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e-dition march 22


in the loop – march 22

realtime news and advance word


In the last In the Loop, we mentioned the exhibition Afterglow: Performance Art and Photography, which got us thinking—we haven’t featured photography in a while. So this week’s In the Loop highlights what’s happening in the world of contemporary photographic practices.

Jon Rhodes,
Hobart, Tasmania, 1972-75
from the album Australia
1 of 53 gelatin silver photographs, 11.9 x 17.7 cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales. Purchased 1980 Jon Rhodes,
Hobart, Tasmania, 1972-75
from the album Australia
1 of 53 gelatin silver photographs, 11.9 x 17.7 cm
Art Gallery of New South Wales. Purchased 1980
Jon Rhodes
place, space and the image

The Art Gallery of New South Wales has just opened its exhibition Photography & Place: Australian Landscape Photography 1970s Until Now. The show presents the work of 18 artists, including Jon Rhodes and a few RealTime regulars such as Rosemary Laing (RT58 and RT85), Simryn Gill (RT42), Ricky Maynard (2009) and the much-missed Michael Riley (featured in RT50 and reviewed in RT76 and RT77).Their work, according to the press release, “encompasses ideas of place in relation to historical residue, ethnicity, the interface between people and nature, the sublime, as well as the road and the journey in Australian landscape mythologies.” There is also an accompanying film program, featuring classics such as Wake in Fright (1971), Roadgames (1981), Broken Highway (1993) and Beneath Clouds (2002, see RT48), as well as a symposium—the first in a new annual series dedicated to photography. Photography & Place: Australian Landscape Photography 1970s Until Now, AGNSW, March 16-May 29; www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

two kinds of tours

Elsewhere in Sydney, the MCA has just extended the touring exhibition Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990–2005. If you haven’t already seen it, the show brings together almost 200 iconic images of famous public figures together with personal photographs of Leibovitz’s family and close friends. The images are arranged chronologically, rather than thematically, allowing for a “unified narrative of the artist’s private life [to emerge] against the backdrop of her public image” (press release). The MCA is also co-presenting, with Hurstville City Council, Angelica Mesiti’s The Begin-Again: A Contemporary Art Tour At Night as part of C3West (RT84). Presented over two nights, the work is billed as a “showcase of local stories” and features four large-scaled video installations and a live performance in Hurstville’s laneways and shopping centre (press release). Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990–2005, until April 26; The Begin-Again: A Contemporary Art Tour at Night, April 1-2; www.mca.com.au

Miss Alesandra, 2010 digital print Miss Alesandra, 2010 digital print
photo Jacqueline Mitelman
national photographic portrait prize 2011

Community involvement is also a key part of the annual National Photographic Portrait Prize, which anyone can enter. The finalists are currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery, with their images depicting birth (see Dean McCartney’s highly commended image of his minutes-old son), death (see Donna Gibbons’ image of her father on his death bed), and almost everything in between (childhood, adolescence, parenthood etc). The winning image is Jacquline Mitelman’s portrait of Suzi Alesandra, whom Mitelman has been photographing for over 25 years. Strangely enough, Alesandra bears more than a passing resemblance to that great theorist of photography Susan Sontag as photographed by Leibovitz. The exhibition will be in Canberra until April 26 before it goes on tour to Bunbury, Geraldton, Fremantle and the Yarra Ranges; there’s also an online gallery. National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery Canberra, February 25-April 26; www.portrait.gov.au

The trees r talkin I, iPhonegraphy The trees r talkin I, iPhonegraphy
photo Syliva Dardha
iphoneography

Last year the NPG curated Present Tense: An Imagined Grammar of Portraiture in the Digital Age (RT98), but surprisingly there was no mention of iPhoneography, a practice which is becoming increasingly popular. There are now thousands of photography apps for the iPhone, hundreds of blogs dedicated to the subject and more than a few exhibitions too. In Spain last year La Panera Art Centre curated iPhoneografia and in the US, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art is about to open Pixels: The Art of iPhone Photography. Locally, the West Gippsland Arts Centre is showing Wats On Ur iPhone?, which provides an insight into the “creative world of tiny technology” and features images captured and edited on artist Sylvia Dardha’s iPhone (press release). Wats On Ur iPhone? West Gippsland Arts Centre, March 14-28; www.wgac.org.au

Imogen Cunningham
Subway New York 1956
gelatin silver print
Collection of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film Imogen Cunningham
Subway New York 1956
gelatin silver print
Collection of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film
1956, 2010 The Imogen Cunningham Trust
the american century

Not to be outdone, another regional gallery is exhibiting American Dreams: 20th Century Photography from George Eastman House. The House, where the founder of Kodak once lived, holds over 400,000 images, of which 80 have loaned to the Bendigo Art Gallery. The images include original works by Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Robert Capa, Imogen Cunningham, Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, Dorothea Lange, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman and Alfred Stieglitz, among others. Taken individually, the images are remarkable for their artistry; taken together, they also provide an extraordinary visual history of life in 20th century America. American Dreams: 20th Century Photography from George Eastman House, Bendigo Art Gallery, April 16-July 10; www.bendigoartgallery.com.au

untitled

There are, of course, many other exhibitions on. Fotofreo is having its year off, but the Perth Centre for Photography is currently showing the work of Olivia Martin-McGuire and Mark Penhale. Melbourne's Centre for Contemporary Photography is showing Pat Foster and Jen Berean's Spencer is Drunk and Ian Haig's experimental video Chronicles of the New Human Organism. The Australian Centre for Photography is exhibiting Crossroads: Contemporary Russian Photography as well as the work of Ray Cook and Sean O’Carroll. And for the voyeur in us all, the Justice & Police Museum is showing Collision: Misadventures by Motor Car, featuring police photographs of traffic accidents from the early 1920s to the mid-1960s. Olivia Martin-McGuire, The Sleepers, Mark Penhale, Shadows, Perth Centre for Photography, March 18-April 10, www.pcp.org.au; Pat Foster and Jen Berean, Spencer Is Drunk: Progressive Studies, Ian Haig, Chronicles of the New Human Organism, Centre for Contemporary Photography, April 15-June 4, www.ccp.org.au; Crossroads: Contemporary Russian Photography, March 18-April 30, Ray Cook: Money Up Front and No Kissing, Sean O’Carroll, Interspection, both March 18-April 17, the Australian Centre for Photography, www.acp.org.au; Collision: Misadventures By Motor Car, Justice & Police Museum, March 19-Dec 31, www.hht.net.au

RealTime issue #101 Feb-March 2011 pg. web

© RealTime ; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]

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