Going mobile with Eric Mencher

© Eric Mencher
© Eric Mencher

Don't discredit the mobile phone camera – the best camera is the one that's with you.

Learn how you can make the most of your smartphone camera with award-winning documentary photographer, Eric Mencher, at Head On Foundation's Spotlight session on Wednesday, 20 July. 

© Eric Mencher
© Eric Mencher

Mencher will be debunking common misconceptions about mobile photography, how his photographic philosophy has evolved throughout the years, and will also be sharing practical advice on how you can make the most of your smartphone camera.

Follow this link to book.

© Eric Mencher
© Eric Mencher

About Eric Mencher

Eric Mencher is an award-winning American documentary photographer who after years as a newspaper photographer sold his “proper” camera gear and now shoots exclusively on his mobile phone.

As a photojournalist at The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper until 2009, he covered a variety of assignments, including the post-apartheid era in South Africa, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, and the civil war in Chechnya. He also photographed numerous stories in the arts, like the 100th anniversary of James Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses.

Mencher received the Overseas Press Club Award for Rwanda: Aftermath of Genocide and has won other major awards, including prizes in World Press Photo and Pictures of the Year, amonst others.

© Eric Mencher
© Eric Mencher

Upcoming Events Submit an Event

February

Canberra: Until 6 Sept 2026. Trent Parke’s photographic series The Christmas tree bucket 2006–09 is a tender and darkly humorous portrayal of his extended family coming together to celebrate Christmas.

March

Sydney: Until 7 Feb 2027. From his archive of more than 200,000 images, Close Up celebrates the historic moments and pivotal people he famously captured.

Melbourne: 5 March – 7 August 2026. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, artist and social documentary photographer Viva Gibb (1945-2017) documented the suburbs of North and West Melbourne, where she lived.

May

Sydney: Until 16 August 2026. PIX, Australia’s first pictorial news weekly, is brought to life in this exhibition, showcasing its archived images and stories for the very first time.

Melbourne: Until March 2027. Rehearsing the City presents archival photographs from Victoria’s government collections, alongside new work by contemporary street photographers.

Coffs Harbour: 28 May – 29 June 2026. West Of Somewhere East is a photographic series tracing a cinematic journey through the interior of New South Wales, shaped by long drives, fleeting encounters, and the reflective rhythm of return.

June

Sydney: June 6 – 19 July 2026. The World Press Photo Exhibition 2026 is returning to the State Library of New South Wales from 6 June to 19 July, offering Sydney audiences an uncompromising view of of the unending challenges that humans, and our planet face.

Melbourne: 6 June – 20 August 2026. Brook Andrew is an artist whose conceptual practice shifts across photography, performance, moving image, installation, public space and research, often through deep collaboration with artists, communities and friends.

Melbourne: 6 June – 28 June 2-26. We Built a House Out of Water is a deeply personal body of work that draws on memory, family, and culture – while understanding healing as an ongoing process.

Melbourne: 26 June – 2 August. Through analogue photographic processes, Dylan Negri aims to immortalised fragments of life that would otherwise disintegrate.