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MARCH 2015
developments in photography
BETA developments in photography ISSUE 14 editor: Jeff Moorfoot design: Penelope Anne contact: beta@ballaratfoto.org All content in this magazine is Š 2015 of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale and participating artists, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the BIFB. Inc save for fair dealing for the purposes of research, study, criticism, review, reporting news. All other rights are reserved.
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Ingetje Tadros / Diimex CAGED HUMANS IN BALI
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William Ropp
THE SHADOW SCULPTOR
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Robert Moran PORTRAITS
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Annette Fournet ANIMA / PERSONA
I have never been a big fan of ‘themed’ calls for entry favoured by so many Festival Directors, Curators and Editors. To my mind, themes do little more than to limit the potential of interesting work to find an audience. Themes also encourage a diatribe of art speak as the maker of the work writes in support to link the material to the theme irrespective if the theme had anything to do with the original thoughts or concepts to the work. I can understand a call for works on a specific unambiguous theme, such as ‘square’, ‘Black and white’, ‘images containing three dogs’ or ‘pictures of wrought iron balustrades’ etc. etc. but abstract concepts … forget it! I guess the limiting factor pretty much sums up my opinion on themed anything. There is not a whole lot of alchemy that goes into pulling together each edition of BETA developments in photography. Apart from endeavouring to mirror the philosophy that underpins each Ballarat International Foto Biennale - namely diversity. It is very much a case of what crosses my desk at the time of consideration of what might feature in a particular edition that sometimes serendipity takes over and I find a link between the selected portfolios. If you are looking for some sort of glue that binds the portfolios in this edition of BETA developments in photography #14, it is that artist folios featured are all figurative works. And they span
genres from documentary to fine art. Apart from the quite harrowing black and white photo documentary series shot in Bali by Dutch born but Broome, WA based Ingetje Tadros , the other three artists take us down the well worn path of photographic portraiture with a distinctive personal spin. But what makes a great portrait? Avedon said ‘all portraits were accurate and none of them were the truth. They are all in a sense a postulation or an argument. Every-time a photographer points the camera a another person he is making a judgement. The grander the judgement the greater the lie.’ Another gem turned up in my search for commentary on what makes a great portrait is this by Olivier Laude: ‘The myth that the portrait, the good ones, the bad ones and everything in between, are an important and enlightening window into the soul of the sitter is just as much of an insipid cliché as the soul itself.’
Jeff Moorfoot BIFB Creative Director BETA editor Ballarat International Foto Biennale
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the sad passing of Ballarat International Foto Biennale Patron Malcolm Fraser AC CH. We offer the deepest sympathy from the Board, Management and staff here at the BIFB to Mr Fraser’s family, close friends and colleagues. Vale Malcolm Fraser 1930 -2015
Caged Humans in Bali
Ingetje Tadros / Diimex
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When I walked into that room, I did not see a room. It was a cage and in that cage was a human being that had been stripped of her wings, her voice, her humanity. The first feelings that came to me as I entered this room, this cage, this holding pen, was that in the corner was another human - but one who was caged in many ways, mentally and physically. I knew I had to capture this story because for me, my freedom is something I take for granted and I wanted to tell the story of how freedom for some of our fellow human beings is but a dream....but by talking about it and showing it we can move towards helping by bringing the human suffering of these victims of Pasung to the world, so that we can collectively do something to help. When I asked Kadek’s father permission to enter the room where Kadek was being held for over twenty years, it felt like stepping into a hellhole. Another person may have called it a room, but for me it was a cage : there was no windows, the roof had large cracks in it, through which Kadek if she looked up could see the sky. Kadek was sitting on the ground smeared with her own faeces and I quietly sat next to her in that mess. Kadek was watching me while I sat
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with her in her own cage. The silence was deafening and yet her story was so loud as told to me by her eyes. I believe this spilt second of a moment changed my whole perception as a photographer and human being, it hit me like a wall and I felt very clear that this story about Pasung needs to be told. To be a restrained person in one’s own home is something I had never heard about in all my years of traveling the world. However this is what I found when I ventured to Bali this year. I was suddenly thrust into a world that few get to experience and it has left a impression on me that has shaken me to my core as a human being. To sit as a free human being with another human being whose freedom has been taken away is the most confronting and heart wrenching experience to be in. What I found cannot be described in words and must be seen to really understand the level of depravity and human rights abuse being forced on the lowest group of people in this country - the mentally afflicted. Pasung is the physical restraint by way of chains, ropes and cages of the Mentally Ill in Indonesia under the care of their families as there
is a lack of Governmental support for the full care and rehabilitation of the victims and their family carers. It is estimated that there are 18,800 people under Pasung today and more are being found. I must also explain that this is not a story about blame of the families who must endure the hardships of caring for their loved ones who are afflicted by a Mental Health condition. Through the lens I have tried to capture the individuals who are under Pasung through no fault of their own or their families, but due to a larger issue of no funding and resources to combat this growing situation that sees families having to deal with their loved ones in the most trying circumstances and not having the skills to help those with Mental Health but to do the best they can with what they have which is nothing. It can also be said from my experience that even the carers are traumatized by the whole experience of having a loved one restrained in the process of Pasung. They can only restrain their loved ones in an effort to stop the self
harm and harm of themselves - the carers. This is a photo documentary about the victims - both the ones in chains in their cages and the ones who look after them. I have tried to also capture those that are out of Pasung in an effort to give hope. In the six days that I had access to the victims of Pasung in total I photographed twenty one individuals in their homes.I was able to see some hope for the victims through the caring work of Professor Luh Ketut Suryani, MD, PHD of the Suriyani Institute for Mental Health based in Bali.Slowly Professor Suryani is finding more victims of Pasung and offering some hope to the families that their family can be given freedom from their debilitating conditions through medical intervention and counseling. This is a very limited approach due to lack of funding. Bali, Indonesia, 2014.
all images courtesy of Diimex
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A dark and smelly room
PREVIOUS: Locked up
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Released
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Un chained
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PREVIOUS: Once a housemaid
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Gudeh
PREVIOUS: Too aggressive
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Her room her prison
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Kadek’s prison
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Ingetje Tadros was born in Holland and now lives in Broome Australia. In her formative years, Ingetje constantly documented life and people around her. Ingetje extended her photographic practice by combining her passion to travel with photography. Leaving Holland to travel globally Ingetje has photographed exhaustively in scores of countries. She is the recipient of several of photography’s most significant Awards. A short list includes Nomination for the Prix Pictet (UK) 2015, United Nations Award 2014 (AUS), Moscow International Foto Awards 2014, Lensculture Visual Story Telling Award 2014, the International Loupe Awards (AUS), Black and White Spider Awards (USA), PX3 Competition (Paris), The Juliet Margaret Cameron Award for Women 2013 (UK) and the International Portrait Awards 2013 (USA). Currently, Ingetje works as a documentary photographer based in Broome on Australia’s vast, beautiful, wild and unforgiving West coast. She works regularly on assignment for some of the world’s most prestigious online and print magazines. Her clients have included, Amnesty International, Fairfax Media, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Geographic, The Australian, The Internationalist, News Corp, Getty
Images, Daily Mail and many more. Tadros, ethos is rooted in social documentary photography and being a storyteller. Her ongoing documentary photography involves interacting closely in other people’s lives; firstly to tell their stories at a community level and then to provide a conduit for communication between different cultures on a global platform. She occupies a significant place upon the landscape of photography in Australia and internationally. Her creative vision has been the catalyst for authoring several documentary projects as diverse as Mental Health in Bali, leprosy in India to trans-sexuality in Asia and death rituals in Egypt. Ingetje’s recent Documentation of Kennedy Hill Community and her ongoing and important work This Is My Country involves documenting the complexities of race and culture of Australia’s indigenous people – the Aboriginals. Ingetje Tadros/Diimex
website: ingetjetadros.com
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THE SHADOW SCULPTOR William Ropp For a long time William Ropp worked in a darkened studio, his models photographed using long exposures, his flashlight making forms emerge from the gloom like pale highlights from a painter’s brush. This act of ritual midwifery caused his subjects to be born from the shadows, much as a psychoanalyst leads a patient’s mind to give birth to subconscious knowledge. In the chiaroscuro images that bear witness to this, night and day vanish in the black sunlight of dreams and reminiscence. The figures that appear, their eyes wide open or wide shut, seem both to arise from and be gazing at the ineffable. (…) Géraldine Schrepfer
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William Ropp was born in 1960 and lives in Nancy. He began his career in the theatre, co-founding the “Théâtre X” company. In 1988, he took a highly successful series of black and white photographs of human figures reflected in distorting mirrors. Several books followed. In 1993, he became interested in uncontrolled postures, plunging his subjects into darkness in a studio and ‘painting’ their outlines with a beam of light, the intrusion of light creating accidents of form. In 2007, he took a complete break from studio work and produced a powerfully dreamlike series of photographs of children in Africa. The book ‘Dreamt memories from Africa‘ followed. He then became a teacher, running workshops in Norway and elsewhere. He began working with colour in 2010, revisiting the same themes and taking inspiration from classical paintings. In 2012 The Musee de la Photography in Belgium and the Maison Européennne de la Photographie in Paris organized jointly a succesful rétrospective exhibition. The book ’William Ropp 20 years of Photography’ was launched for this occasion. Today, his works form part of some of the greatest public collections. Including The Museum of Fine Art, Houston (USA) Musée de la Photographie Charleroi (Belgium) Museo de Arte Moderno de Vitoria Artium (Spain) Maison Européenne pour la Photographie, Paris (France) Museet for Fotokunst, Odense (Denmark) Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne (Switzerland) The New York Public Library, (the Spencer Collection), New York Musée Civico Farnese, Piacenza (Italy) Musée Ken Damy, Brescia (Italy) Galerie Robert Doisneau , Vandoeuvre (France) Musée Vamn Reekum, Apildoorn (Holland) The Polaroid Collection (Switzerland) Galerie du Château d’eau, Toulouse (France) Fotomuseum in Mölkau, Leipzig (Germany) Manfred Heiting collection and more
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Portraits Robert Moran Robert Moran lives on a small island just off the eastern coast of Maine in the United States. As a full time fine art photographer, he shoots landscapes, still life series, and portraits. Although he enjoys working in several genres, his real love is portraiture. It is his way of connecting with strangers that he encounters during his travels; people that he would otherwise never meet. His initial contact usually begins with a conversation (sometimes with an interpreter) to gather information about the person he’s interested in photographing. Robert believes that that initiative allows his subjects to become more comfortable with him and the situation - thus allowing the person to relax and let their guard down - resulting in a more natural pose. It also allows him time to think about how he’s going to approach the shoot. His desire to capture a glimpse of a subject’s persona during a fleeting moment in their lives was one of the catalysts for this ongoing series of portraits that began approximately ten years ago. His black and white images in this body of work were shot in various locations, often using only natural light. In order to get the viewer to concentrate solely on his subjects, Robert chooses simple studio-like backgrounds that he creates in post production.
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Smiling Man - Sahara Desert, Mali
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Insectavoria Angelica - Carnival Entertainer
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Albino Boy - Timbuktu
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Big Beard
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Scarification Bandages - Ghana
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“Rockin’ this Haircut for 10 Years”
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Food Truck Owner
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Old Man Smoking - Beijing
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Johnny Meah - Sword Swallower and Sideshow Banner Painter
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Daughter of a Slave - Timbuktu, Mali
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Ward Hall - King of the Sideshow, Gibsonton, Florida
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Metal Worker - Bamako, Mali
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Woman at a Country Fair
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Carney
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Chinese Boy - Beijing
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Portrait of Earl
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Portrait of a Young African Girl
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The Gaze
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Robert Moran is a fine art photographer specializing in portraits, landscapes, and still life. He was born in 1952 in northern Maine in the United States. He studied fine art at the University of Maine. In addition, he has attended photography workshops at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine, and the Center for Photography in Woodstock, New York. He shoots digitally in both color and black and white. His photographs have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in art galleries, educational institutions, and museums across the U.S., as well as several foreign countries. His work has been widely published in both periodicals and photography blogs. Collections include the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, The Cleveland Clinic, The Magenta Foundation, and private collections in the United States and abroad. Robert Moran Photography is represented by Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland, Maine.
website: robertmoran.com
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Sand Worn Glasses - Timbuktu
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Anima / Persona Annette Fournet
The Anima / Persona series by Annette Fournet is based on the expression of the persona (external projection of self) and the anima (inner soul). These digital collage portraits were influenced by Symbolist paintings. Unfortunately, many of the symbolist artists painted from a misogynist fear of the equality of women with men, and of women’s sexuality. The elements of the Symbolist work that Annette
Fournet finds of interest are their clear reaction against the mundane, the banal, and bourgeoisie normalcy of the 19th century. Her images express the exotic, the spiritual, and esoteric qualities of women. In each image there is a partially veiled face of a woman. The layer of translucent texture can suggest uncovering the individual’s inner emotions, symbolize ageing, or can create a sense of the individual’s complexity. 105
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Litost. 2013
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Separated 2014
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Matka. 2014
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The Village and I. 2014
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The Fortune Teller. 2014
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Bosnian. 2014
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Vicktoria. 2014
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Matriarch 2014
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Austro-Hungarian Empire. 2014
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Cog. 2014
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Dadaist. 2014
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Unwanted 2014
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The Queen of New Orleans 2014
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Aware. 2014
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Persistent longing 2013
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Remnant 2014
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Annette Elizabeth Fournet was born In Virginia, was raised in Mississippi and considered New Orleans, Louisiana as a second home. The southern states are rich in story telling traditions. Southern Gothic themes abound in tales of eccentric personalities, ambivalent gender roles, and beautifully decayed environments demonstrating the decline of southern aristocracy. Exploring this legacy has influenced her film and digital work. Her work has exhibited her photography in galleries and museums in France, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States. Her work is included in public and corporate collections such as the Bibliotheque Nationale, San Diego Museum of Photographic Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Prague House of Photography, New Orleans Museum of Art, and others. Annette Fournet lives and teaches photography in Memphis, Tennessee and in Prague, Czech Republic.
website: aefournet.com
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Enlightenment. 2014
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28 May — 20 June 2015 Free
image: Tanu Gago,Falency, Moe, Nana - From the series Tama’ita’i Pasifika Mao’i, Annual Commission 2014 presented by Sacred Hill
art / culture / exhibitions / participation / events / talks / projections www.photographyfestival.org.nz