone is a risky business for any photographer. So I set out to find stories that I hoped would portray Venice differently. Stories that would allow me to express my own interpretation of this wonderful Venetian region with its unique culture and heritage.
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The result is an unfinished body of work that explores these stories under the title: “A thief in Venice”. The self portrait is the only break away from this endeavour. The backstreets. The tourists don’t come here, they never do. This is where the Venetians live. It’s dark, it’s raining and when the lights come on, it looks like a film set, a stage. But the actors here are the real people who have lived on these waters since the fourth century.
Burano. This island is famous for hand made lace and for the brightly coloured houses that line its small canals. It appears that everything has been designed and carefully art directed right down to the arrangement of washing that adorns the front of each house. Working the canals. There are no roads, no cars, no trucks. Every delivery, every service, every task relies on the people who work the canals. Overlooked by the 60,000 tourists who visit Venice each day, these workers are some of the friendliest and hardest working people on the islands. Venice could not operate without them. 33
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John Smallman got his first camera, a Kodak Box Brownie, at the age of ten. [he still has it today] Educated at Eltham High School, the learning place of many noted artists, writers, and musicians. This led him to study arts at RMIT. After leaving college he set out on a career in advertising, working as an illustrator, designer and art director. Photography was always part of this life and along with advertising, he photographed yachting championships both here and overseas for an Australian yachting magazine. His success in advertising saw him achieve creative director status working at a number of leading international agencies. John’s interest in photography and the moving image saw him break away from agency life to achieve success as a commercial film director in his own film production company. But come 2004 he decided to devote full time to his passion for photography. website: johnsmallman.com
BURRUMBEET AURORA
Southern Skies While You Were Sleeping MATT THOMSON
Southern Skies while you were sleeping was my debut exhibition. It combined my love of photography, beautiful landscapes and the awe inspiring night sky. These images showcase some of the amazing sights I have captured out in the cool crisp night air, while most people were sleeping.
Why do I shoot at night? For me there is enjoyment and awe found in the night sky, the sights you can see with your eyes are amazing. The sights the camera captures are even more so. Urban sprawl and light pollution are growing at an exponential rate and I’m finding I need to go further for dark skies. I want to capture these images so the beauty that is always out there isn’t lost or only seen from space. I want my kids to know the beauty in the night sky.
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AROUND BALLARAT
HOBART
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L-R | HEAVENS ABOVE | ROAD TO MILKY WAY | TO INFINITY AND BEYOND
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CANAL ROCKS [2]
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TOP | RAINBOW OF STARS
BALCONIES | BOTTOM
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BLAMPIED CHURCH
SCARSDALE AURORA
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PT ROADKNIGHT
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BLAMPIED BRIDGE
BURRUMBEET AURORA [3]
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CROUCHING TRACTOR HIDDEN GOAT
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CANAL ROCKS
SCARSDALE AURORA PANO
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L-R | MACKENZIES | THE REMARKABLES
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Photography has always been in his blood, living in Victoria his whole life and son of a photographer, Matt Thomson has always been drawn to landscapes and enjoys being able to convey a sense of actually being in a beautiful location to the audience. It all started one fateful night in 2009 while on holidays, while planning to shoot a tourist attraction without the tourists around. He was amazed at what a DSLR could capture, not only the light on the landscape but also the amazing vista in the sky.
Now a father of 2, night time photography provides him with the opportunity to spend a lot of time with his growing family, while still pursuing his photographic passion. Family and photography were the primary reasons to move to Ballarat and rural Victoria in 2013. After spending years honing his nightscape skills, he has now widened his focus to exploring the local community and landscapes at all times of the day and night.
Since then, astrophotography and nightscapes have become his passion and primary focus in photography. From improving equipment and developing skills to even family holidays, all were planned around opportunities to capture the wonder of the night sky.
SUGAR LOAF MOON RISE
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Ctrl-O
KEITH MELDER & JEFF PAINE
Immerse yourself in the surreal world of CTRL-O [Control – Zero] This series reinvents the traditional beauty of still-life imagery through the application of unconventional constructs. Using high speed photography the artists capture the ephemeral beauty of flowers shattering or dissolving into liquids. Demonstrating both technical and creative ingenuity, CTRL-O delivers a body of work that is electric and visually stimulating.
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Keith Melder is a highly motivated digital artist and has been pursuing photography as a creative medium for over 12 years. His dedication and high degree of discipline always delivers a professionally crafted image. Jeff Paine’s work is pretty good, but looks even more alive and amazing when it’s hanging on YOUR wall!!
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‘Altiplano’ 2015
MICHELLE WILLIAMS & SILVI GLATTAUER
SALT FLATS UYUNI BOLIVIA 2 [DETAIL]
These South American, Altiplanic landscapes are topographical storyboards that read like textural braille. The hyperreality that is often associated with contemporary landscape photography is replaced here with an abstract and elusive aesthetic, that narrates Greek Mythologies of Fire, Water, Earth & Air.
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ALTIPLANO I
ALTIPLANO II
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SALT FLATS UYUNI BOLIVIA 7
SALT FLATS UYUNI BOLIVIA 3
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SALT FLATS UYUNI BOLIVIA 1
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ALTIPLANO III
ALTIPLANO IV
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ALTIPLANO V
ALTIPLANO VI
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SALT FLATS UYUNI BOLIVIA 5
The central themes in Silvi Glattauer’s work relate to nature, unique forms and precious beauty, with a connecting thread about materiality, about object, and about preciousness. Her images are about beauty as felt by the sense of sight and touch. Silvis approach is to collect, to archive, to classify and to record. Her natural objects represent narratives and archives and evolve to become storyboards of time and places. She has exhibited throughout Australia and abroad, most recently at the Museum of Victoria. Major achievements include winning the prestigious Nillumbik Prize, selected artist in residence for Inkmasters, Cairns, and commissioned by state government to create a documentary series for bushfire recovery celebrations in 2014. Her work is held in many private and public collections, including the Albury and Geelong Regional Galleries, Melbourne Museum, Monash Gallery of Art and Nillumbik Shire council.
website: silvi.com.au
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Michelle Williams is an award winning Melbourne based freelance photographer specializing in architecture, interior and lifestyle imagery. Her unique approach combines a contemporary and sophisticated quality; she is notable for her attention to detail and atmospheric lighting, delivering clients with powerful imagery. She enjoys working closely with architects and designers to create and develop strong visual representations, which meet the requirements of any assignment. Her personal work has been included in both solo and group exhibitions, including her current exhibition ‘Salar de Uyuni’ which features ethereal & abstract landscapes developed on a self funded photographic trip through South America.
website: michellewilliams.com.au
SALT FLATS UYUNI BOLIVIA 4
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