Every year, during Good Food Month, there is a public art festival here in Sydney. One of the favourite events is the Sydney Life photo comp. The promo always describes them as "bedsheet size prints" hung under the wide avenue in Hyde Park. Only just managed to catch it yesterday, while the curator and a few of the photographers gave a commentary on the works.
If you have the bandwidth, a 3MB catalog is here http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/artandabout/Default.asp The winner this year, Garry Trinh, is a surprising winner. He was taking photos of his neighbourhood in the Western suburbs, an area with a large multicultural mix, but also a fairly high crime area. He said, the shot of a modest bungalow, with all the windows shuttered, was taken a few weeks after the Cronulla riots (an ugly episode 2 years ago now). What was supposed to be a simple assignment became something more disturbing for him as he got fearful and openly hostile responses from his subjects. Great shot, and good on the judges for picking it over the other more conventional "Sydney=pleasure" photos. But my pick was the ethereal Kings Cross portrait by Tom Williams. The girl was just someone on the street the photographer saw and asked if she would pose for him. She had been partying for 3 days without sleep. Just beautiful (and yes, I know I am contradicting myself :) If you are in Sydney, today is the last day of the exhib. D -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.iinet.net.au/~derbyc -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
