James Nachtwey is the first photographer to be awarded the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities. This is the 12th time that the annual award has been offered. The prize is $250 000. Nachtwey announced that he will use the money to fund more of his long-term on-going photographic projects. He was not aware that he had been nominated, but any reader familiar with his work will understand why he won.Nachtwey’s work is deeply humane. It stands as a powerful record of some of the worst humanitarian disasters of our time.His unflinching eye should not be ignored.
Inferno is his most recent publication. A stunning, large-format book of powerful duotone photographs by it includes images taken over the last ten years. 364 uncompromising photographs disclose some of today’s gravest examples of man’s inhumanity to man, from Bosnia and Chechnya to Rwanda and Somalia. Nachtwey was injured in the war in Iraq in 2003.
Public vs Private Places
Street photography is fast becoming a contentious issue in Melbourne. Amateur camera club members have been questioned by police for photographing the refineries at Altona and tourists can no longer photograph in Southbank. Increased private ownership of public space and counter terrorism initiatives are partly responsible for official crackdowns while child safety issues have contributed to make photographers more conspicuous.
Private People in Public Places
Clearly commonsense must prevail when shooting on the street. When possible, get permission from the subjects, particularly if their identity is obvious. If the subject is a child – approach the accompaning adult. Be aware of areas – like arcades or malls – that appear to be public spaces but are actually privately owned as these spaces are generally patrolled by security guards.
TPI also recommends not going it alone – photographers can tend to concentrate too much on what is happening inside the frame and can easily lose track of what’s going on around them. If you don’t feel comfortable photographing with a group, take along a friend who is happy to have a coffee and watch your back while you wander off down alleyways.
Useful Links re: Legal Issues
4020 NSW Photographers Rights
Photo Rights Discussion Page on Flickr – includes downloadable information sheets.
We would love to know what you think about this topic. Post a comment with your hints and experiences.
Trent Parke – Minutes to Midnight
2nd September – 5th November 2006
Wollongong City Gallery
ph: 02 4228 7500
email: gallery@wollongong.nsw.gov.au
A perennial favourite at The Printed Image, Trent Parke consistently produces powerful and unique images. The Minutes to Midnight exhibition collects images taken on a two year road trip around Australia.
For those people unable to make it to the exhibition, we anticipate that a Minutes to Midnight book will eventually make it to our shelves. In the meantime however Parke has two books currently in circulation.
Dream/Life : This photographic journey, created over 5 years, has resulted in an extraordinary street documentary of Sydney and it’s inhabitants. Moody images allude to the cycles of life; the book is a poem of praise and at the same time a lament for this sub-tropical city.
The Seventh Wave (a collaboration with Narelle Autio) : Amazing, dreamy, sometimes surreal photos, mostly underwater. From the crashing surf to the silent shadowy world beneath the waves, the book is sequenced with reference to the notion that in a set of waves, the seventh is the biggest. It also features an introductory essay by Robert Drewe.
War reportage has changed almost as dramatically as the ways in which war itself is conducted. Mobile digital technologies allow instantaneous global transmission of images. Conversely, access for journalists is now more limited. The human cost of war is frequently missing from the news broadcasts that make it into our living rooms and suffering is all too easily depersonalised.
Books such as the World Press Photo 06 compilation collect compelling work by photojournalists currently working in trouble spots all over the world. Featuring 200 images selected from a global photography competition, the compilation also includes images from the lighter side of life.
James Nachtwey’s Inferno is a includes 364 uncompromising images taken over the last ten years. The book discloses some of today’s gravest examples of man’s inhumanity to man, from Bosnia and Chechnya to Rwanda and Somalia. Nachtwey was injured in the war in Iraq in 2003.
Hitting close to home is Ben Bohane’s photographic exhibition The Black Islands : Spirit and War in Melanesia. Presented by the Australian Centre for Photography, The Black Islands features images from the twelve years Bohane spent as a photojournalist specialising in Melanesia and indigenous Australia.
When compared with Richardson’s personal work however, the Lee campaign seems rather tame. Sexually explicit imagery is his trademark. Unlike the work of other artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin or Thomas Ruff who create sexually explicit images, Richardson’s work perpetuates rather than challenges social mores. Terryworld has nothing new to say about women – we know already that the young and beautiful are best enjoyed in a variety of positions. The version of masculinity on show is also not new. What is new though is the ubiquitousness. Its advertising, its art, its everywhere… What seems shocking today probably won’t be tomorrow. Feminist critiques hardly seem to matter in an age when Paris Hilton and Oprah Winfrey are the faces of what could arguably be called fourth wave feminism. 
