19 March - 16 May 2010
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A celebration of photography showcasing the work of internationally renowned and emerging photographers, generating awareness, inciting discussion and creating a forum for the exploration of ideas and issues relating to the practice and art of photography. |
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Eugene Richards
South of Laramie, Wyoming, May 2005
chromogenic C-Print
© Eugene Richards |
Eugene Richards
Corinth, North Dakota, January 2006
chromogenic C-Print
© Eugene Richards |
The Blue Room - Eugene Richards
Leading American social documentary photographer Eugene Richards specialises in studies of the American underclass. In his first colour project, he focuses on what he describes as the "transient nature of things". The photographs are haunting portraits of abandoned houses of the impoverished US Mid-West. Richards’ enigmatic images of these forgotten homes are a meditation on memory and loss.
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Brad Rimmer
Christmas, Wyalkatchem (detail) 2005-06
digital C-Print
© Brad Rimmer |
Brad Rimmer
Jess, Wyalkatchem-Summer (detail) 2005-06
digital C-Print
© Brad Rimmer |
SILENCE: The Western Australian Wheatbelt - Brad Rimmer
This photographic exhibition is the culmination of Brad Rimmer’s reflections on his adolescent home. Perth-based Rimmer presents an evocative recollection of growing up in rural Australia, capturing the quietness of the landscape and the contemplation of the unspoken word in a changing rural environment. A publication of the same title will be launched at the exhibition.
For more information, visit FotoFreo 2010 The City of Fremantle Festival of Photography.
Eugene Richards
Eugene Richards is an internationally acclaimed photojournalist, filmmaker and writer who studied photography with Minor White at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1944, Richards lives in New York and holds a degree in English and Journalism. He works as a freelance editorial photographer for publications such as LIFE, National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine and produces powerful projects on social issues such as drug abuse, mental illness and aging. Richards published his first book, Few Comforts or Surprises: The Arkansas Delta in 1973 after working as a social worker and reporter in Arkansas.
The photographer’s publications include Dorchester Days (1978), a portrait of the Boston neighbourhood where he was born; Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue (1994), a study of the impact of hardcore drugs on American society; Stepping Through the Ashes (2002), an elegy to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001; The Fat Baby (2004), a collection of photographic essays; and most recently, The Blue Room (2008), a study of the abandoned houses of rural America.
His current project, War Is Personal, is a documentation in words and pictures of the consequences of the Iraq war. Richards is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, the 2009 Amnesty International Photojournalism Award, several National Endowment for the Arts Grants and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Journalism Award. Richards has held more than 40 solo shows in the USA and abroad.The Blue Room was first shown in Arles in 2009 followed by Los Angeles and Luxembourg. This is his first exhibition in Australia.
Visit Eugene Richards' website. <more>
Brad Rimmer
"Silence is … about the artist, who he is and where he came from".
Susan Bright New York 2010
"The last image I took was in the back yard of our old family home in Wyalkatchem on the 24th of August, 2009. My mother was upset that I chose to photograph the back garden. This garden was her sanctuary. She hated living in this town and reminded my father daily. Her shady overgrown garden kept her sane in a climate of severe summers that could be cruel to us fair-skinned fellows. She was saddened by the neglect of her little piece of paradise.
I was worried about revisiting my old home and going inside the house, but I had no real connection at all. Everything that was in my mind had gone and I felt a strange relief. On my way out of town that evening I thought of how many people had left and never returned, just left for good. I’d never thought about that before".
Brad Rimmer 2010
This autobiographical exhibition is the culmination of Brad Rimmer’s reflections on his adolescent home. Born in Northam, WA in 1962, Rimmer grew up in the Western Australian wheatbelt before moving to Perth at the age of 19. Rimmer has won the City of Perth Photo Image Award three times, and in 1997 took second place in the Santa Fe Assignment Earth Prize for Photography, USA. He has exhibited in numerous international exhibitions, including the Perth International Arts Festival in 2005; the 2004, 2005 and 2008 Pingyao and 2006 Lianzhou International Photo Festivals in China, the 2006 Brighton Photo Biennial in the United Kingdom, Kaunas Photo 08 in Lithuania, and Photoforum PasquArt in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland in 2009.
His photographs are held in both public and private collections, including the City of Fremantle Art Collection, City of Perth Art Collection, PhotoForum Biel/Bienne Switzerland, Central TAFE Collection WA and the WA Department of Corrective Services.
Rimmer was awarded a Mid-Career Fellowship from the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts in 2009 in order to publish his monograph Silence. He is the first photographer to receive this highly competitive and prestigious grant. This exhibition coincides with the book’s launch.
Visit Brad Rimmer's website. <more>