November 08, 2013

Friday Round Up - 8 November



Friday Round Up celebrates its first anniversary and what a whirlwind year it's been. More than 250 photographers have been featured on Photojournalism Now's weekly blog - you can see the list on the blog home page. We've presented stories on the industry's greats - Sebastiao Salgado, Don McCullin, Paula Bronstein and Paolo Pellegrin have all featured amongst other, lesser known photographers whose work is no less important or intuitive. The intention for Friday Round Up is to bring readers a range of stories each week that inspire, and challenge perceptions through the presentation of cutting edge photo essays, exhibitions, books and feature interviews. We also want to stimulate debate and continue the discussion on the future of photojournalism

This week on Friday Round Up new exhibitions in Melbourne - Murray Fredericks and Henri van Noordenberg; Max Pam's in Paris, and new works are hung in Berlin. Plus Paula Bronstein launches her Afghanistan book project, and the annual Life Force Fundraiser is on in Sydney. Also an interview with John Casamento on his retrospective Out of the Darkroom now showing in Melbourne and Head On Photo Festival Sydney calls for artists for its 2014 program.

Exhibitions: Melbourne
Murray Fredericks - Topophilia 



Photographer Murray Fredericks’ unique visual language transforms remote or hostile natural environments into ethereal vistas that appear to be from worlds beyond our own. 



His latest collection is Topophilia. Shot over a period of four years, Fredericks delivers a view of the Greenland Ice Sheet where horizon melts into sky, and light plays with atmospheric anomalies that create epic scenes that stand to sweep the viewer into another universe. This is a magnificent collection to follow his impressive Salt series. 


(C) All Images Murray Fredericks


Opening Saturday 9 November 4pm
Showing until 7 December
Arc One Gallery
45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne

Exhibition:
Henri van Noordenburg – Efface


The latest exhibition from Queensland photomedia artist Henri van Noordenburg combines photography with hand etching. Each work begins with a nude self-portrait on a black canvas on which van Noordenburg etches the surface to reveal the landscape beneath.

Until 23 November
Edmund Pearce
Nicholas Building
2/37 Swanston St, Melbourne

Fundraiser:
Images for Life Force 2013
 
(C) Bob Kersey

22 photographic artists have donated works to be auctioned on Sunday 17 November in Paddington in this year’s Images for Life Force. This annual event raises funds

For Life Force Cancer Foundation, a not-for-profit charity providing emotional and psycho-social support to people dealing with the experience of cancer. 

 (C) Luke Hardy

 (C) Pat Brassington

(C) Peter Solness

This is a great opportunity to start, or add to, your photographic collection with works by Pat Brassington, Bob Kersey, Peter Solness, Niobe Syme, William Yang, Belinda Mason and Luke Hardy amongst others.

To find out more visit Life Force 

Sunday 17 November 3-6pm
Stills Gallery
36 Gosbell Street
Paddington

Fundraiser:
Paula Bronstein – Kickstarter Project

(C) Paula Bronstein

Photojournalist Paula Bronstein has launched her Kickstarter project to fund a book on her work in Afghanistan. Bronstein, who works with Getty Images, is one of the hardest working photojournalists having clocked up more than 30 years in the business. 


Bronstein (above centre) first visited Afghanistan in 2001 on assignment with Getty Images. She says since that time she’s been “captivated by the people and places of Afghanistan”. Her book, Afghanistan: Between Life and War “is my attempt to give something back. It is my hope that my images provide those in the outside world with a different way of seeing the Afghan people. As we move closer to 2014, the Afghan Presidential election will coincide with the continuing withdrawal of US military troops and new challenges for this country. With your support now is the time to make this photo book a reality. After this project is funded the final stage of book production will start”. 

(C) Paula Bronstein

Check out the project here

Exhibitions: Paris
Erwin Olaf – Berlin 

(C) Erwin Olaf

Dutch photographic artist Erwin Olaf began his career “under the scandalous patronage of Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Joel-Peter Witkin.” Today Olaf works in that refined space where his large scale, highly theatrical photographic shoots draw comparisons with the likes of Gregory Crewdson. Olaf’s intricately choreographed photographs are centred in themes of “mourning, loss and solitude” providing a dramatic backdrops for his somewhat unsettling images. 


(C) Erwin Olaf

(C) Erwin Olaf

Erwin Olaf’s works from his Berlin series are on show in Paris this month.

Until 23 November
Galerie Rabouan Moussion
121 rue Vieille du Temple
75003 Paris 

Max Pam – Signatures 


(C) Max Pam

Max Pam is a god in France so it is no wonder that he is once again taking centre stage during the month of photography that is November with a show at Camera Obscura. His latest book, Super Tourist, is also doing brisk business with French publisher Pierre Bessard confirming that the limited issue of 500 copies is selling very fast. Numbered and signed with an individual print. 


Galerie Camera Obscura
Until 30 November
Saturday 9 November 4pm meet Max Pam and Bernard Plossu at the Gallery
268 Boulevard Raspail 
75014 Paris

Super Tourist available from Editions Bessard click here for information

Exhibition - Berlin:
Neue Schule 
für Fotografie 

(C) Laura Muthesius

Berlin’s Neue Schule für Fotographie (New School for Photography) has an exciting exhibition programme along with workshops. A privately run college with an amazing exhibition space, the Neue Schule’s latest show features work from upcoming photographers including Laura Muthesius, Linus Dessecker and Sascha Bausch. 

 (C) Linus Dessecker


(C) Sascha Bausch

Until 1 December
Neue Schule für Fotografie Berlin,
Brunnenstr. 188 – 190, 10119 Berlin


Interview:
John Casamento - Out of the Darkroom

John Casamento and Pope John Paul II

John Casamento began his photojournalism career at The Sun News Pictorial in Melbourne in 1955 at the age of 16 years. “I spent the first nine months as the photography department messenger before being given a four year cadetship,” says Casamento who spent 36 years with the newspaper.

During those decades with The Sun, which was Melbourne’s leading daily paper for much of that time, Casamento covered everything from murders and criminal trials, to great sporting events including the Melbourne Cup. But he says it was the visit of Pope John Paul II that stands as one of the great personal moments in a long career. 






(C) John Casamento


“I used to do some pro-bono work for the Catholic Archdiocese and was asked to cover the visit of the Pope for them, but I didn’t have any holidays coming up so I spoke to my editor and we came to an arrangement – I could take two weeks leave to cover the Pope’s visit on the condition that I got on the papal tour from Rome and covered the five countries on this particular tour!” And that’s exactly what Casamento did.

This was one of the few international assignments for Casamento, but Melbourne delivered a wealth of subject matter and he was never bored. “You have to be very diverse as a newspaper photographer as you are dealing with people from all walks of life, from the highest echelons down to the very poor. For me that was the most interesting part of the job, the people, famous and infamous, saints and sinners, all across the board and I enjoyed most of my assignments”.

There were, of course, tragic cases that had to be covered and Casamento found these challenging. “I remember just after Easter one year I had to photograph this little boy with inoperable cancer for a story on the Make a Wish Foundation. He was about ten years old and I thought he was eating an Easter egg, but it was this very large brown tumor coming out of his mouth. I wasn’t allowed to photograph him directly, so I photographed him with his mother’s arms around him and his back to the camera”. All these years later that image comes quickly in recollection. 

(C) John Casamento

In talking about his archives Casamento says, “The only reason I have a collection from my work at the Sun is that in those days it was very rare, when you were printing, to get a good print first time, a print that was good enough for reproduction in the paper. I did a lot of jobs that I found interesting enough to keep the first copy, a print that was fairly okay, and so I took a lot of prints home rather than discarding them”.

His fascination with photography began when he was 12 years old and today Casamento still shoots. “When I started we used to develop our own film in a bathroom that we’d blacked out. Now you can see photographs instantly. Digital is great, I wish we’d had it fifty years ago it would have made life much easier”.

Official opening by cartoonist Geoff "Jeff" Hook on Sunday 10 November 4-6pm
Until November
Photonet Gallery
15a Railway Place
Fairfield

The book of the same name is also available.

Festival:
Head On Sydney – Call for Artists
Next year’s Head On Photo Festival is calling for expressions of interest from photo artists and venues. Deadlines are 12 November for photographers and 9 December for venues. Visit the website for all the details. Head On is the largest photographic festival in Australia and is held annually. Click here for details.

Head On Photo Festival
12 May – 8 June, 2014

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