Le Journal de la Photographie

The Death of Wayne F. Miller

2013-05-24

Photographer Wayne F. Miller, who helped revolutionize documentary photography and lead the movement to renew California’s forests, died on May 22, 2013 at age 94. Mr. Miller, born in Chicago, Illinois in 1918, began his career over the Pacific, shooting photographs of the Pacific combat theater during World War II, having been hand selected by Capt. Edward Steichen for his elite naval combat photographic unit that documented the war effort.

Sydney 2013: the diary of Alison Stieven-Taylor

2013-05-24

This year’s Head On Photo Festival in Sydney features more than 200 exhibitions, 900 photographers and over 100 galleries participating in this city-wide celebration of photography. In Sydney for the opening weekend, I spent a day checking out exhibitions with Magnum Photos’ Eli Reed and Chris Steele-Perkins, Ben Lowy and his wife Marvi Lacar, Shahidul Alam, and Tracie Williams, all of whom have exhibitions in the Festival.

Sydney 2013 Paul Blackmore

2013-05-24

Acclaimed Australian photographer Paul Blackmore’s series New Beirut shows a city and its people in celebration, providing a different view of Beirut and shifting perception on a city that after years of civil war evokes thoughts of conflict and devastation rather than beach parties and glamor. In the New Beirut women and men are obsessed with appearance, and plastic surgery and beauty parlors do brisk business.

Sydney 2013 Vlad Sokhin

2013-05-24

Vlad Sokhin is a Russian/Portuguese documentary photographer who is based in Sydney. His exhibition, Crying Meri – Violence Against Women in Papua New Guinea documents the violence against women that is rife in Papua New Guinea (PNG). According to statistics, two thirds of the female population of this Pacific nation suffers abuse at the hands of their partners and fifty per cent are victims of sexual assaults.

Sydney 2013 Melissa Caccicola

2013-05-24

In this series of portraits American photographer Melissa Cacciola has captured US Armed Forces women and men in uniform and civilian clothes. Comprising 48 tintype double portraits Cacciola’s series is an exploration of war and self-identity and gives the viewer an insight into the personalities beyond the uniform.

Sydney 2013 Darren Jew

2013-05-24

Four times winner of the Australian Science, Environment and Nature Photographer of the Year Award (Canon/AIPP), Darren Jew is one of Australia’s most respected environmental and underwater photographers. His exhibition Liquid Light explores the interaction between life, light and water in the undersea world capturing the diversity of the marine life from the crystal clear tropical waters of the Pacific to the depths of the icy Southern Ocean.

Sydney 2013 Anton Kuster

2013-05-24

Belgium photographer Anton Kusters spent two years documenting a Yakuza family in Japan, an experience he describes as "walking on eggshells". Convincing the Yakuza to allow him to take photographs took ten months of negotiation. Kusters said at first the Yakuza were suspicious that he may be photographing for the media, but when they learned it was for an exhibition and book their attitude began to change.

Sydney 2013 Tracie Williams

2013-05-24

American photographer Tracie William’s exhibition Beauty explores themes around self-perception, societal expectations and innocence. In this series Williams documents her younger sister’s involvement in the American beauty pageants where parents spend thousands of dollars on their young daughters’ clothing, make up and hair in the hope to win, and be crowned the most beautiful.

Sydney 2013 Alexandra Demenkova

2013-05-24

Russian photographer Alexandra Demenkova grew up in the rural town of Kingisepp, a 100km from St-Petersburg. Discovering photography in her late teens Demenkova graduated from the Faculty of Photojournalism in St. Petersburg in 2002. Working only with black and white film, Demenkova has created an idiosyncratic aesthetic that she uses to investigate the lives of those who reside in the remote regions of Russia and are considered “socially disturbed”. Demenkova said, “The experience of photographing made me think how fragile this world of relative stability created by our families is, how thin is the borderline between health, both mental and physical, and sickness; the normality of everyday life and misery; hope and despair; freedom and lifetime imprisonment”. Shot over a three-year period, Rural and Remote Russia spans a vast region like the country it documents, from the shores of the White Sea in Arkhangelsk Region to a remote village of Pokrova in Novosibirsk Region.

Sydney 2013 John Ogden

2013-05-24

There’s something very seductive about Cyclops Press’ latest book, Slightly Dangerous, by writer and photographer John Ogden, which comes with a warning on the cover: “this book contains explicit reference to sex, drugs and rock-n-roll”. But beyond the titillation that a warning always evokes, this book is a work of art in itself that takes the reader on an unorthodox journey through the 1950s until now.

Sydney 2013 Michael Coyne

2013-05-24

Australian photojournalist Michael Coyne is probably best known for his photographs of the Iran Iraq War in the 1980s, a period in which he was incredibly prolific and a time when his photographs made the covers of international magazines. Coyne, who has spent much of his life traversing the globe with camera in hand, has recently returned from Papua New Guinea where he was working on his long-term photographic project about the world’s villages.

Sydney 2013 Ingvar Kenne

2013-05-24

This year’s Momento Head On Photo Book of the Year Award winner, CITIZEN features a collection of images that photographer Ingvar Kenne said came together in an organic fashion rather than being premeditated. Shot over fifteen years, “These images are of a broad range of people. There is no narrative, nor place or topic, connecting these citizens. Many encounters were random; others due more to luck of having received a commission. What connects them is that they met me and my camera – applying the same parameters in its taxonomic approach. In CITIZEN you meet an ex-prime minister, a prostitute, my wife, a nun, tribal dancers, famous actors, a now dead friend, child sex offenders... and more”.

Sydney 2013 Conor Ashleigh

2013-05-24

Timor-Leste: Moving Forward, Looking Back features works from Australian photographer Conor Ashleigh shot in Timor-Leste between 2009 and 2013. Exploring social issues and personal narratives, Ashleigh captures a young, independent nation grappling with its newfound freedom. The Exhibition features two series of work - Coffee: From Tree to Cup, “a digital photography study of the long and labour intensive process of coffee farming.”

Sydney 2013 Marnya Rothe

2013-05-24

Marnya Rothe is a Sydney-based photographer who uses her camera to explore themes of feminism, sexuality and voyeurism. In her exhibition Women in Uniform, which is part of Head On Festival, Rothe “presents portraits of powerful, beautiful women attempting to break the glass ceiling of traditionally male dominated careers such as pilots, trades, the police force and the defence force”.

Sydney 2013 Gilbert Bel-Bachir

2013-05-24

Moroccan born photographer Gilbert Bel-Bachir’s exhibition Looking Through Glass features photographs shot by Bel-Bachir from the windows of Sydney’s buses. Taken over four years, Bel-Bachir “uses the graffiti, scratches and marks left by the commuters as his Photoshop.”

Sydney 2013 Sharon Zwi

2013-05-24

South African-born Sharon Zwi presents 60 black and white life portraits in composite grid format reminiscent of a film contact sheet. Each composite portrait is made of 25 images spanning the subject’s life from infancy to current day with the final contemporary image taken by Zwi. The series includes well-known personalities such as Eva Cox, Margaret Whitlam, Shanti Raman, Michael Kirby, John Coetzee, and David Stratton as well as those who are not celebrity but whom Zwi feels have made a contribution to society. Each portrait is the result of collaboration between Zwi and the subject with images sourced from personal archives.

Sydney 2013 Ben Lowy

2013-05-24

When Ben Lowy first began shooting with his iPhone in 2010 it was all about having fun, using the iPhone camera instead of his professional camera gear as a way of differentiating photography as work and as leisure. Three years on and Lowy has built a huge following on social media and now integrates his iPhone photography with his professional work, the iPhone becoming another tool in his kit.

Sydney 2013 : Meg Hewitt & Paul McDonald

2013-05-24

The China Project features photographs taken by Sydney photographers, Meg Hewitt and Paul McDonald. The pair, who have just launched their own gallery in Sydney, 10x8, made solo trips to China in 2012 and have come together to present their work for the first time in a joint show for Head On.

Sydney 2013 Shahidul Alam

2013-05-24

Bangladeshi photographer, journalist and activist Shahidul Alam was in Sydney for the opening of his exhibition, Crossfire and took time out to talk with me about how the project came about and the ongoing impact it is having in his country and beyond. Alam has a long history of addressing subjects that are contentious. In 1996 he was stabbed eight times for exposing the government’s use of the military to round up opposition activists before a rigged election.

US press review by Paul Melcher

2013-05-24

Another shot was fired this week in the killing fields of photography. Just after announcing the purchase for $1 billion of Tumblr, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo declared “ There’s no such thing as Flickr Pro today because [with so many people taking photographs] there’s really no such thing as professional photographers anymore.”

European press review by Michel Philippot

2013-05-24

What is said one day can be contradicted the week after, at least partially, and that makes me happy. The subject in question is the double-page spread in Marianne about Bangladesh. This is the story. A photographer is speaking: "Actually I am not interested to bargain on this photo price. I want to contribute a sum of money that I'll get front the picture to workers, their family and who are working to help workers. I want that world should know about the cheapest labors working condition of our country.