Stephen Dupont - 21/03/2001

“I don’t take images, I am given them.” – Stephen Dupont

The personal philosophy of Dupont, as shown above, is extraordinarily apt not only to photojournalism, but in the opinion of this writer, photography in general. As a photographer, Dupont is highly regarded for is imagery of war. His ‘Magnum-esque’ style of photography can been seen in his latest exhibition and book, Afghanistan –Perils of Freedom. The show and book depict all facets of the wars in Afghanistan from 1993 until 2009. The rise of the Taliban, the War on Terror, the local people, the allied forces, the deaths, and the national drug rings as a result of the war, are all captured and poignantly presented.

As a student looking at these images, I’m torn. As a society we claim that television and the news has left us desensitised to such imagery, and yet there certainly is no imagery quite so… genuine in the media. Yet, they are works of art.

The question that remains with me, and I was unfortunately unable to ask is, capturing images such as these must take their psychological and emotional toll? Is the hope that the images will bare light to the actual situation to the common person the remittance?

Stephen Dupont is nothing short of an inspiration to not only photojournalism, but to photography as a whole. If I can take only one thing from this lecture series, I hope it is to share his personal philosophy.

Anne Ferran - 14/03/2011

“How do you photograph nothingness?”

It can be argued that Anne Ferran is the most prominent female in contemporary art photography in the country at the moment; however, her lecture did not seem to do earn her the recognition that she has obviously earned. Her series, Lost Worlds 2, the focus of the lecture, was a series that undoubtedly held great importance to her. Aimed at remembering those who otherwise would not be remembered, the work was a series of large scale photographs showing grass, nothingness, something that could not draw any meaning and thus leave the audience with nothing but the chance to remember those who may not usually be remembered. However, as Ferran mentioned, it seems intrinsic for a human to try and find or draw meaning from a photograph. Unlike other art mediums, photography can only capture something that exists, a time, place or object, but never ‘nothingness’. The audience always wants to take it for something that exists because that is our understanding of a photograph. Ferran explained her motive for the work, children born to women in female penal institutions in Tasmanisa in the 1800s, who died before the age of 2 years, leaving this world as nothing but a name on a page. It is hard to not appreciate Ferran’s dedication to the research, however, this student and photographer questions the how well the final works reflected the research.

Bill Henson - 7th March 2011

“Photography saturates every aspect of our culture” – Bill Henson

The above statement by Mr Henson on Monday night’s lecture (07/03/11) could not be more apt to our studies. In an age where the common person has the ability and means to take, and edit, a photograph from the comfort of their computer desk, how are we, students of the discipline, meant to compete? Henson is one of, if not, the, most notable photographers in Australia, who’s work has had national impact, be it representing the nation at the Venice Biennale, or works that have changed the face of Australian Censorship and Classification laws. In the opinion of this writer, Henson wanted the students leave the lecture knowing that when they create a work, that they must make it for themselves and not the audience in mind.

Henson spoke of his love for creating his artworks; a love that must be so deep, that medium wouldn’t, despite his deep roots in analogue photography. This later came to light when he discussed his most recent works, all of which are Inkjet prints. Henson stated, “The more difficult it is… the more natural the editing process is” and that was one factor as to why he’d refused to ‘go digital’ for so long, that… and he had exhausted the global stocks of mural size, colour paper. Then emphasis for this reason was, as Henson stated, “(a) Photograph is an object… it needs to command the space” something that Henson’s photography has achieved consistently. A point that, hopefully everyone present, and certainly this writer, learnt.