Head On Photo Festival
“Everywhere is a gallery,” Head On Photo Festival Director Moshe Rosenzveig
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 Photographers 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. Reed and Steele-Perkins are also running workshops.
The State Library NSW plays host to the main featured exhibitions in the Festival. Lowy’s iAfghanistan is hung in the main foyer, suspended from the ceiling. The photographs, shot on an iPhone with Hipstamatic, are reminiscent of pop art posters, with bright colours, and vibrant imagery. A complete twist on the general view of Afghanistan, this series captures life on the streets. These are not conflict photographs, but rather a celebration of themes that are common across cultures.
Magnum on Set features both classic and rarely seen images from iconic Hollywood film sets including a fantastic sequence of images of Marilyn Monroe shot by Elliott Erwitt on the set of the Seven Year Itch. Also in the exhibition are W. Eugene Smith’s photographs of Charlie Chaplin directing Limelight, Dennis Stock’s Rebel Without A Cause and Inge Morath’s Death of a Salesman. Presented by Magnum Photos in association with Head On.
Also at the State Library, Belinda Mason’s Black on White featuring photographs of indigenous Australians and their thoughts on white Australia, and Street, an exhibition featuring work by nine Sydney photographers using everything from large format film to iPhones.
Opening Night Festivities and the Head On Prize winners
Opening night on Friday 17th May saw hundreds of photography professionals and enthusiasts attend the official event to launch the fourth Head On Photo Festival at TAFE Ultimo in Sydney. In a steamy room that rumbled with the chitchat of friends and colleagues, Festival Director Moshe Rosenzveig told the crowd it was “scary how big the festival is each year”. With over 900 photographers participating in the five-week extravaganza, “there is something for and by everyone; photography is inclusive,” he said.
The winners of the Head On Portrait Prize were announced along with the Momento Head On photography book award winners and the inaugural Head Off Landscape Award. Both the Portrait Prize, which this year attracted more than 2400 entries, and the Landscape are judged “blind” so as to award the prize “based purely on the power of the photograph rather than the celebrity of the subject or photographer. Anyone can enter and win,” said Rosenzveig. The Portrait Prize winning entries are on show at the State Library of NSW as are the winning photography books. The Landscape entries are on show at Paddington Reservoir Gardens.
“Every year I’m surprised by the sheer number and the amazing quality of the entries and this year was no exception. I was very excited to see how much interest there was in the Landscape category which received such a diversity of entries,” said Rosenzveig.
AND THE WINNERS ARE:
. The Head On Portrait Prize winners were announced by Kevin Cooper of Fujifilm, one of the Festival’s major supporters.
1st Jonathan May – “A powerful image of the resilience of the human spirit despite the tragedy of his life. Juxtapose the harrowing experience he endured and the innocence of childhood and playfulness.”
2nd Brian Cassey – “Simple and traditional yet powerful and direct image. A formal portrait in an informal setting.”
3rd Matt Reed – “Taken moments after the official portraits, a joyous unexpected image. A portrait of a person through his family. Candid yet stylised.”
. Head Off Landscape Prize winners:
1st Tim Levy – “Juxtaposition of a man-made landscape sterile environment and the natural landscape. A layered image with different elements.”
2nd Phillip Klaunzer – “Ethereal other-world; no definitive scale; textured low key tonal range. Moody, sense of abandonment.”
3rd Ashley Mackevicius – “Simplicity of composition and disappearance of fence and lake. Fence is like a scar in the landscape.”
. Momento Head On PhotoBook winners:
Book of Year Ingvar Kenne – CITIZEN portraits 1997 – 2012
Photojournalism & Documentary – Dan O’Day – Ginger & Pearl, Two Lives, One love, A Retrospective
Landscape and Travel – Robert Cameriere – Scillia
Open – Michael Kai – The World Is Yours
Head On runs until 23 June. Various venues. Visit the website for more information:
www.headon.com.au
Alison Stieven-Taylor
FESTIVAL
Head On Photo Festival
From May 17th to June 23, 2013
Sydney
Australia
