If you are a passionate photographer, one of the most intriguing, enjoyable and yet physically tiring ways to see a city – is to go to a photo festival.
There you'll experience a 'treasure hunt' situation where you will attempt to locate countless, often seemingly hidden exhibitions over great swathes of land using a combination of google maps, festival guidebooks, and the internet. Just make sure you are wearing some comfortable shoes as you might find yourself (like us) clocking over 10km per day walking from point to point and round in circles.
there are seven Festival Precincts and five regional cities to visit.
Australia presently hosts three world class, ginormous photo festivals that support, showcase, and inspire 1000’s of homegrown and international photographers.
While NSW has the yearly Head On Photo Festival (starts early November), Victoria hosts the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (starts next year, late August), and currently the PHOTO 2024: International Festival of Photography.
Now in its third iteration, PHOTO 2024 features an 'art trail' of 100 free exhibitions and outdoor art installations to explore across seven Festival Precincts in Melbourne and five cities in Regional Victoria.
The Capture team recently visited Melbourne and rural Victoria over a three day period, to see the incredible PHOTO 2024, and was left inspired by the scope of the beautiful, funny, sometimes poignant and often thought provoking work on offer. Kudos goes out to the PHOTO 2024 team that put in such a herculean effort into conjuring and coordinating all the exhibitions. Bravo!
including Darren Sylvester (pictured). Photo Tim Levy
The theme of this year is ‘The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It’ and includes not only traditional photography, but the use of AI, video installations, promptography and even motion capture.
While we weren't able to see all 100 exhibitions, here are some of the highlights.
Rennie Ellis – Melbourne Out Loud: Life Through the Lens @ State Library Victoria
The State Library has the largest archive of Rennie’s work and they have an incredible array of his images, correspondence and curios on display – including a 30 minute audio / slide show chronicling the cultural life of Melbourne from the 1970's and 80's.
A must see!
PHOTO 2024 Ideas Summit
Featuring over 15 photographers whose work appeared in the festival. They talked about: their process; how photography effects politics through documentation and activism; how we can incorporate AI & AR into our photographic practices; and importantly, how to avoid camera facial recognition though clever disguises.
A highlight within this was Ryan McGinley who is renown for his work that bridged skate punk, graffiti and queer culture in Vice Magazine, and for being the youngest photographer to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He talked about: his career; how capturing the raw energy of an occasion is the key to a great shot; and how a road trip + a bunch of photogenic friends + a trampoline can make for great photos.
7 Photographs That Shaped the Future @ St Pauls Cathedral
At the time of capture, do we as photographers know that a particular image will become regarded as iconic, or a sign of the time, or even a timestamp of a 'before and after' time?
Scotty So +50 @ Benalla Art Gallery
Through the use of AI, Scotty So ages a number of young Victorians 50 years and has audio recordings of how they think the world will change in their time.
Laresa Kosloff - New Futures @ Benalla Art Gallery
Dark comedy, futurist video artworks edited by using corporate stock videos.
Environmental Futures @ Museum of Australian Photography
What is the human impact on our world and in which way is it effecting our ecosystems? Featuring Edward Burtynsky, Janet Laurence, Corben Mudjani and Lingam.K.
Darren Sylvester - The Doom Buggies @ Neon Parc in Brunswick.
Capture managed to talk to Darren in the gallery and hear how his exhibitions of hyper-real images are created over approximately a six-month period. He also mentioned: how he sculpts sets with polystyrene, a chainsaw and other materials; the casting process and what he looks for in the subject; and the process of shooting film on a 4x5 camera.
Malick Sidibe – The Eye of Bamaka @ State Library Forecourt
A street photography style glimpse into Mallick’s town of Bamaka, Mali – where he captured the style and exuberance of a time when there was a newfound freedom in the early years of Mali independence.
Jo Duck – Razzle Dazzle @ Gordon Reserve, 99 Spring St Melbourne
A series of phantasmagorical (and funny) portraits of people wearing 'urban-camouflage' in the hope to evade facial recognition technology.
Ulrich Wüst – Wandering About History @ RMIT Gallery
A retrospective of Ulrich's archives from 1978 to 2019. Documenting street style photography of Germany's GDR days to present.
execute_photography group show @ RMIT Gallery Melbourne
A thought provoking glimpse into the future of photography. It includes interactive installations including a 'trophy camera v0.95' that was built by Dries Depoorter & Max Pinckers, which allows you to see instantaneously if an image can make it into the next World Press Photo of the Year.
Another highlight is the 'arcade style' Prompt Battle Training Station by Sebastian Schmieg – where you are tasked with coming up with the correct prompts in order to emulate another image. A slightly addictive experience!
Wish we had more time to visit.
• Nan Golden – various locations.
We had recently seen her exhibition The Ballard of Sexual Dependency in Canberra, which is now currently showing at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. In Melbourne she also has screenings of her documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.
• Adam Ferguson – Big Sky @ Fed Square Metro Tunnel.
• Tony Albert – Ashtralia @ Sullivan + Stumpf Gallery Collingwood
Apologies to the photographers who weren’t able to see, just not enough time...
After this visit, at Capture we can safely say that Melbourne is not only Australia's capital of insanely fastidious coffee making, but it is also undoubtedly the capital for the arts with its sheer number of galleries and general support by the government, businesses and the public. Other cities – if you are reading this, you need to up your art game!
PHOTO 2024 ends this Sunday 24 March and if you haven't yet made the effort, put on your walking shoes and go on a treasure hunt – you'll glean a lot of inspirational photographic gold!