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Foto Freo

By all reports, Perpignan and Arles are getting very precious and virtually snobbish about their raccontes photographique. The real thing zoomed past us in W.A. last week, a full tilt 24/7 programme of the laid back, deadly serious and awesomely back-lit. The spectrum of images encompassed, frames made on large format, the super –wide, the exotic, the digital, though the classic 35mm held the high ground; both in colour and perfectly executed black and white. They were displayed in an eclectic set of locales in Fremantle, a city full of charm.  The Drill Hall Galleries as HQ, former churches, museums, the Film & TV Institute, Universities, even the old Frematle gaol was hung with the crème of OZ photography and big tranches from China, Indonesia and Europe. The only complaint about the content was there was almost to much to take on or in, and for the exhibitions and speakers there were a serious round of well catered soirees to attend. Feeding oscillated around downtown Fremantle, alfresco tables of Sunday snappers and their mates. Photography went quietly madly, festive and free. Blessed are the sponsors that endow this suchness.

It was for me happily, a strong photojournalistically influenced collection, even the Chinese, who had enough for an Olympic equippe, saw their continent in oblique ways. Always hard to define where the Chinese are heading, though they are prolific. They see their newly modernising environ in a surrealistic way. Their portraiture almost ‘40s and’50s in tones. A book unto themselves. The French were well represented in exotic or erotic field. Antoine D’Agata’s work stunningly shocking to not a few voyeurs.

Many of the frames were certainly in your face, up close challenging. A real sense of a return to a previous photojournalistic age. Maybe it is the introduction into the kit of more than a few of the top snappers, of a Hasselblad x-pan, the toy / tool of doom. In the dungeon of the prison, end to end frames by Bohdan Warchomji, a Ukranian Aussie who’d gone back to shoot the ‘orange revolution’. Upstairs, Patrick Browns’ disturbing essay on animal abuse and trafficking. Another evening dispatched and there were still two more venues. Still on the Pan-X equation; I had the privilege of sitting with Stephen Dupont, just back from Afghanistan, and unfold his new oevre; 75x25 hand bound, Hahnemuhle printed, beyond awesome. The controversy of burning Taliban bodies smouldered into your mind. Patrick Browns condemning B&W images, nailed to our eyes the inhumanity of man against the animal world.

Down by the pristine waters of the Port and modem Maritime Museum hosted two old masters, Douglas Kirkland and David Doubilet (the underwater maestro). Douglas, an old mate from California, 1970’s days, was in town for the opening of his impeccable two meter square FujiFlex colour icons. The one of Ann Margaret on a Harley still glows in my mind, must remember to do a swap. Later he would give a 2 day workshop. Strange to think the he shot for the now defunct ‘Look’ magazine solidly for years. The journal has faded from our racked minds.

The workshop has become to many of us a useful tool in the art of survival, of making a living. Besides it being the most direct method in tangibly passing on to the next generation of snappers coming up the ladder, the hands on stuff that is only gained with time in the saddle. Whether they are run in conjunction with an event such as FotoFreo, or run by the photographer, they are becoming far more attended as Joe Public grapples with the new frontiers of digital imagery. The need to still understand the basic grammar of the craft is still rooted in the purity of old fashioned analog photos. Whether it is the lifestyle of the profession or the passion to make pictures, it is only discernable when you get a group together the first time. Life stylers don’t put in the energy and tend to have an all thinking, talking camera with super auto focus multi-zoom. Your passioned person rocks up with 2 prime lenses and a beloved out of date body. I’ve had a couple who only shoot on Holgas, fuzzy stuff the latter though.

The shoot and critique alternated programme gets everybody involved and instantly involved in the difficult bit of the job. Editing. The more you bang away, the more there is to edit. Less is more and taking time to frame and compose and shoot makes for a better contact sheet.
Hell, shooting itself is a lifestyle intertangle, which eventually becomes second nature, sixth sense; the editing is a severe test of going to the shrink and dentist at the same time.

As my former editor and mentor, Anna Obelenski, in Paris used to say “Teem, take zee
e-motions out of zee picture. Then, if it still good, is good!” She did 10 years at Magnum.

I still don’t know any wealthy photographers. Doug Kirkland probably has the best LA lifestyle I know, though nobody is getting rich. We have reached into the ideas box and now try to satisfy the ‘gift shop’.. prints, cards, posters, box sets, and books.  Living from stock images is a long term project, requiring an intense archival system complexed now with massive digital requirements.
Once upon a time, I would save up to buy exotic lens for my Leicas; a new aspheric 21, or a super tele 600 for my ageing Nikon kit. Now the funds are sucked into software and plastic electronic gizmos that are obsolete on purchase. It is getting harder to get sponsored by a line of goodies that is useless tomorrow, hard to find kit that has a durability beyond the ‘out-of-box’ warranty.

Unfortunately the Australian market has still yet to appreciate to Euro or N.American, or even Asian market standards and prices are still woeful. At a recent show in Brisbane, Robin Sellick, an extremely talented portrait photographer was selling beautiful framed shots for only 0. Awareness of value has to be upped, the dealers obliged to reflect Euro pricing and not take absurd percentages. The choice is obvious, self production, self publishing; with all the hazards of running a small business. And then a Tracey Moffat goes for 0K.. A Salgardo A3 handprinted starts at EUK. It’s a separate piece thinking about value.

I digress, albeit that these are the issues photographers, when mobbed together, get into. The nonchalance of survival, the risk part of photojournalism often negates the practicalities. We are too busy hanging our mouths over a new bit of kit, dreaming of far away assignments or long term book projects.

It is the book, the ‘Aperture’ style catalogue publication that most of us seem to be aspiring towards.
The most fulfilling of objectives now that magazine essays are no longer the one 28 pager, or an issue of ‘Double Page’, or ‘Zoom’. The big indulgences of ‘National Geographic’, ‘Geo’, ‘Life’, are things of history. Only the mega-stars get pieces coupled to DVD docos, shot on their stories. The new technology means frames shot from never before thought of positions; hanging from cliffs, mounted on men, machine and beast, remoted or shot by the individual. A new perspective on the world as seen by the photographer. We can now pack a HDVD of super broadcast quality and hopefully bend the material to the shrinking market of truth television. The Turnley twins, Peter and David based out of France had perfected that synergy a decade ago. Prior to that they had scooped virtually every photojournalistic prize globally.

Sometimes a project only sees the light of print after many years of dedicated return to the subject, the passion usually self funded.
Hardly ever does the photographer see sufficient funding for that long term passion. Megan Lewis is to be congratulated for her work on ‘The Mob’, an Aboriginal clan a full days drive away from Perth – in the Great Sandy Desert, an extremely remote and tough stretch of country. To gain acceptance, to gain the confidence and trust of these folk against the customary practice, where photographers steal the spirits, the soul of the sitter, the portrayed. Here, close, wide chromes, sow a feeling of the conditions, the depravity and the joy of this far flung community. A deserving book or film or both. How now for her to get a decent return on such a long travail? Getting an edition to a broader market from down under is a difficult enterprise. The traffic tends to flow in the other direction.

Another must mention were the images of David Dare Parker, hanging at Murdoch University.  The content and composition of his images of Timor, Indonesia and Aceh after the tsunami were compelling.  Not only furnishing evidence but making you a witness.

A consensus reached during the opening caucus of the collective “°South”, was that we were underrepresented, underpaid, nothing new in the latter. We seem to have either good representations for commercial gigs, good stock agencies providing super anno, good art merchants, good show organisers, though never a combination of a good trio of the necessary. To keep ahead today takes an ingenuity and flexibility to market trends and changing subjects that need coverage. Pooling these concerns and interests would be a practical method to grow as well as making a reasonable income.

FotoFreo did make a difference, the work, hanging for a month, seen by thousands, was haunting, and thought provoking. There were too many frames that one came away from, having poached a nibble of the concept, assimilated another bit of inspiration. Too many images I could have bought for a collection. More than a few instant books. More than a meeting of minds, it was one helluva good time.  Interacting with like minded people and absorbing inspiration – is always good for the soul.

All of our thanks should go to David Dare-Parker, Bob Hewitt, Brad Rimmer and  all their dedicated volunteers – for their co-ordination, organization and belief in events like FotoFreo.
Thanks to Doddy (The Australian) for the commo and Kevin (Fuji) for getting the big Flex’s there and back.

Article ID: 13

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Last Updated: 11-09-2008

Date Created: 11-09-2008