Upcoming FotoFreo 2012 shows....

FotoFreo 2012 is looking very interesting (and coming up fast!) with major shows by a variety of local and international artists as well as quite a bit otherwise going on. Rather than summarize it here, details can be found on FotoFreo's website (http://www.fotofreo.com).

I noticed today that Kelly Hussey-Smith (http://www.kellyhusseysmith.com/) will also be showing some work out at the Midland Yards as part of the Open Programme. Kelly exhibited very interesting images at QCP when I had 'five' up there in late 2010. Highly recommended.

Everything's finalized for my shows with 'seven' to be installed Saturday morning (March 10) and then running through to March 23. There will be an informal 'opening' on March 14 from 5pm will all welcome.

The Council House show starts on March 14 and runs through to June 15. Opening times are normal office hours Monday through Friday with it also being open on the opening weekend of the festival.

Event pages on Facebook
Seven @ Kurb Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/events/374889919188489/
Seven from Five @ Council House: https://www.facebook.com/events/304176062970815/

The Bane of access to a few billion images....

For those familiar with Narelle Autio's 'Summer of Us' (as shown at WAMM in this year's FotoFreo), Peter Tonningsen's 'Flotsam and Jetsam' might cause a few to wince. These two series of work, whilst supposedly blind to each other, raise some interesting questions about originality. As mentioned in this post back in May, when 'honest' why can't they both explore the same issues without guilt? That said, I would be curious to know how they would/will respond once they become 'aware' of each other.

From a purely aesthetic perspective, this is even more complicated when you include general images of entropy similar to Albert Watson's 'Tutankhamun's Glove'.

The Dangers of Urban-Ex

Untitled (2005), Christopher Young.

An article popped up on some headlines last night about a scavenger dying from misadventure in Perth.

The site - ABB - has been fenced off for a while now and has been going through the process of being demolished. I briefly had thoughts of having a gander just before Christmas but typically follow a policy of not entering sites where signage is clear and attempts have been made to make it secure.

I spotted a few shots of the interior on Flickr, so some of Perth's Urban-Exs have been in for a look at least.

Personally, I've never been a big fan of the adrenalin of such things, especially considering the amount of gear I carry. I instead, much prefer to formalise site visits and spend hours rather than minutes absorbing the spaces.

In other news, one of the major venues in drei (5 images in the 2008 breadbox show, shot in 2006) was also recently fenced off and will likely come down in the next few weeks.

Neither here or there...

I had/am having a bit of a crisis as 'he who shall be obeyed' mailed out a reminder notice for the FF10 Fringe.

I guess my main concerns relate to expense - the PCP show has seriously drained the coffers - and the idea that I am perhaps not letting the work ripen by rushing it.

There is the dangerous and anxiety-inducing cycle of producing work for an outcome rather than just making work. I, as others I imagine, find myself constantly thinking I 'should' do this, I 'should' do that and if I don't there is the thought of 'what opportunities will pass me by?'

This fear is 'exploited' by the plethora of awards/reviews in circulation. In recent times I sent stuff off to Critical Mass, Jörg Colberg, the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, Hijacked and a few other things. Whilst I don't hold much hope for anything, at the same time hope does niggle.

Whilst I'm 'pleased' to be in the Fremantle Print Award, I will almost certainly do the 'self doubt shuffle' if other stuff doesn't manifest.

I have every intention to volunteer for the festival and try and get as involved as possible this time. I think it has genuine value and the last two rounds have proved revelatory on a lot of levels.

One thing I did notice during 2008 was the glazed eyes and pained gait of people who were doing the rounds. Whilst I was cautious with the selection of what I saw, I still got through at least 20 shows, some on multiple occasions. It is hard to maintain focus and intensity and I found personally after seeing Jodi Bieber's work that almost everything left me cold.

It's a bit of a pretentious comparison but I often find viewing is a bit like tasting wine... you need to progress from the mild, subtle 'fruity' stuff through to the big, robust reds. If you start at the wrong end then the 'fruity' just tastes like ill-conceived cordial.

Looking is a bit more complex in that seemingly passive shows can punch well above their weight and overwhelm poorly done journalistic work. Just as work based in spectacle can collapse, the ethereal might soar.

Few more days of twitching then there's no going back!

Heritage posts: FotoFreo 2008, Jodi Bieber 'review'.

Exhibition Anxiety

I'm tossing about the idea of putting together the next 'leg' of five as a FotoFreo 2010 Fringe Exhibition.

There were originally going to be 5-6 locations that should provide material for the five concept but only two were 'in the can' in time for the show to be conceptually finalised prior to production.

Another two locations have since been shot but I wasn't that happy with the 'feel' of the work (too clean) so didn't include them at the show at PCP in a last minute reshuffle.

Feedback on that new work has been very positive - from the few that have seen the images - but it didn't quite fit with the overall phrasing of the PCP show.

I have two more locations in mind that I'd like to do. Both present various logistical, financial and creative challenges... one even involves having a bodyguard!

The anxiety stems from a lack of 'obvious' location to show any resultant work... I'd ideally like a simple, white and well-lit box but such places are few and far between in the 'village'.

All the avenues I've looked at are either too large (I'd need to pull a group together with all those associated problems), likely 'busy' or messy in some way.

I've noticed how stressed I'm getting by the whole exercise of trying to find a venue.

I also heard on Friday that I struck out again on 'something' - ambiguity rules the roost at the moment due to a variety of reasons. I actually held (unnecessary and - in hindsight - foolish) hope for that to come through.

The project, whilst originally utopian in nature, seduced me the more I looked into the complexity (personally and sociologically) that might have coloured the images.

Put simply... I could never afford to do the work otherwise. Given that total numbers would be in five figures (if you'll excuse the lame pun) it was prohibitively expensive to self-fund.

If I were to sell some images in the show then maybe but otherwise consider the project canned for another day... or decade.

Hijacked 2: New Australian & Germany Photography

It appears that this great project is going to a second flush. The first book and exhibitions (Fremantle as part of FF08, Sydney & Berlin) were tremendously successful and garnered world-wide exposure for Australian photographers. Significant international bloggers picked up on the project and it seemed at one stage every other blog had an Australian image planted firmly on stage.

I wrote a bit about the Fremantle exhibition (at Artsource) during FotoFreo and Sunday Arts ran a piece on the Sydney leg of the show....

Waiting on the world...

Find myself with 'time in hand' and thought it a good time to write some things.

Currently reading a Edward Weston Biography ('His Life') which has it's moments in between some over referencing of his sex life, journals and letters. I find the man fascinating but frustrating at the same time... hedonistic yet 'philosophically' pure (his words) in other ways.

As you'd expect, the technical aspects of his work are of particular interest and have only been briefly touched.

I particularly like the idea that he was stopping down to f256 or even f500+ to make a lot of his images. Exposures in some cases were counted in hours rather than minutes. I like the idea that he used non-static light sources (ie. natural light from a window) so over such a period of time the light would glance and illuminate in a sculptural fashion. The peppers and shells were also often placed in a 'funnel' to sculpt the light even more.

Most profound of all were his notes on the shooting of Excusado including variations in lens choice, angles, etc. Most definitely not a 'incidental' shot but a concentrated effort to create something profound.

Also saw this from Alec Soth that discusses the idea of space between subject and photographer quite nicely.



As previously mentioned, Paola Pellegrin was one of the stars of FotoFreo 2008. This is some of his images set to quite appropriate music.



Second to last of all an interesting blog entry on dariushimes.com that includes an interview with demi-god Stephen Shore. I'm not sure if I like the idea of him using a Powershot and iPhoto. I saw some work in the last issue of eyemazing (or Aperture... not sure any more) which was unexpected and left me with mixed feelings. I do however like that he is evolving. Too often people stagnate on the same and it's refreshing when new work is not old work with a different polish.

Last... is the work of someone who is slowly swallowing (and disturbing) my world - Walker Evans. Whilst I know his work quite well, I never realised the thematic overlaps were so evident until David cited particular images. I recently bought Let us now praise famous men and a biography. The later includes a detailed chronology of his work and subject matter... all a bit disturbing really.

Video 'walkthrough' of drei @ breadbox

Jobi Bieber @ Moore's Building (FotoFreo)

I had intended to sit down and write mini-crits of all the shows I screamed through on Thursday before most of them close this Sunday. I instead thought it more apt to mention only that which shook me in some way.

For a variety of reasons, two shows in particular stood out head and shoulders above many others and one had three magic images that are - and will be for quite a while - burnt into my skull.

Jodi Bieber's images of drug addicts upstairs at the Moore's building is one of the most moving and sublime shows I have seen in many years.

I have often had a very difficult time explaining beauty or the sublime to others and how it can appear in the most distressing subject matter. This show is a case in point... the content is hard and confrontational, yet the resultant images have a majesty and strength that is completely overwhelming.

This is also a show much stronger for the broader captioning as conceptually dealt with at Fig.

The contrast between the graphic black & white images and distressed colour images was very effective in accomplishing two seemingly paradoxical tasks.

The monos broke you out of the trap of falling into the difficult subject matter and allowed you to attain an aesthetic distance (essentially the sublime aspect) whilst the colour images re-contextualised the work. That is, they made the grit more real and had an almost museum-like quality. The simple analogy would be bones from an archaeological dig that told a broader story.

The balance is spot on and I was literally shaking when I left the space.

The Moore's building was a treasure trove in 2006 and was again in 2008. Stephen Dupont's polaroids were also exceptional and are due some text... but other things are on my mind... more later.

Update:
Never really got back to the 'more' aspect of this post...

The other shows that really got under my skin were Megan Lewis at Kidogo and Wang Gang at FTI. The later was especially poignant and classical in nature.

Megan Lewis had two stand out images in the show that were truly exceptional. One involved a young child engaging with a grieving father and another had silhouetted figures in a burning landscape.

There has been a bit of a crit on the over saturation of the images but I didn't find that too bothersome. If anything it heightened the idea or sensation of distance from the subject matter whilst being geographically 'so close'.

The more I think about Wang Gang's work, the more lost I become. I didn't really spend enough time in the work but two things are causing me to dwell on it.

One was surface. The prints were on some form of rag paper which gave the frequent, heavy dark tones texture. This bought an awareness of surface and the idea that these were representations (2D planes) of a supposed 3D reality.

Where it got interesting was then the idea of whether the images were posed or not. Given the craftmanship and love in the representation, was that which was represented a construct?

These are obviously questions that are ultimately unnecessary as posed or unposed, they were strong images worthy of validation.

Overall, FotoFreo was a great event with a few bumps. There has been some undue harshness for what is a volunteer-driven festival and I look forward to another fantastic event - bumps and all - in 2010.

I was lucky enough to have some time with Bob Hewitt in the last week and can only hope that some of what was discussed manifests.

It would truly be a significant gear change that can only be good for the Perth (and Australian) visual arts community.

More FotoFreo...

Apologies in advance for the length of the following. I have been a 'bit' busy of late so only got to some of the shows today...!

First stop was Polixeni Papapetrou at Johnston... I've seen a lot of her work in recent years and have been a bit up and down with it. I was never sure about the child's play images - Mary Ellen Mark and Sally Mann are preferable - but I do like the newer work. It has the play aspect still strongly at it's core but it is much more emotive.

Revisited Burtynsky and Pellegrin at WAMM (how could we not?) and almost baulked at the $5 to go see the show... seems silly in hindsight (security staff have to be paid, etc, etc) but in a town that's notoriously apathetic towards artwork (let alone that which is socially conscious) it felt like a unnecessary wall to work that SHOULD be seen.

Have to admit the the Burtynsky left me a bit cold on the third visit. Maybe I got past the spectacle aspect. There is a problem with the work that is a bit hard to overcome. He has previously commented (in ML or at TED - not sure which) on his apolitical approach to 'documentation' of what he has seen.

It is arguable if that is possible, given the choice to image and show that scene. I need to think it through MUCH more especially when you add in issue of the impossibility of an objective history. It can too easily fall into pure aesthetics and spectacle.

Went to Artsource to see the Hijacked show and have to admit that I liked it being in the hallways. Whilst not optimal for viewing, there was a distinct feeling of a journey. Shen Wei and Amy Stein lived up to their hype - SUPER stars. Have seen a lot of the work before but really enjoyed revisited Graham Miller's work.

Then to FAC and first up, Chen Nong. I have mixed feelings about the work. The concept involves the illustration of one of the most dramatic human endeavours in modern history. The social, cultural, ecological and technological aspects/parameters of the Three Gorges project are truly mind boggling. Ironically enough, Burtynsky has also done work on site and the scale is literally terrifying.

I don't know that much about the artwork itself but had read somewhere that all the clothes that the protagonists are wearing were handmade (!) by Chen - almost a parallel to that which is happening in the background. Given the obvious labour and energy invested into the work I expected 'more' from the resulting images.... I instead found them quite cold and they felt like a really amazing idea half done. That is not to say that don't work - which they do - they just felt less than they might have been.

Marian Drew on the other hand lived up to and exceeded her hype. The crow and the lemon is one of the few images I've seen in recent years where I might open my (very) anorexic wallet. There are all these interesting ideas in there. The still lifes they emulate were often illustrations of bounty and wealth (think Pheasant, Hare, Cornucopia) yet that which is imaged is often 'second' class (crow, bat, pelican) or even a 'pest'. They are (I read this somewhere too) roadkill that she has collected, cleaned and paid tribute to in their personal vistas. One image that was unfortunately not included contained a small kangaroo/wallaby which illustrates this perfectly. Her book was nowhere to be found which is a must buy for those interested in the work.

Not sure about Christophe Bourguedieu's work. I had (again?) expectations and was a bit let down. This might be image fatigue but they 'felt' like a lot of other work I have seen... that is, with a few exceptions. There seems to be some mask that you can lie over an image (maybe an idea for a Photoshop action?) that says 'this light', 'that expression', 'this amount and type of clothing' and 'this composition'. The only variance seems to be the 'freakishness' of what is imaged. Some of this is very evident when you go through Hijacked as well.

We all suffer from a dependence on subject/object but it is ultimately a quagmire that can end badly.

Last call was Hayden Fowler upstairs at FAC. I really enjoyed this show. There are interesting ideas of resurrection, branding (the location of the 'performance') and identity - collective and personal. I was born in New Zealand and can relate to the Huia - particularly it's feathers - as a symbol. There is an interesting dynamic in New Zealand when it comes to 'ownership' and 'rights' to use certain motifs. One classic example of this are bone/pounamu carvings - a very personal object that is gifted and not something you buy for yourself.

An artist called Dick Frizzell has played with these ideas extensively and this short piece makes for interesting reading.

See also:
Roger Ballen @ AGWA
FotoFreo Part 01
Jodi Bieber @ Moores

A photograph...

I like the idea that images force their way into the personal space of the viewer causing discomfort. This is 'relatively' easy to achieve with scale but requires a more direct confrontation for it to be truly effectual.

The greatest paradox in drei is this invasion of personal space and the associated initial discomfort. Yet the viewer can push past this and discover an intimacy with the protoganist. The best - and frequently used analogy - is the idea of being able to walk straight up to a screaming person and feel their breath. This all without the fear of The Bite.

Unfortunately (?), this is something that can ONLY be experienced in the installation and which is close to impossible to communicate in the book or 'on film'.

On a side note, whilst trying to find a quote from Barthes, I stumbled across this gem.

Excerpt: Put most bluntly, for the past century most photography critics haven’t really liked photographs, or the experience of looking at them, at all. They approach photography—not specific photographs, or specific practitioners, or specific genres, but photography itself—with suspicion, mistrust, anger, and fear. Rather than enter into what Kazin called a “community of interest” with their subject, these critics come armed to the teeth against it. For them, photography is a powerful, duplicitous force to be defanged rather than an experience to embrace.

The great Crisis of the Real.

drei & The Strange Quiet of Things Misplaced

We've just posted book 'flick-throughs' on YouTube. These are the two limited edition books we will be launching at the opening on April 18.

They each contain the full series of work, artist statements and essays by Paola Anselmi & David Bromfield.

drei - New Work by Christopher Young



The Strange Quiet of Things Misplaced - New Work by Elisa Markes-Young



A preview of the shows is up on the website.

FotoFreo - Part 01

This is the first part of some 'short' collected thoughts on the FotoFreo Photography Festival.

Paolo Pellegrin @ WAMM
Really tight show with a bubbling intensity - almost electric. I like the immersive aspect of the work and the paradoxical idea that he quite often shoots images as 'drive bys' through a car window.

There are two or three images (machete, popes funeral, boys 'playing' in an alleyway) that are very striking. Unfortunately I had to rush through it the first time and was distracted the second. Needs another visit.

Edward Burtynsky @ WAMM
I must say that whilst I know his work relatively well (books, films, etc), the images really bowled me over. They were not what I expected to experience when looking at them 'in the flesh'.

The luminosity, detail and geometry is really moving. There are three images in the show that honestly made my hair stand on end.

Manufactured Landscapes is also screening/has screened at FTI if you haven't seen it already. There are interesting parallels with Our Daily Bread from 2005 and Baraka from the early 90s. ODB is disturbingly about food production in Europe. This is quite obvious when it comes to the opening pan shot of Manufactured Landscapes and the pace of Ron Fricke's work on Baraka.

There were a few things in the work that I found particularly interesting. Given the subject matter it could have quite easily fallen into an almost modernist approach by reducing that which was imaged to tone, form and texture. Quite importantly the horizon was included to 'ground' the image. That is, that this is a real place/thing and not a construct as with some of the Gursky work.

The balance between the toxic and the beautiful (see conference re. sublime) is also fascinating. We are disassociated from the experience (smells, etc) so we might look at it initially on a aesthetic level. Just as sulphur makes a vivid and arguable beautiful yellow it is in fact an intensely dangerous substance.

I could write much more about the work - and likely will - but will leave it with his presentation at TED in 2005. Fascinating viewing if you haven't already seen it.

FotoFreo 2008 Conference
The conference was great if a bit heady some times. All interesting nonetheless. Burtynsky was quietly sitting in and engaged on discussions of beauty vs the sublime as it relates to his work.

The second day of the conference included Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin. Their work is 'hard' as it's not intended as passive viewing. They hope that people participate by viewing the work as you might when visiting a museum - as opposed to viewing it 'simply' as art. A quick look won't yield 'results'.

I'm a huge fan (and collector) of Colors and if any of you have read the issues on Rwanda, Star City, Madness, Roland Trujillo, Leisure World and Choihung (all of which are heavy with their work) then that helps. The 'caption' (as a bigger concept) is very important to their work.

This is a presentation (50MB Mov) that they did at Host in the UK last year. This helps contextualise 'Fig' (showing at the Prison) and other work.

One of the key themes I picked up on was Intervention (Anne Marsh) and the lack thereof in documentary photography. I had wanted to push that further as I've been interested in the various strategies photographers use to try to effect change.

Oliver and Adam have an immersive approach where they engage extensively with their subjects over a prolonged period of time - effectively they look at creating broader and personal stories than isolated images that can be misused out of context - ie. on an art gallery wall, in a magazine. This generates quite sublime work that is more poetic than simple journalism.

Salgado (picked up by Daniel Palmer on the second day) has been criticised (wrongly in my opinion) for beautifying tragedy or hardship. This is more obvious in the anonymous abstract work where workers have been reduced to shape and tone. Effectively this beauty generates exposure for the associated issues so irrelevant of method they arguably approach their goals. Where is gets dangerous is the audience of the work. Too often socially concerned work by prominent artists becomes wall candy out of public eye.

Another strategy - and the most interesting theoretically - is shock. In an image-saturated world there is a dangerous precident to push the boundaries further and further (I talked to Helen Ennis about this a bit) so as to over yell the masses. One photographer whose work uses this is Gilles Peress - in particular his images from Rwanda (see The Silence) in the early 90s.

Where it gets interesting is the balance between reportage (ie. what can realistically be shown in a public sphere), voyeurism (by exposure does it compromise the subject more than it might help them?) and toxic shock (ie. people become immune to that which they see by over exposure).

I need to think about all of the above a lot more...

See also:
Roger Ballen @ AGWA
More FotoFreo
Jodi Bieber @ Moores

More FotoFreo - Hijacked

I picked up the flyers for FotoFreo on Tuesday and amongst the name dropping two names popped up.

The first of which was Shen Wei who by all accounts is a star or (at least) a future star.

I first saw Shen's work when he was voted a Hot Shot in the Fall 2006 edition of HHS. This was one of the editions where I got a Honorable mention. Yeah for me!

Recently voted as one of PDN's Top 30 Emerging Photographers, his work is part of the edition of Hijacked (see this post as well) that will be produced during the festival.

Not sure if the work will be shown real size or not - either which way, some how it's all tied into the Artsource exhibition space.... not sure what/where that is but I'm sure the dust will clear.

Together with Shen is another (soon to be if not already) super star called Amy Stein. Her name pops up relatively consistently - rightfully so - and the work is often very poignant.

The series that seems to be getting the most interest is Domesticated, in particular this image. Amy also has a blog that makes for interesting reading.

There are many more names involved in the edition but I thought I'd focus on these two first. By all accounts, it will be a very interesting show.

Update on drei... if anyone's interested!

So... well into post production which has been close to hiccup free so far. Of the 18 prints for the final show I now have 10 full-size and 'in hand'. They are just being finished off at Photoad. There is only one more colour image to be outputted (was approved in proofing on Friday) and 7 (!) portraits to go.

The later I'm working on 'relatively' intensively and I finally found the mood that I was looking for after some tests on Friday. The more I look at them, I recognise the inspiration garnered from Chuck Close's Daguerreotypes. This in the simplicity, intimacy and intensity of the confrontation.

See here and here for examples.

The texts from the two authors are nearing completion and I'm hoping to have the book done well in advance of the opening. The less stress the better!

On a sidenote he has one mean lookin' wheelchair!

Roger Ballen @ AGWA (Perth, Australia)

A few years ago a documentary ran on Australian TV about Shelby Lee Adams and his Appalachian photographs. At the time it troubled me - as with the work of Arbus, Witkin, Mark and others - in that it 'felt' exploitive. This even with his obvious long-term commitment and love for his subjects.

There is a very fine line between social concern, documentation, manipulation and potential false contextualisation of images/texts. Added to these issues, there is the idea that just because the 'other' is different it doesn't mean they shouldn't have the right to be seen and/or heard.

The imbalance comes in context and misreadings rather than content. Like all other forms of media, we project our own values and prejudices on to images. We are often more guilty than the photographer... a classic example is an image of a man in almost all forms of interaction with a child.

The following is not The True Meaning of Pictures (incidently by the same director of Manufactured Landscapes) but gives a small insight into Shelby's relationship with his subjects.



With that in mind and after some procrastination we went and saw Roger Ballen's show at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. As with Shelby, he caused a (very large) stir when his images of rural South Africa were first released.

After spending quite a while touring the show, I must admit to coming away with mixed feelings.

Some images are stunning - in particular Twirling Wires (2001) - and genuinely moving. The strength of geometry, texture, tone and - most importantly - printing is striking.

The simple work was the most effective. They allowed easy access and empathy.

The heavily manipulative images on the other hand felt clumsy. It was hard to pin down exactly what caused the discomfort but it was likely the obvious nature of the manipulation.

I had read about the ambuigity in his images but found that only in the symbols. I could easily empathise with the procrastinators but found them detached from their signs. That said, some images 'worked' on many levels.

I guess they reminded me in some ways of surrealism and the inherent psychological manipulation of symbolism. I, as many others, am guilty of the same but too obscure is annoying rather than enlightening.

On a whole I enjoyed the show - enough to buy the book - so maybe I'm being over critical. That which moved me ultimately overwhelmed that which didn't.

The show runs until May 4. There will be an Artist Talk held at the gallery on April 6 @ 11am as part of FotoFreo.

As a side note to the above, this image (another of my favourites from the show) is a classical example of how artworks often don't translate well to the web. The original print of this is almost completely black with extremely subtle tones and textures. The white stubble glows and his eyes are exquisite. The web representation doesn't even come close to doing the image justice.

Many other images on his website are similarily flat. I would suggest a sighting of one his books to get a better feel for the work should you not be able to see it in person.

Visit some of his work on the website.

See also:
FotoFreo Part 01
More FotoFreo
Jodi Bieber @ Moores

Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin @ Fremantle Prison

One of the major exhibitions at FotoFreo 2008 is from Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin.

Adam and Oliver will be exhibiting a new and large body of work entitled Fig. This new work features over sixty still lives, portraits and landscapes, drawing together newly commissioned work made around the south coast of England and internationally, and traces links between photography, imperialism and the colonial impulse to acquire, map and collect. The exhibitions diverse imagery harks back to an era of Victorian collecting, which resulted in strange accumulations of objects being deposited in local museums throughout the UK.

As Broomberg and Chanarin have observed: “The history of photography is intimately bound up with the idea of colonial power. Documentary photographers today have a worrying amount in common with the collector/adventurers of past eras. As unreliable witnesses, we have gathered together ‘evidence’ of our experiences and present our findings here; a muddle of fact and fantasy.” - From FotoFreo

There was a vodcast of some of this work from Host Gallery in the UK - posted start of December. Nice free thought and association as well as great images. (As seen on PhotoAwesome.)

End of the Year

Well ... the year is almost done and it's generally a time where I reflect on the extent of whatever failures may or may not have eventuated.

At the end of 2006 I said to myself that this last year would be one where I would throw it all at the wall... and hope that something might stick.

To a certain degree it did with the Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert photography exhibition over east, the IPA Best of Show in the US and the catharsis of creating the BankWest image.

I got to work as one of four artists on my first major commission which 'should' come to fruition early next year and did quite well in the real world.

Added to that, last night I got formal notification that drei @ Breadbox will be included in the FotoFreo 2008 Programme which is a nice end to it all.

There were disappointments of course as well as a few teeth-nashing moments of frustration but - as a whole - it was a good year.

I guess when I sit down and think about what I want to achieve next year or even over the next three it does scare me a bit.

In 2008 I will confront my greatest fear and look at approaching various galleries both here and over east. The last time I did this - in Germany in my naive youth - it was a very traumatic experience that knocked me back years in confidence. I guess with more maturity - both in the work and my outlook on life - I should cope better.

Either which way... for those souls who might actually read this (!) inane collection of thoughts - thank you for your time and I look forward to distracting you from life in 2008 as well.

Something nice and fluffy to end the year from the Kill Devil Kills... on this note and tone, bring on 2008!

Artist Portrait...

I recently shot this for a press release.

In the background is a portion of drei #93 as exhibited in the BankWest Contemporary Art Prize. The print size was 1200mm x 1500mm in a edition of 5.

Statement
There is a glaring difference between a flesh-coloured suit and true nakedness.

This image, together with its companion piece drei #94 (Portrait of the Artist as a Successful Human Being), forms a gateway to a larger series that addresses many personal issues.

The theatrical nature of life has been central to the series development. In particular the malleable representation of the Self and variations thereof in social interaction.

Christopher Young's recent work has had significant manipulative and ambiguous aspects to it. He finds himself hiding behind metaphor, contextualised protagonists and narrative to communicate concepts.

This piece looks at the balance between a constructed and pre-determined identity; the necessity of exposition versus a profound fear of rejection; ego versus self-loathing; and, not least of which, the desperate need for acknowledgment versus utter social ineptitude.

The veracity of this gate grounds the inherent ambiguity of the greater series.

Partially thin skin...

Two things from two separate people recently made me bite hard into my lip. I know I shouldn't take these things personally but they cause a visceral reaction that takes me out of step.

With my usual lack of detail... One related to a request to make some of my images more 'arty' (?) and the other was a look of astonishment when I said that the BankWest Image was a straight photo.... that is, no Van Gogh button pressing involved.


One another note... I found out the other day that Postcards WA did a piece on one of the shows I was in last year. This was shot prior to the opening as the images are actually the wrong way around... they were swapped later... kc-ra!