Reportage, Sydney’s documentary photography festival, opened last week amidst a furor over the decision by Destination NSW, the government tourism body for Sydney, to censor the outdoor projections, banning certain images deemed “too distressing” for viewers.
Now in its 11th season, Reportage this year is under the Vivid Festival banner for the first time. Vivid is an annual festival in Sydney billed as “a celebration of light, music and ideas” and is managed by Destination NSW. Its tag should come with the caveat; as long as your ideas are our ideas. But if your idea is to present cutting edge photojournalism that shows the awful truth about war, conflict, natural disasters and social inequalities, then take your ideas elsewhere.
As a result of this archaic censorship, or overt nannying, acclaimed international photojournalists James Nachtwey, Paula Bronstein, David Burnett, Yuri Kozyrev, Alex Webb, Tim Page and Australians Michael Coyne, Adam Ferguson, Andrew Quilty and Ed Giles, amongst others, have all had work pulled at the last minute from the outdoor projections, an outcome Festival Director Stephen Dupont said was “embarrassing”.
I’ll go further and say it is an absolute disgrace. It is also unfathomable that Destination NSW didn’t understand they were sponsoring a photojournalism festival, which by its very nature will contain confronting images. Undeterred the Reportage team rallied and found an indoor venue where the projections were screened in their entirety albeit for only one night as opposed to the duration of the Festival. While the nightly projections will still go ahead as planned, it is a watered down version that will screen throughout the Festival at Barney and Bligh Reserve, Circular Quay, Sydney.
But rather than dwelling on the ignorance of bureaucrats, the Reportage programme should be celebrated. Dupont and his team, including assistant director Anna Maria Antoinette D’Addario and technical projections editor Ed Giles, have brought together “a truly world-class collection of documentary photography, photojournalism and multimedia,” as Giles said.
Dupont said Reportage had evolved to become “unlike any photography festival that has ever happened in Australia. It is a major shift in showing documentary photography on such a level as this. We haven’t seen this before, this is big, tight, curated. With the amount of talent we have attracted I feel that we have pulled in an eclectic broad selection of some of the most important documentary photographers as well as emerging stars. It is a momentous occasion”.
This year’s Reportage is an absolute treat for those who believe in the power of still photography and the importance of photojournalism in revealing truths that may not ever have been told if it weren’t for the tenacity and commitment of the photographer. Dupont’s global reputation as an award winning photojournalist, and his personal relationships with the likes of Nachtwey and Burnett have largely contributed to Reportage attracting the upper echelon on photojournalism. And Reportage is aligned with Photoville Brooklyn this year, with the American festival bringing several exhibitions to Sydney’s Hyde Park including Bruce Gilden’s “No Place Like Home: Foreclosures in America,” as part of Dupont’s vision to take photography to the streets.
I interviewed a number of photojournalists exhibiting at this year’s Reportage, and as it turns out they have all been censored, which gives me even greater reason to talk about their work. These photojournalists, who are willing to risk their lives, have created startling bodies of work in the pursuit of bearing witness to world events. Rather than looking away, we should all embrace these images and gain a greater understanding and compassion for others as a consequence.
Reportage Exhibition Highlights :
. Four women, Four visions, Four stories, Four corners…
Featuring the work of Jodi Bieber, Tamara Dean, Claire Martin and Raphaela Rosella, this exhibition curated by Anna Maria Antoinette D’Addario investigates four different perspectives of four award winning female documentary photographers. Four massive cubes measuring 2.4 meters exhibit the work of each photographer, with four prints on each cube. These unique structures, which are solar powered, are on display day and night and are designed to engage passersby from all angles, taking photojournalism to the street.
Four Stories
Darling Quarter
Until June 29, 2013
. Leysis Quesada Vera – An Interior View
Born in 1973 in Cienfuegos, Cuba, Leysis Quesada Vera said “I began seriously taking photos in January 2000. Light for me is like a symbol of hope, a piece of hope that illuminates the people and places that pull me in to document them and suggests to me that there is the possibility of improvement for people to have a better life. I came from a very poor family, so I am sensitive to the struggles of the poor and their problems, their way of life drives my work because is part of my personal story”.
‘An Interior View’ is on show at Sydney gallery, Black Eye as part of the Reportage Festival, where more than 20 large format black and white photographs are on exhibition. ‘An Interior View’ delivers an “intimate” look into Leysis Quesada Vera’s world. Here she has captured the nuances of Cuban life as only a native can.
An Interior View
Black Eye Gallery
3/138 Darlinghurst Rd Darlinghurst, Sydney
Until June 9, 2013
www.blackeyegallery.com.au
. Requiem curated by Tim Page
The exhibition Requiem features images from the book of the same name by war photojournalists Tim Page and Horst Faas. Requiem commemorates the work of 135 dead and the missing photographers, from all nations, who were lost in the thirty-year struggle for liberation in Indochina. Requiem the exhibition is now on permanent display at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City and Page has curated a version of the exhibition for Reportage.
Requiem
Rocks Pop Up Gallery
Until 6 June, 2013
. Raul Cañibano Ercilla – Retrospective
Cuban master of photography Raul Cañibano Ercilla’s retrospective is on exhibition for the first time in Australia exclusively for Reportage. A self-taught photographer, Cañibano has extensively documented his country, Cuba, with particular emphasis on the regional areas and communities in which he grew up. His tribute to Cuban farmers, “Tierra Guajira,” features black-and-white images that encapsulate the intricacies of national identity, and images from this series feature in the retrospective.
Raul Cañibano Ercilla – Retrospective
Customs House Sydney
Until 13 June, 2013
Alison Stieven-Taylor
FESTIVAL
Reportage
From May 25th to June 13th, 2013
Sydney
Australia
