Pictures from the edge

Photos recording the family life of a Northern Rivers woman raising two children in poverty in Bangalow has been accepted into Australia’s largest photographic event.

In March Margaret Dean, who now lives at Wyan, near Casino, decided to send a portfolio of her pictures to the Head On Photo Festival.

sought equality, albeit the equal distribution of resources for all. Such petty practitioners of lofty ideals, converted a genuinely promising approach to life, into a fish that would time and time again, simply come to rot directly from the head down.

If the leaders of Communist countries didn’t betray and abuse the cause from within, then the bureaucrats in Capitalist nations saw to it that Communism would become a fully demonised ideology, to be condemned and avoided at all costs. As Marx himself once said, “Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.” And thanks to the menial likes of the American Senator, Joseph McCarthy, and the then head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, Communism would become tainted with a toxic red brush – right up to the present day.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’d much rather have a “red under my bed” than a pennypinching mogul crouching over me in my sleep. Somehow it ever irks me to think Communism was something that slipped through our fingers; and certainly, compared to the astronomical riches for the few, and the abject poverty for the many, of Capitalism. Marx was being more than a little tongue-in-cheek when he once noted, “Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.”

Let’s just hope then, that the shrewd inclination, albeit craving for profit that has characterised humanity for centuries, doesn’t fully ‘put paid’ to us all, in the time that we have left to correct a ledger that is long overdue.

The festival, held at Bondi for from November 10 to December 3, prides itself on its collection of “beautiful, eclectic and thought-provoking images”.

Ms Dean said she could not have been more excited at having her works chosen for the exhibition.

“I’ve never really put myself out there,” she said. “I’ve ever tried to get any attention for my photographs.

“I didn’t know if they were of interest to anybody. You know they are just family.”

Ms Dean who was diagnosed as neurodiverse with autism, at the age of 54, long after she took these pictures, has produced images that give an insight into her world.

“Looking back, these images represent the margins we have lived in: on the edge of town, under the poverty line, and in the fringes of society,” she said.

Ms Dean said when she saw the call for submissions she thought maybe they could be of interest for other people.

She sent in 20 photos taken over eight years while her two children grew up in their rented home at Bangalow and the judges chose 10 to be be part of the exhibition.

As a frst time exhibitor she had no idea what might happen.

“I had just about given up on them,” she said. “Then at the end of April I was told my photos were on the short list of entries.

“Then I had to wait another three months, till of the world, like other people are, then your home becomes a safe space for you because it’s the only space where you can be yourself without judgment,” she said.

“That’s what I see when I look at these images.” looking at now, but I didn’t understand it back then.”

But over time she said she has added onto that feeling.

“The wider setting of the images is we were living in Bangalow at a time when it was undergoing great change.

“I think we had the cheapest house to rent in town and it was at that time the fnancially disadvantaged residents the people who rented, but who had only income, were being pushed out by rising rents.

Head On Photo Festival creative director and founder Moshe Rosenzveig OAM, said the event accepted one of the highest numbers of works to date.

“What’s unique about this festival - and unseen in any other gallery in Australia - is that we aren’t selecting the artists, rather the artwork based on its composition and merit alone,” Mr Rosenzveig said around July before I knew they had been accepted.”

“The majority of portrait competitions are judged on the celebrity of the photographer or subject, meaning so many incredible works are not seen.

Ms Dean said she had been “sitting on” the photos for more than 10 years, quietly thinking they were good enough.

“They tell a story about something and maybe it’s worth other people seeing them,” she said.

Ms Dean said the photos were about belonging, yet never feeling like you’re part of the world.

“When you feel like you’re not quite a part

“When I look back at these pictures, all the families that my daughter went to school with. They’re no longer there.

“Most of them are gone. Unless they owned their own home, they’re no long there. It was like this pushing out of the poorer residents.”

She described why she called the selection of photographs In Margins.

“When I look at it I just see how looking back over my life, now that I know about my neurodiversity, I can see it in the photos,” she said.

“I can see what I’m

“At Head On the pieces are submitted blindly, so the selection panel doesn’t know who the photographer is. We don’t care where they went to school, or where they have exhibited before. We’re trying to eliminate that bias.”

Over the years, Head On Foundation has put $700,000 in cash and products back into the arts industry through the Head On Photo Awards and supported thousands of photographic artists by producing and promoting their exhibitions.