Andrew Quilty and David Maurice Smith in the midst of Hurricane Sandy

Check out the powerful coverage of the storm and aftermath by Oculi photographers Andrew Quilty and David Maurice Smith!
Oculi coverage of Hurricane Sandy

Living at the edge of Kings Cross

I was stunned this evening that my photograph of an infamous Kings Cross character had won the Kings Cross Photographic Prize!  The photograph was taken a split second before she photographed me during her nightly beat in the Cross. Sadly I found out that had she passed away recently. Rest in Peace dear soul...

Winner of the Kings Cross Photographic Prize 2012 © Tamara Voninski

Another of my Kings Cross images was a finalist in the exhibition.
This was taken outside my apartment in the early hours of the morning.when I lived on the edge of the Cross. I was very amused to discover the image was moved to a location in the exhibition where children would not walk past it.

Finalist in the Kings Cross Photographic Prize 2012 © Tamara Voninski

"Water hole"- the mythological underworld of Narelle Autio

Narelle Autio's new exhibition "Water hole" set deep underwater in the outback of Australia,

reveals a dark mysterious world beyond most human experience.  “Her underwater landscapes contain an element of dark fantasy, like the mythological underworld of Persephone” (Stills Gallery).

Persephone, the Queen of the underworld in ancient Greek mythology lived in a dark landscape that that is analogous to the underwater world and altered state of visual consciousness as documented in the Narelle’s photographs.

©Narelle Autio
Exhibition card from "Water hole" at Stills Gallery

The vivid saturated colours of her previous series "Coastal Dwellers" and "Watercolours" transitions to a subtle palette of blue, green, and earth tones in "Water hole".

At the opening of the exhibition at Stills Gallery in Sydney, I feel I have taken a head first plunge into an abyss where shafts of light reflect and glisten like a diamond caught by a strong light inside a dark cave.  

I feel as if I have been immersed into a cold underwater world filled with buried treasures that are uncovered and reflected in the luminous prints and light box. Narelle's inquisitive eye for the tension between the mystery and poetry of the world of water create an eerie vista.

Years ago traveling through the interior of Australia, I visited some of the same water holes where Narelle has photographed. In 1999, I remember walking alone along an isolated path in the Northern Territory and feeling as though there were eyes watching me.  The fear of crocodiles made me turn back and not plunge into the beautiful water. There are warning signs for crocodiles around many water holes in remote parts of Australia. According to Narelle, the photos from the exhibition are not from areas where saltwater crocodiles frequent. Each plunge into her underwater abyss, however, is like a liquid mirror of goddess Persephone’s world of fear and beauty.

The photographs were captured during a recent six-month journey through the interior of Australia with her partner, Trent Parke and their two children. I asked Narelle where her children were during her shoots. "Sometimes the boys were down the river with Trent and other times they were floating above me," she said.  This is one of the many things that inspire me about Narelle's work/life ethos and her art of being a mother and creating beautiful photographs.

Narelle was one of the original members of Oculi. I worked with her for many years as Oculi went from a grass-roots photographic movement to an internationally recognized collective.  Although she left the Oculi a few years ago, her warm spirit, energy and vision is reflected in the foundations of Oculi and her approach to documenting the everyday in Australia is an inspiration

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“Water hole” is a mystical visual landscape in a deep dark underwater world. The 28 untitled prints linger in my memory long after leaving the darkened gallery.  This is a must-see exhibition that is running concurrently at Stills Gallery in Sydney until August 25th, 2012 and

Hugo Michell Gallery in Adelaide.

Media today…“My career ended while I was in the bathroom”

Media today…This link is a wonderful soulful read “My career ended while I was in the bathroom”  by David Sheets about how and where he found out he was being lay-off from the newspaper where he has worked for the past 14 years in the U.S.  The article is particularly insightful as photographers, journalists, subeditors, designers, etc. across Australia wait to hear if their jobs will be made redundant.  Fairfax redundancies will be announced soon and News Ltd job losses are still unfolding.  Many of my colleagues ponder the future as their chosen career in journalism will end.  In Australia, there will be few options to remain in traditional media and many talented people will be rethinking and retraining.  It is a sad, uncertain time in media around the world.

http://dksheets.posterous.com/my-career-ended-while-i-was-in-the-bathroom

"The MERCY project": publishing, vision & soul

James Whitlow Delano is an amazing visionary with a unique & haunting beautiful way of seeing and photographing the world. The book “The Mercy Project/ Inochi” with the renowned book designer Giorgio Baravalle of de.MO. is a piece of publishing art with heart & soul and includes 118 photographers from around the world. I was one of the photographers asked by James to contribute to his vision and project “Mercy”. The book is now available through photoeye with proceeds going to hospice care. The photographs and concept will stay with you for many years after viewing page after page of soulful images. 

James Whitlow Delano said: “I posed one question to photographers I have met all over the world, after the untimely passing of my sister, Jeanne, and last member of my nuclear family: ‘share with me one photograph that says to you ‘MERCY’.  Such a body of work I hoped, could contribute in a meaningful, concrete way in the effort to expand awareness about the critical role that enlightened hospice care can play, as it is likely to touch the lives of most families worldwide some time in the course of their lives.”

 “The Mercy Project” was published in 2010 shortly after my son was born. "Angels" © Tamara Voninski

My caption for the photograph "Angels":

A few years ago as my grandmother lay dying of cancer and she was transferred from a hospice to her home to die, my father asked me if I had any last words I wanted to say to her.  As I was living in Australia and my grandmother was dying in New York State, I realized that my 36 hour voyage via airplanes would not guarantee a hug goodbye in person.  My father suggested that I send an email to say goodbye, but I couldn't find the words.  What does one say? How can I capture the essence of a final message in words?  Instead, I sent a photograph of a group of angels on an escalator to symbolize the celestial world of the spirits of the afterlife that will take care of her on the other side. She looked at the photograph and nodded that she understood.  She passed away that evening.   In many ways, it is the most meaningful photograph I have ever captured because it was my long-distance goodbye to a family member.

The book includes well-known photographers from Magnum, Noor, VII, National Geographic Magazine as well as art photographers around the world.

The Making of The Mercy Project / Inochi is now on Vimeo and an insightful multimedia piece about the background and production of the project.

To order a copy of the book visit:

Photoeye

Amazon Japan

James Whitlow Delano is based in Tokyo, Japan.  He was in Australia las month showing his work from "Black Tsunami" which has been published recently as an ipad book (Foto Evidence through the itunes store).

Outward looking, inward looking: Female perspectives

It is often said that we can learn from the generations that precede us.
In Australia, the work of women photographers was often disregarded or ignored
compared to the colourful history of the globe-trotting, war-covering Aussie male photographers. 

Emerging in recent years, are bodies of work being exhibited and published of women photographers who were shooting closer to home in the past 30-50 years.

Several wonderful exhibitions on around Sydney at the moment feature the insightful perspectives of women photographers. The exhibitions range from subject matter that is outward looking as well as projects that are like autobiographical reflections in a mirror. In particular, two exhibitions at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, located in Gymea in the southern suburbs of Sydney are a must-see before June 24th 2012.

The exquisite, intimate prints by photographers Sue Ford and Ingeborg Tyssen are a highlight of the Head On Photography Festival.  Sue Ford’s “Time Machine” with self-portraits from 1960-2006, as well as her 1960’s & 1970’s portraits of women struck a deep chord within me. Somehow, I think they would have been pleased to see a female photographer wheeling a sleeping child in a pram around the gallery, relating to and soaking up inspiration from the feminist perspective of their own stolen moments.

Axel, my son & muse, at the exhibition.

One of Ford’s exhibition placards reads:

“Ford’s interest in self-portraiture was complex and informed by

various concerns.  Central to these concerns was the fact that

self-portraiture can be produced without needing to rely on others.

Ford regularly commented on the restrictions that face many female

artists: family commitments, economic constraints or lack of access to

networks, technology and expertise. Throughout the history of women’s

art, Ford noted, these factors have often limited women to using their

immediate environment as source material for their work.  Ford often

used herself as the basis of her work, not simply because it was

expedient, but also because in doing so she inserted herself into the

history of women’s practice and illuminated its distinctive features.”

In the next room,  “Ingeborg Tyssen: Photographs” was published as a monograph (T&G Publishing) by her photographer husband John Williams as a loving tribute to her life and work following her tragic accidental death in 2002. Tyssen’s work spans several genres, however, her photographs of people in the urban environment are the most powerful in this exhibition. Her black and white street photography from the 1970’s and 1980’s are, in my opinion, nothing short of extraordinary. Her images in public spaces and swimming pools in streams of light present as beautifully stark and candid moments that withstand the test of time. Photography critic Robert McFarlane wrote “… an artist using black and white photography had been able to almost sculpt figures in light from the enveloping seemingly impenetrable, darkness to underscore the sense of urban isolation of busy cities….”

Sadly, both women have passed away and I never met them.  However, I feel a deep and soulful empathy with them after viewing these prints. I wonder after seeing the exhibition, whose imagery in my own generation of women photographers will endure the years and resonate with the next.

Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre

Dreamworlds featured on LIGHT JOURNEYS

A selection of Tamara Voninski's ongoing visual narrative

"Dreamworlds" is featured on "Light Journey's".

© Tamara Voninski

'Dreamworlds is an exploration of waking dreams and stark reality
weaved from a tapestry of fleeting moments captured in black and
white. I have dedicated my creative life to capturing ordinary moments
that people pass by each day, but often never really see. The project
spans several years wandering the streets and exploring the public and
private spheres of the world I live and dream in.'

Select works from "Dreamworlds" will be featured over the coming
months on http://www.tamaravoninski.com.au

Light Journeys

“Would Henri Cartier-Bresson use an iphone to capture decisive moments if he lived in this day and age?”

Renaissance in Street Photography (part2) 

© Michael Baranovic

 

Why does iphoneography make many of my contemporaries nervous about the future of photography in Australia and beyond? The iPhone and online sharing are no longer just about mediocre photos of pets, flowers and sunsets. In this fast moving world of technology a new horizon in street photography is evolving and the lines are shifting rapidly as moments are captured, shared immediately and followed online by large international audiences.

Henri Cartier-Bresson had a dance of stealth as he moved deftly like a spy with the grace of a ballerina with his hidden Leica's capturing the world around him. Would the ‘father of street photography’ use an iphone and instagram to capture and publish his decisive moments if he lived in this day and age?

Watching Michael "Misho" Baranovic, a Melbourne based iphoneographer, work is like watching a piece of visual magic unfold. I was sitting across a table from him at the European cafe in Melbourne last month prior to the opening of the G-street Photography exhibition we had both judged. Eric John Kim from L.A. who had been teaching workshops to the next generation of street photographers in Australia was also there and he was telling me about street photographers around the world returning to film, not megapixels.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the subtlety of using a small device that cloaks the conspicuous photographer with big cameras and lenses into the invisible graceful street photographer.  Watching Misho, the potentiality for street photography with an iphone widened and converged before my eyes. A beautiful woman had walked into the cafe and she sat alone waiting for someone. The air was filled with tension and anticipation as she watched the door. In this fleeting moment he captured the beauty and energy at the next table with his camera discreetly on his phone.

© Michael Baranovic

Photographers I know around Australia are currently strongly divided on their opinions of iphoneography (the current iphone4s supersedes all other phones for quality of image): one opinion has a vehement disdain for this version of photography, the second opinion doesn't care what camera or device a photographer uses as long as the photos are good, the third opinion has absolutely embraced iphoneography, its immediacy, and an audience of online followers.

There are so many cameras in people's pockets and everyone is documenting their world. This is the true "democratisation of photography,"  said Baranovic. He and Sydney based Oliver Lang are two young Australians who have mastered the art of iphoneography with a large international following. They are founding members of the Mobile Photo Group, formed in 2011, the first substantial international collective shooting primarily with mobile phones.    "MPG is very new and simultaneously it is starting to feel very established," admits Baronovic.  Although the members of the MPG collective use iphones to capture the images of daily visual poetry, they are not locked to any one device. In naming the collective Mobile Photo Group they had the foresight to realize that phones may be superseded by other devices in the future.  Mobile photography has challenged what Baranovic calls this "gear race" and it makes people very nervous.

If you were not told, you would not know particular images were shot on a phone.  "More data does not mean a better image," he said. He likes the fluidity of using an iphone and feels it is more accurate than digital when he can "touch" expose using the "procamera" app.  Closely examining the A3 prints in the finalists exhibition at G-Street, no one could tell the difference between the images shot on film or digital versus the photos shot on mobile phones . Many of the young photographers who entered the competition, however, had never seen any of their photographs printed. This is the day that I began seriously questioning the new horizons in photography and the possibilities of the medium as tool of expression. I also wondered if a traditional dinosaur like me could effectively use iphones, and online sharing without looking like a middle-aged photographer having a creative crisis. The drawbacks, in my opinion, to using iPhones for shooting are the small file size, lack of depth of field and the weak battery life of the phones. Many iphoneographers rarely use their phone to make calls, which is an interesting and novel thought.

Baranovic pulled back from a photographic career in his mid-20's and went back to university to study International Development.  In 2009 he was shooting on the streets of New York when he discovered the beautiful, haunting work of Robert Frank at the Met. The following year, he moved from Brisbane to Melbourne and on the very long drive he used an iphone and apps which liberated him from his traditional camera gear. He started to again feel the magic that draws visual people to become photographers. He began shooting every day on his commute to the city where he looked at the seasons and felt the light that defines and guides Australian street photography. His phone gave him the freedom to not obsess about images as he quickly edits, shares online and thereby lets the images go.  It's an effortless photography that is different from going out with a big camera.

© Michael Baranovic

Many iphoneographers use the huge array of filters, borders and apps to define the aesthetic and style of their work. Baranovic creates his voice using a natural quiet approach. He claims that "The more I shoot, the less I use the filters."  Instead he waits for awkward, mysterious moments in the ethereal light that creeps through alleyways and buildings in Melbourne and suburbs to show his world and create his magic naturally in the "phone". He admits that mobile photography is making professionals with film and digital cameras nervous.  Iphoneogaphy has become a community building and knowledge sharing exercise for Baranovic and Oliver Lang (who is currently overseas shooting on the streets of New York). Beside their role in the collective Mobile Photo Group and the feeding constant streams of images online viewed by their immense audience of followers, they have spearheaded groups of photographers in Sydney and Melbourne who go out to shoot regularly. They share their knowledge in person and online to assist the broader mobile phone community to capture a decent image on an iphone. They have also created a book on suburbia showcasing the work of photographers shooting on iphones in Australia. "I've always had a thing about suburbia and the role that plays in our national identity," says Baranovic.  He pitched the idea to Blurb and linked it to Instagram and co-curated the book.  It was like a river of photos and he helped fish them out of the water and into the book "Instaburb" which was launched last month in Melbourne.  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3075172

Baranovic said that he was the "lone" Australian iphoneographer online for a year and then around 2010 a guy called Oliver Lang from Sydney kept commenting on his photographs and asking questions.  Baranovic says that going on a walk with Olly Lang is like a mirror as they search for light and life on the streets.  They are both committed to quality street photography and the art behind the process. They encourage others to use what is at hand to shoot, edit and share. Iphoneography has a certain “Australian” quality with the ethereal light illuminating daily life in the theatre of the street.  According to Baranovic, there are strong iphone and instagram, communities throughout Asia.  Many students come to Australia from Asia to study and he sees a whole new generation of passionate street photographers wandering the streets of cities like Sydney and Melbourne from places like Singapore and Indonesia.

Regarding Henri Cartier- Bresson, Baranovic said, “I'm not sure if he'd use an iPhone.  He'd probably stick to a digital Leica and secretly shoot on the phone just like @davidalanharvey ;)”

What do you think?

© Michael Baranovic

Links

To see more of Michael “Misho” Baranovic’s work:

website

tumblr

twitter/Instagram @mishobaranovic

 Mobile Photo Group’s work:

Oliver Lang’s work:

 

To see David Alan Harvey speak at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney on May19th

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/david-alan-harvey/

Renaissance in Street Photography (part2) by Tamara Voninski

To receive regular updates of photography in Australia and this blog, click “Like” my new Facebook page

Megan Lewis: profile of a must-see exhibition and book

Megan Lewis embodies the strong spirit, dedication and heart as a documentary storyteller that I respect & admire in this world of photography.  She had the courage and foresight to give up her job in the media in 2002 to live in the desert with the Martu people following her gut feeling.  She became a symbolic fly on the wall as she embraced and lived within traditional Aboriginal culture in Western Australia.    

This powerful body of work “Conversations with the Mob “ opens on Sunday May 6^th 4-7pm at Artsite Gallery 155-157 Salisbury Road, Camperdown (Sydney) and runs until May 20^th, 2012.

This is one of the very few pieces of visual reporting that goes beyond the surface of documenting and understanding Aboriginal culture in Australia. The photos are also a significant historical testament to the Martu people who are some of the last Aboriginal people in Australia to come into contact with white people.  Lewis’ own intuition and spirit were more important than mere words in completing this long-term reportage.

“Taking a picture is hardly ever a simple act, often the difficulty arises from complex cultural thinking and shyness, other times it just simply boils down to the fact the Martu are never switched off to their surroundings.  The desert doesn’t suffer from background noise and the release of a camera shutter draws as much attention as a shot from a high-powered rifle in the dead of night,” Lewis said in her book Conversation with the Mob, published in 2008 by the University of Western Australia Press.

Over the past years when I worked as a photo editor for 4 magazines, I would regularly commission Megan to shoot assignments in Western Australia. Often she was in the desert and unable to do commercial work, but when she was available I knew that every single cent she earned went back into her personal work.    Lewis said, “It is my wish that my photographs and the mob’s stories will allow hearts to open… serve as a bridge across a great cultural divide.” She continues to work tirelessly to secure funding to help improve the lives of the Martu and their health-care initiatives. Recently, she found sponsorship to fund members of the community to fly to Sydney to attend the exhibition opening tomorrow.  This is a “must-see” exhibition documenting the Australia we rarely see. 

Exhibitions@Random: Terra Australia Incognita

Terra Australis Incognita: A Photographic Survey opens Friday May 4th at Bathurst Regional Gallery in NSW.  The exhibition, curated by Sandy Edwards and sponsored by Manly Art Gallery is travelling to regional galleries around Australia.   The exhibition of 80 prints is a survey of the first 10 years of Oculi, the photographic collective.  The show was at Monash Gallery of Art in Victoria in March 2012.

Renaissance in Street Photography (part 1)

In Australia, street photographers are renowned for capturing
beautiful fleeting moments and chasing light and shadows through the
corridors of the city centers in Sydney and Melbourne.  When I arrived
in Sydney in 1998, Trent Parke was on the streets of shooting "Dream/Life".
Looking back, he was at the forefront of taking photography to a new level as

visual language.  There was also a collective energy on the streets for 10 years 

(Oculi, the photo collective was formed in 2000) with photographers following the ethereal light and creating visual poetry. Over time, art photography became the medium of expression replacing street photography for many Australian photographers.

Recently in Melbourne & Sydney, I crossed paths with some extraordinary characters on the new horizon of photography. Eric Kim, a young photographer from L.A., was in Australia last month espousing the art of street photography. He has created a street photography blog focusing not on the technological aspects of street photography, but rather, on the aesthetic ideal and philosophical motivation for shooting on the streets. His blogs and workshops have attracted a photographic cult following.  Although he has created a community of street photographers online through social networking, his principle philosophy is written on his calling card, a white sticker  "BUY FILM, NOT MEGAPIXELS". In this digital age, he is encouraging the next generation of photographers to shoot on the streets with film and not rely on digital cameras.  He calls this a "Renaissance in Photography".  

I call it a REVOLUTION.

One of Eric's latest posts is called "Why Digital is Dead for Me in
Street Photography"
http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/04/why-digital-is-dead-for-me-in-street-photography/#more-6653

In the coming weeks, I will post more profiles and links featuring the
renaissance of street photography in Australia.

If you would like to follow my blog via updates, please view this page and click 'like' (at the top) http://www.Facebook.com/TamaraVoninskiPhotographer

Links
Oculi collective
http://www.oculi.com.au
Trent Parke
http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R13MZYS&nm=Trent%20Parke
Eric Kim blog
http://erickimphotography.com/blog/

Exhibition@Random :: Andrew Quilty

Opening soon is Andrew Quilty’s exhibition “Blue Highways”.

Quilty’s latest lyrical black and white photographs from the U.S.A are quiet poems of questions and exploration.  As a native of the US, I look forward to Andrew’s Australian perspective as a stranger in a strange land.

Exhibition opens May 1^st

Maunsell Wickes at Barry Stern Galleries

19 Glenmore Road, Paddington (Sydney)

May 1-20

Exhibition@Random :: Jesse Marlow

Jesse Marlow’s “Don’t Just Tell Them, Show Them (Part 3)” is a “must-see” exhibition at Anna Papas Gallery in Melbourne.   Marlow’s vivid and colourful photographs depict the world we pass by every day, but rarely really see.  This exhibition is a wonderful experience of street photography as art.  The show runs until May 26^th at 2-4 Carlton Street, Prahran.

G-Technology G-Street Photography winner

Winning photo © Mike Keevers

Tamara Voninski was a judge for the G-Technology G-Street Photography competition. Of the G-Street winner in the film/digital category Mike Keevers, she said ” The beautiful use of light and the elegant quirky moment made this entry a stand-out from the beginning”.  Keevers is based in Sydney.

Exhibition at No Vacancy Gallery , Melbourne

Photo © Tamara Voninski
Tamara Voninski was invited to exhibit selections from two series “Then & Now: China” and “Stroller Evolution” at No Vacancy Gallery in Melbourne this month when she judged the G-Technology G-Street Photography competition.

http://invisiblephotographer.asia/2010/07/18/invisibleinterview-tamaravoninski/

An interview by Invisible Photographer Asia.

Tamara Voninski is a founding member of Oculi, a collective of award-winning documentary photographers in Australia founded in 2000.  Numerous of her photography projects have garnered recognition from the Leica/ CCP Documentary Photography Award over the years. Her photographs of Polynesia and Shanghai are sensitive and quirky, reflecting a wandering soul, and a curious eye behind the lens that captured them.

photo-eye | BLOG: photo-eye Book Reviews: Oculi

photo-eye | BLOG: photo-eye Book Reviews: Oculi: Oculi , Photographs by the Oculi Photography Group.  Published by Hardie Grant Books, 2010. Oculi Reviewed by Tom Leininger _________...

"I met Voninski when I was a student at Western Kentucky University. I remember Voninski creating images that went beyond the typical American photojournalism standards. She has continued to do so and her newest work is visually complex in terms of its content and formal elements. One of her images in the book, "The Old Country: USA 1991," was made when she was in college. The image still holds up 19 years later and gives a hint as to what Voninski's current is, layered with content and poetry.  The highlights for me in this large book are Jesse Marlow's walking wounded, James Brickwood's interpretation of parkour, Tamara Dean's lyrical take on rituals, Steven Siewert's pigeon racers and Tamara Voninski's black and white dream world."

Oculi in CCP "FLASH"

Oculi

A review of Oculi by Helen Frajman for the Centre for Contemporary Photography publication "FLASH".
"... below the surface of the collective is ‘a matriarchal undercurrent driven by Voninski, Dean and Autio’.¹ Given the notoriously butch reputation of documentary photography, you’ve got to check out the book on that basis alone!"

Oculi in Australian Art Review Magazine April 2012

Jesse Marlow (Oculi) and his new show opens April 19th in Melbourne
http://www.melbourneweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/jesse-marlow-life-on-the-streets/2508544.aspx

Happy Easter long-weekend... driving through country Australia

This marks my return to the world of photography after a two year absence

to raise my son Axel from baby to boy... Life@Random is an exploration of the

world around me and the photographic realm in Australia and beyond.