RMIT Diploma of Photography

1 Introduction

2 Kalli Binos

4 Matthew Dowton

6 Zhongxin Guo

8 Mary-Ellen Lane

10 Kate McGovern

12 Gabe Murdoch

14 Anisah Paracha

16 Josh Rountos

18 Wenyi Shi

20 Joshua Ta

22 Daniel Williams

24 Weiyan Wu

In the spirit of reconciliation RMIT University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Cover image

© Anisah Paracha

As you flip through the pages of this catalogue, encourage you to think about how the students who produced these works have demonstrated resilience beyond what anyone could have expected. All our diploma students are graduates from last year’s Certificate IV, meaning they committed to the arduous task of learning studio photography during lockdown. At a critical point in their professional and artistic development, these students found themselves bereft of the standard tools and spaces of photographic pedagogy and had to expect of themselves high standards of independence, creativity and intuition. This collection of works speaks for itself in terms of its individuality and grit.

I’ve not taught in this program for long, but, so far, the experience has been enlightening. It has been a pleasure to witness the 2022 Diploma of Photography and Digital Imaging cohort combine various industry facets in constructing their final graduate exhibition. While juggling their studies with industry opportunities, the students have demonstrated a joyful camaraderie, in spite of adversity.

Photographers are guided by creative impulses while also being dedicatedly proficient, intent on mastering craft. The pages of this catalogue show the immersion of industry focus alongside photographic excellence. This year’s students of developed many new skills: they built an online brand and began marketing themselves; they learned to raise funds and manage finances while designing a catalogue and creating their folios; and finally, they have this exhibition to share with you.

The images you see highlight a group of passionate creatives who are ready to take the next professional step of their life and work. In moments like this, the benefit of vocational education and specialist training is impossible to ignore. I am dedicated to sharing the value vocational education continues to bring to the creative sector, and to the wide array of students engaged in our courses. Photography was one of the first courses offered by RMIT, extending back to the 1880s. The rich history of our program has established a tradition of award-winning graduates and successful careers.

It is curious to think of what the original custodians of the program would think of the landscape of photography today. Photography no longer belongs only to specialised craftspeople, but has been ‘democratised’ across global social media. The power of the photograph – its ability to hold truth and deceit simultaneously – has created new trials for our students to overcome as they step out into the world. They take with them more than the knowledge of how to craft a beautiful image; they hold in their hands the power to challenge manipulations and share the truth.

I commend these students for interpreting the world through their own lens to produce this collection of mesmerising works. You have already demonstrated significant strength; after such a beginning, what can’t you achieve?

DR TYLER PAYNE PROGRAM COORDINATOR, PHOTOGRAPHY AND DIGITAL IMAGING CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, COLLEGE OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Kalli Binos is a photographer and budding digital artist based in Melbourne. Kalli is passionate about drawing and has a keen attention to detail. Kalli first picked up a camera when she went to a local event as a teenager, and has loved photography ever since. While studying at RMIT, Kalli has enjoyed developing works with a focus on food, products, travel, architecture, and capturing behind-thescenes photographs in film studios. After completing her studies, Kalli would like to work as a photographer’s assistant to further her skills and expand her knowledge of the photography industry. Kalli’s folio demonstrates her love of food and still-life photography. Her practice is influenced by abstract photographers utilising shadows, reflections, and a broad range of colours and tones to bring out her ideas.

Matthew uses his photographic practice to engage in the many philosophical and sociological questions of humanity. He does this by documenting the world around him, forever searching for the finer details which provide answers to these questions of existence.

Matthew utilises analogue techniques to create images which have a distinctive imperfection and rawness to them. This process forces him to slow down and take a considered approach to his images. In his final project, he is exploring ideas such as faith, connection, and purpose. After completing his diploma, Matthew wishes to travel around Europe and explore the various cultures, architecture and people to further explore storytelling and imagery. He hopes this will lead him to working in the documentary and fine art sector of photography.

Zhongxin Guo (Slender) is a fine art portrait photographer. He is adept at discovering structures and rules in space and capturing a series of moments with characters as subjects. In his eyes, the perception and emotion of the characters can be concretised. In his photos, the characters and the environment interact and integrate with each other.

Mary-Ellen is a Melbourne photographer with a strong love of travel and food, which she uses to inspire the direction of her work. In high school she adopted her dad’s old Olympus OM-1, with which she learnt to perfect the basics of photography as well as printing her own images in the darkroom. After travelling to 27 countries spanning every continent, Mary-Ellen decided it was time to study photography. At first she intended to broaden her landscape and documentary work, but soon found photographing food – influenced by the likes of Gourmet Traveller – was a style she could incorporate alongside her passion for travel.

Outside of RMIT, Mary-Ellen works at a craft brewery where she has developed a love for craft beer. This fed into her documentary work, creating a book based on women of the brewing industry in Melbourne. As part of her documentary path, Mary-Ellen worked the recent COVID pandemic into her practice. She explored the change in people’s relationships with food and cooking after extended periods of lockdown. Her final folio follows her closest friends and their food journeys through the lockdowns. The photographs explore the visual narrative of her friends conquering recipes they had always wanted to try but never had the time to attempt, whether that be an experimental cocktail or an old family recipe. Mary-Ellen’s photo practice brings together her desire to share stories alongside great food.

Kate McGovern allows sentimentality to pilot her through the creative process when capturing photographic work. While currently working as a live music photographer, Kate’s attention was piqued by fine art portraiture throughout her studies at RMIT and the diverse range of effects able to be achieved through studio lighting.

Encouraging her audience to embrace vulnerability, Kate utilises emotive imagery to delve into the relationship between music and its effect on the individual in her final folio. Her knowledge of lighting techniques allows her to express a variety of emotions, which she communicates through colour, shadow, and shape to translate the mental imagery she experiences in response to different pieces of music.

Kate enjoys a multifaceted approach to working in the studio. Upon the completion of her Diploma, she hopes to continue to hone her skillset in all roles by working as a professional assistant while also further developing her ability to communicate through visual imagery.

Gabe Murdoch is determined to be a great artist. He is constantly evolving his style with each new project, exploring new ways to express emotion through his work. Gabe finds himself working across many photographic genres: skateboarding, events, and ecommerce to name a few. Most recently, through the guidance of RMIT University, he has been exploring the worlds of surrealism and editorial fashion. In his final project, Gabe seeks to express emotion through his photographs in a way unlike any of his previous work. With the works of Irving Penn as his launch pad, he explores his thoughts on the human condition through the lens of surrealist portraiture.

After completing the diploma, Gabe hopes to enter the editorial and commercial fashion industries as an assistant while continuing to hone his craft as a creative.

Anisah Paracha is a photographer who is open to capturing the world around her. She has been dedicated to photography since she first picked up a camera in high school. Anisah is inspired by art in the world around her, choosing to create a series of fine art portraits for her end-ofyear folio. The series displays different types of emotions using masks and composites to hide the subject’s face, conveying the feeling of anxiety and the various types of masked expressions that accompany it.

After completing her diploma at RMIT, Anisah hopes to continue investigating different concepts and genres in photography, while gaining experience in the industry and working as an assistant photographer. 0452

Josh Rountos always found pleasure in taking photos with friends. This developed into a passion for photography, which he now credits for his love of editorial fashion and portraiture. He finds a profound sense of accomplishment planning, creating, and finishing his photo shoots as part of a team. Furthermore, he has found assisting work in the commercial photography industry while studying full time. Josh’s folio demonstrates his ability to manage and complete complex shoots. His photographs display his nuance for editorial fashion while highlighting the issue of eco-friendly clothing.

In the future, Josh seeks to gain more work in the photography industry whilst improving his own photographic practice.

Wenyi (Stella) Shi is a photographer whose practice is focused between portraiture and surrealism. Wenyi has a close relationship with photography, as she has been committed to learning the craft since high school. Since then she has cultivated her interest in photography and improved her aesthetic appreciation. Wenyi takes pride in engaging in an industry that she is passionate about. It is her belief that a photographer is a creator who shows the beauty of the mundane and encourages people to feel. It is Wenyi’s aim to encourage people to resonate with her work.

Joshua is a Melbourne photographer with a spontaneous approach to finding content to shoot. However, his determination for perfection with his outputs leaves him obsessing over the technical aspects of his photographic practice. Josh always has a particular eye for even the tiniest details –whatever they may be.

This obsession has encouraged Joshua’s interest in macro photography, and he has since been introduced to the resolution that medium-format cameras offer. With such, he has also been able to branch out to vast panoramic shots that capture incredible depth in every interaction. Detail is his focus.

Daniel Williams is a photographer who operates under the moniker Mossy Rock Productions, which represents his love of living green things. He lives within the Wombat State Forest, which keeps him connected to complex ecologies and sources of inspiration.

Daniel explores ways to combine traditional techniques such as cyanotype and anthotype with modern digital techniques. This process keeps his work connected to important historical points of reference, as well as maintaining environmentally responsible processes at the centre of his practice.

Daniel has explored ecological and environmental themes through meaningful partnerships with scientists and visual artists, producing a documentary book, stop motion animation, and fine art documentation photographs. These works have featured in the Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Lightscape, Gertrude Street Projection Festival, CS Gallery Windows, Hyphen – Wodonga Library Gallery, and online for Landcare and Melbourne Water. 0422

Weiyan Wu claims that documentary photography has always been her first love within the craft. She is motivated to capture details and the small things in the world. Since commencing study at RMIT, Weiyan has had various experiences across fine art, creative portraiture and fashion.

Hanying is an international student from China. Her interest in photography began in high school through studying visual art and graphic design, where she specialised in design and photography. What initially began as a hobby turned to a passion: Hanying decided to follow both her creative side and her heart, to study photography at RMIT.

Hanying loves to capture the detail and beauty in the mundane. She creates images that have a natural aesthetic and are full of colour. While studying at RMIT, Hanying developed an interest in portraiture, still life and documentary photography. In her final folio series, Hanying uses colour and light techniques uniquely, applying them to portrait and still-life images in a way that supports the storytelling of the photographs.

Haoyu (Thompson) Zhang is an absolute ‘portraitist’: he believes every different person is a book you can read. Every part of a person is unique – you can read emotions in a person’s eyes, you can see personality in the way they dress, and you can tell what they have been through by the scars on their skin. A good portrait photograph can make the audience want to explore the story themselves. This captivates Thompson.

As such, Thompson will continue to progress on the path of portrait photography and produce work that satisfies him. Thompson hopes to become the kind of photographer that he wishes he could be.

Yupei Zhang is a new scholar in the field of photographic art. She hopes to record all the exquisite things she observes in the world through digital visual art. Yupei is currently experimenting in the field of microphotography: she tries to lead the observer to see ordinary things from another angle and form new definitions; to break people’s stereotypes, and to focus on the intangibles of still life, feeling their own energy.

After completing the diploma, Yupei hopes to continue exploring visual art and develop her creativity with more different digital media. 0451

Noora was born in Iran; she lived in Turkey for five years and now resides in Melbourne. She decided to withdraw from pharmaceutical science and pursue studying photography at RMIT. Noora is a principled artist and is focused on demonstrating a hardworking ethic in the studio. Noora is motivated to capture feelings in her work, which she leaves open to the viewer’s interpretation.