The Ballarat International Foto Biennale officially
launches this week with a reception for participating photographers and invited
guests at the historic Ballarat Mining Exchange building in the city centre on
Saturday, August 20 at 6pm.
The month-long event is being launched by Alasdair
Foster, who recently resigned as Director of the Sydney based Australian Centre for
Photography after 13 years to pursue other opportunities.
With over 20 core exhibitors showing their work and
around 70 fringe exhibitions located throughout the Ballarat CBD and
surrounding suburbs as well as nearby smaller towns, the month-long celebration
of many different styles of photography is the biggest photographic event in
the country. An extensive list of core program artists will talk about their
work throughout the festival.
Three prominent Australian female photographers
who will be exhibiting their distinctive works include Frances Mocnik, Heather
Dinas, and Sarah Louise Jackson. Mocnik has been nominated for a Walkley award
and the Leica Documentary Photography award for her series of images on the
conventions surrounding death and dying called The Night That Follows Day. It’s
described as a “frank and realistic insight into the experience of death and
dying in Australia”.
Heather Dinas will be displaying her work in two series
at BIFB, including The Hymn of Kassiani, which looks at sexual identity from a
cross-cultural perspective. Dinas is a Melbourne-based fine-art and commercial
photographer. Sarah Louise Jackson’s images portray her concerns for animal
welfare in her series Creatures. She says she’s keen to portray the fragility
and innocence of her subjects.
In a regular series of talks during the festival Heather
Dinas will talk about her work and how she creates it on Sunday, August 28, and
Frances Mocnik will discuss her inspirations and techniques on Sunday,
September 17. These talks and others will start at 2pm in the artists’ various
exhibition locations. As well, eminent industry and creative individuals will
take a curatorial look at other exhibitions for the duration of the program.
Talks will start and 2pm and details and exhibition sites can be confirmed at
the BIFB website.
The Bienall also includes workshops for beginner and advanced photographers as well as a growing list of photographic events including a program for schools, portfolio reviews, camera market, photographic book show, fine print fundraiser auction and print swap, dedicated weekends for large format photographers, pinhole photographers, Lomographers, historical exhibitions, a photography prize, an exhibition by master photographic printers and more.
Image by Frances Mocnik.
