Julian Tennant - Photography

26/12/2024

Come on... the guy's not Steve McCurry who staged, photoshopped and manipulated the f%*k out of photographs whilst pontificating about the 'ethics' of photojournalism. De Keyser was up front about what he was doing, but

“There were a lot of negative comments on my Insta post, like 600 in two hours. I was not used to that. I always had great reactions to my posts … but this time the box exploded ... Some said that they were my biggest fans before but not anymore. AI still provokes automatic disgust, whatever the approach or progress made.”
.. and yet, I have no doubt that some of De Keyzer's critics have no qualms with 'photoshopping' an image to within an inch of it's life. To the point where it barely resembles the truth of the subject but that's ok, that's 'pre-visualisation' or 'fine art' or some such other bu****it.

When Russia's invasion of Ukraine stymied his travel plans, photographer Carl De Keyzer decided to take a virtual trip instead, creating a series of AI-generated images. He was unprepared for the consequences.

21/07/2024

Matt Dunne from Australian photo book publisher, Tall Poppy Press, is returning to Perth in September and will be holding another photography book making workshop at P*P. Details in link.

I did his course last time (the picture is a couple of the pieces that I made during the workshop) and highly recommend it.
I've got a couple of book projects bubbling away and creating mock-ups are a great opportunity to sharpen focus and direction. This is definitely a workshop worth considering.

https://events.humanitix.com/photobook-creation-with-matt-dunne

24/05/2024

Vale Rosemary Laing (1959-2024).

It is with great sadness to note the passing of internationally renowned photographer Rosemary Laing after a short illness.

Her photographs explored the cultural consciousness, researching the crucial issues of our times including the politics of place, natural environment and human rights.

The photograph featured is "welcome to Australia"
from the series "to walk on a sea of salt 2004" and as can be seen, her works were often cinematic, vast in scale and filled with disquiet and unsettling beauty.

This image depicts the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre, the official title of an infamous detention centre remotely located in the South Australian Simpson Desert that operated from 1999 to 2003 to incarcerate asylum seekers and refugees who arrived in Australia by boat without valid visas. The so-called ‘unauthorised arrivals’ held at Woomera, the majority of which were ultimately found to be legitimate refugees, were subjected to prolonged, indeterminate and cruel periods of detention until they were granted visas, or deported, under a punitive policy of ‘mandatory detention’.

A major survey of her work was held at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney in 2005 and travelled to Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik in Denmark in 2006, while Tarrawarra Museum of Art in Victoria presented a major survey in 2018. Her most recent solo exhibition in Melbourne earlier this year, entitled Swansongs, derived its name from the area in Swanhaven on the NSW coast where she has a home.

Rosemary was born in Brisbane and studied in Hobart, Brisbane and Sydney. Her work has been presented Biennales in Sydney, Venice, Busan and Istanbul. Her work is in major collections in Australia, Spain, the US, Japan and Switzerland.

07/05/2024

The aestheticisation of tragedy

WPP winner demonstrates Palestinian grief is only acceptable to the West if it is sanitised and devoid of context.