War.... what is it good for? (Exhibition 18)

The exhibition Icon and Archive at AWM was one of my favorite exhibitions this year. but it got me thinking did it go some way to glorify war? was it meant to fill me with national pride? nationalism is a dangerous thing in my book.......... anyway, the photos were quite striking and are an important record... some of them were even beautiful....



I had too many standouts to put up pics of them all but here is a short list of my favorites

Frank Hurley
Supporting troops of the 1st Australian Division walking on a duckboard track....

Unidentified AWRS photographer
Interior of a damaaged French cottage at Villers-Bretonneux

Unidentified AWRS photographer
View of the ruins of the Cloth Hall and the Cathedral at Ypres

Len Chetwyn
Australians at El Alamein

Frank Hurley
Death the Reaper

Edward Cranstone
Prints from the album Australia 1939-1940

Damien Parker
They wandered off the beaten track

George Silk
Long-range shooting

Fiction.... based on truth

Terry O’Brien knew wrong from right,
Terry O’Brien knew how to fight.

Terry O’Brien loved boxing and beer,
Terry O’Brien knew no fear.

Terry O’Brien had faith in the lord,
Terry O’Brien hated the Protestant hordes.

Terry O’Brien believed in his fate,
Terry O’Brien was born into hate.

What Terry O’Brien was taught was a lie,
When innocent people in a shop had to die.

The warning call was to little to late,
The blast knocked out windows throughout the estate.

But Terry O’Brien only saw victory,
A group of men who think just like me.

Terry O’Brien joined a para (military) gang,
A real life cow bow with guns that go bang.

His new found glory would never yield,
Not so long as his streets were the battlefield.

Long story short I’ll cut to the hit.

We’ve really gotta stop this sectarian shit.

David Dare Parker

So, given that everyone else chose Trent Parke as their documentary photographer, I have gone to my second choice. David Dare Parke works for the Australia photojournalist agency degree south. His work inspires me because of the way he connects with the action that is going on around him. He can helps the viewer connect.
Check him out
David Dare Parke

M16 Dan O'Day (Exhibition 17)

Short and sweet.... Dan O'day's work was haunting, with really nice colours, I was a big fan of this exhibition. Not much else to say other than....The exhibition that shared the gallery (fathers and sons) would have been much better if there wasn't an odd mix of colour and b&w. I love both techniques and individual photos were nice and gave life to the subject but when a colour and a B&W prints were together it was just distracting.

beyond a reasonable pun (Exhibition 16)

Beyond reasonable drought at OPH down in the strangers gallery.... why it's called that is a stpry for another time. The exhibition, it really showed what a mess this country is in.... so dry, we live on the driest continent on earth (if you don't count Antarctica(yes it's a continent and yes its technically the driest)) yet we grow wet crops like cotton and rice.... to make matters worse we export the raw product and then buy it back as goods.......... whats with that? Oh no something got me started about the farming practices that are killing our country.
As for the photos the ones that stood out to me were

Dust to dust by Darren Clark.
and

Girl in the reservoir by Rodney Dekker

Pinhole (Exhibition 15)

The parliament house of Australia.... the seat of power.... capital hill. A high tech building playing host to low tech photography. No lens= No worries.
I love pinhole photography, it's fun and simple.... and it can be cheap.
This exhibition was great, it showed you don't have to spend a bucket load to make nice photographs. It was also good to see a pin exhibition somewhere other than a "community gallery"

Down the drain

A guy I went to school with was addicted to heroin.... One day he took a knife and went to hold up the local post office...... the details are very complex.... who does the blam lie with, I'll probably never know but I've got a rough idea......... Long story short: Someone got stabbed and died and the guy whom I went to school with went to jail. 2 lives lost to drugs

Trent Parke

Surprise surprise.... I have to choose an Australian photographer and I choose the only Australian member of Magnum. I think that just about says it all.

check the link and fall in love .

Trent Parke

Don Burrows + Stephen Best *(Exhibition 14)

Travels with a camera, dream job... well my dream job anyway......
Don's exhibition shows just how to live your dream, images from around the country and indeed around the world. images that you can feel a real connection to. I really liked this exhibition it's just a sham that exhibitions in restaurants and cafes are always annoying because you never feel quite welcome and that makes it hard to make a true connection with the work.

Stephen Best seems to have his head around the world of digital printing, in fact he seems to be a a fountain of knowledge.... He also has high quality work to back him up. His website is well worth a look....

Stephen Best

Don Burrows

Braidwood

3 in a hundred

Charles Bayliss: A modern vision + Richard Green (Exhibition 12 +13)

National Library of Australia.

A lifetime of work(1850-1897) from Charles Bayliss that gives us a glimpse into what life was like in days gone by.
His work is not only beautiful to look at but is an important historical document, making it all the more interesting to me.
My favorites were the panoramas of Sydney.

I feel that the work more than holds it's own against the giant digital prints (Richard Green) located right next to it. I felt while Richard's work was impressive it was to me just like he threw a bunch of money at the task. I just couldn't connect with the images

Strike a pose (Exhibition 11)

National Archives of Australia.

I've never been a huge fan of fashion photography.... When ever I look at a shoot I get the feeling that it's all been done before.
Strike a pose gave justification to my thoughts, almost every modern fashion shoot can be seen in one form or another in this exhibition.

The exhibition has some interesting prints but made me think more that the fashion photography industry has hardly moved in 30 years...... very interesting.

A Void

Noon rings out.