Head On Photo Festival
Alison Stieven-Taylor reviews a selection of exhibitions from the tenth-anniversary Head On program, which she says was both illuminating and thought-provoking.
One of the joys of attending the annual Head On Photo Festival in Sydney is exploring the new ways that photographers are using the medium to create engaging visual narratives across the spectrum. With over 100 exhibitions under the festival umbrella, more than half of which were curated by Head On,
I found the Tenth Anniversary program immensely satisfying. Exhibitions ranged from documentary images that address important social issues to fictional works that challenge stereotypical norms and intimate narratives told in abstract form.
Having a number of featured shows at the Festival Hub at the Paddington Town Hall meant that visitors to this inner-Sydney suburb were able to view a considerable amount of work in one place. One of the most captivating exhibitions at the Hub was Tami Xiang’s Peasantography: Family
Portrait. This deeply emotional series of portraits draws focus on some of the 63 million children in rural China who live with their grandparents or other relatives. Known as the “Left Behind Children”, these youngsters are separated from their parents who are forced to move to urban environments to find work. These children suffer the emotional trauma of separation and also of a multi-generational divide. Xiang’s portraits feature the child and carers on one side and the parents on the other, the two divided by used travel tickets. A traditional rural weaving pattern is overlaid. Xiang’s work continues to evolve to ask important questions of China and its social conscience.
Another series shown at the Hub was by Italian photographer and anthropologist Camillo Pasquarelli, The Valley Of Shadows. In diptychs Pasquarelli conveys a disturbing narrative that shows the devastating impact of the brutal crackdown against protesters in Kashmir. On one side of the diptych is a portrait and on the other an x-ray showing the pellets left inside… pellets that have blinded and maimed hundreds of young men.
Pasquarelli says that the idea to create this series came to him by accident. He was in Kashmir working on an unrelated longterm project and was aware of the issue of these pellet guns that are supposedly non-lethal. But, at that point, he was not interested in the story. That changed when he took the portrait of a man who invited Pasquarelli to his home. There he saw the man’s x-ray, and there were hundreds of pellets. “It was super powerful, seeing that x-ray. At first I thought just to use the x-rays, but then I decided to create diptychs… these pellets are under the skin and you can feel them. Every generation has scars, metaphorical and physical. I thought, these are the seeds of the fruit of resistance… this is the story of Kashmir.”
Respect For Elders
The Paddington Reservoir Gardens was again used as a gallery during the 2019 Head On, its old stone and stained concrete walls the backdrop for images that were strung on lines between pillars.
There I saw what became one of my favourite exhibitions in the festival, Israeli Oded Wagenstein’s Like Last Year’s Snow. In this series, Wagenstein captures the lives of a group of elderly women who reside on an
isolated peninsula in Northern Siberia. They were once part of a nomadic community of reindeer herders. Now, in their old age, they spend most of their days in seclusion, away from nature and their community.
Wagenstein says “While men are usually more encouraged to maintain their roles as herders as they grow older, women often face the struggles of old age alone. Over many cups of tea, they shared their stories, lullabies and longings with me”.
This series is part of an ongoing project that is now in its sixth year, a narrative that focuses on elderly communities around the world and explores themes of loneliness, dreams and memories. It is also about respect, and capturing the knowledge and stories of the elders before they are gone, an approach in contrast to contemporary’s society’s fixation with youth.
Wagenstein says his work is influenced by the understanding that “…in taking a photograph you are acknowledging that the person in front of you exists. You are saying, you are beautiful, important and I find you interesting”. His is a beautiful, lyrical approach to photography. Like Last Year’s Snow is a Yiddish expression which refers to something that is no longer relevant.
Natural Storytellers
Down at Bondi Beach in the Bondi Pavilion, renowned photojournalist Paul Blackmore
It was hard to imagine how such hatred could be directed towards the people sitting in front of us. These were simple villagers, not insurgents. David Dare Parker
launched his latest book and collection, Heat. As I wrote in the book’s essay, some people are natural storytellers. Blackmore is one of those photographers whose pictures draw you in and invite contemplation. They are layered, complex and, importantly, accessible.
The photographs in Heat pulsate with the rhythm of the Australian summer. They convey an intimate story of life at the beach, offering a depth of narrative that is only possible through the masterful eye of a skilled and sensitive observer.
In Blackmore’s pictures are stories of humanity, of our relationship to the natural world, the way it shapes us, the way we mould it to our needs. These are themes that have engaged Blackmore from the beginning of his photographic life. Heat builds on his other bodies of work, Australians and At Water’s Edge. Thematically, all three explore how we interact with the earth’s elements: the land in Australians, the aquatic in At Water’s Edge, and now heat in its various seaside incarnations.
Award-winning Australian photojournalist David Dare Parker’s harrowing images of the Rohingya refugee crisis were also on show at Bondi. Dare Parker went to the Cox’s Bazaar District in Bangladesh in November and December 2017 as a freelancer. This seasoned conflict photographer says, “It was hard to imagine
Every generation has scars, metaphorical and physical. I thought, these are the seeds of the fruit of resistance… this is the story of Kashmir. Camillo Pasquarelli
how such hatred could be directed towards the people sitting in front of us. These were simple villagers, not insurgents. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, husbands, wives and children, all survivors of the unimaginable… every person… had a story to tell. They want the world to know what they have been through”.
These photographs bring to light the suffering of the innocent at the hands of a merciless government. The atrocities committed against the Rohingya in one of the most horrific acts of ethnic cleansing is a story that needs to be told. In Dare Parker’s exhibition these photographs were evidence of the power of the medium to give a voice to the voiceless.
Challenging Cultural Norms
In her exhibition, Gods Of Suburbia, award-winning Canadian pop surrealist photographer Dina Goldstein explored the idea of religious faith (Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Scientology etc.,) within the context of the modern forces of technology, science and secularism. She places iconic religious
In taking a photograph you are acknowledging that the person in front of you exists. You are saying, you are beautiful, important and I find you interesting. Oded Wagenstein
images and characters in contemporary settings creating photographs that are highly constructed and stylised. Goldstein is a former photojournalist who, after seeing the writing on the wall in terms of the future of editorial photography, made the jump to the fine-art arena. But she didn’t leave behind her desire to tell complex social narratives. Rather she uses her journalistic background to create narratives that challenge cultural norms through pop culture.
Her first series took Disney to task over the “happy ever after” narrative in Fallen Princesses, where she reimagined the narratives of ten princesses such as Rapunzel who she posed as a cancer victim who had lost her hair, and Red Riding Hood as an overweight junk food fan.
“It went viral and I got a lot of attention. There was this zeitgeist moment,” she says. “It was the first time these characters had been taken out of context and placed in a modern setting. I started to get calls from the press from all around the world.”
That was followed by a visual commentary on Barbie and Ken titled In The Dollhouse, another thought-provoking piece underpinned by critical thinking. A common thread throughout her work is black humour.
“It’s not a negativity,” she agrees, laughing. “It is more of a wink – or a nudge, nudge.”
Goldstein adds, “…the main theme in my work is disillusion, the breakdown of our expectations”, an idea pursued in Gods of Suburbia.
“It fascinates me how we have come to this place within culture, how we form our lives around these narratives. We know so much now, but religion is still the cornerstone of societies and these characters are still so important. Our lives are based on folktales and fairy tales and I don’t see religion any differently.”
In the picture Lakshmi – who is the Hindu goddess of wealth, beauty and money – Goldstein asks, “…isn’t the working woman today supposed to embody all these traits? Her four hands are the many responsibilities she shoulders. She must be beautiful and attractive for her partner, and bring home at least half of the family income. But she is still in the kitchen, responsible for the running of the household. The black mamba snake slithering towards Lakshmi is highly venomous. If Lakshmi fails in her many responsibilities, what happens to her family, her community, her followers?”
Foxfires (kitsune-bi) was another surreal series that draws on folk stories. In this collection, Sydney visual artist Luke Hardy continues to push boundaries using photography to wander between the realms of documentary and the imaginary.
This new series brings to life tales of foxes, which are considered the “poets of beguilement” in Japanese folklore. He says, “…these images boast no social relevance; they continue my exploration of ritual, altered states and the darker side of beauty. Peruse them and make your own stories”.
It is a mythical, playful series that reveals rare insights into Japanese culture.
Visual Feast
Head On is an annual event that is unique in the Australian photographic landscape in its breadth and scope. Congratulations should be extended to festival director Moshe Rosenzveig, festival general manager Anita Schwartz, and the whole Head On team for bringing together this amazing visual feast.
The time and energy that goes into planning, raising funding and getting the festival up is significant. The Australian photography scene, and more broadly our visual culture, is enriched by their efforts. And let’s not forget the sponsors, including Fujifilm Australia and Sony Australia, who lend vital support to Head On.
To conclude, I’ll leave you with this thought articulated by Oded Wagenstein. “Everything has been photographed before, but not by you.”