Sunset – Harrison Saragossi
Sunset
This essay is an exploration of the lives of residents at “Sunset”, Wesley Mission’s Dementia facility.
Dementia robs people of their sense of time, place and self. They may have lost their memories but they still retain some essence of themselves.
Caring for people with dementia is demanding and distressing, so many families send their loved ones to a specialist facility. It is sad that aged care facilities are now accepting fewer dementia patients because of the level of care they need. This means that people suffering with dementia are more alone than ever. It is this sense of loneliness that surfaces in my essay.
During the time that these photographs were taken two of the residents passed away. Wesley Missions facilities are highly sought after and there is always a list of people waiting to take their place.
Harrison Saragossi
In 2006 Harrison Saragossi graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art and Griffith award for academic excellence, majoring in both print media and photography, from Griffith University, Queensland College of Art. Originally he majored in print media, however in his second year he took a photography elective and quickly fell in love with the medium.
In 2008 he was a part of over 20 exhibitions nationally and internationally and was a Finalist in Competitions such as GAS + Garage Award, the Alumni Network Art Prize, The Mosman Festival Photography Competition, The Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture and the Wallace Bishop National Photographic Competition. Recently he was announced as an exhibitor in the PMA 2009, Las Vegas.
St Francis Orphanage Nairobi Kenya – Hamish Gregory
St Francis Orphanage Nairobi Kenya
This series of portraits documents some of the children from St Francis Orphanage, Nairobi, Kenya. The orphanage was set up by one woman in her own home and now houses close to 300 children, in one standard sized house. The children face many challenges both in terms of education and health. I spent over a week at the orphanage and became friends with many of the children. This friendship and trust allowed me to capture very relaxed portraits of the children, showing unique expressions and little moments of emotion.
Hamish Gregory
Hamish graduated from the National Institute of the Arts (NITA) at the Australian National University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Photography). Following his degree, he commenced an internship to work at The Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.
Hamish has travelled extensively and developed a passion for international affairs. He has a desire to successfully document people’s lives and our ever-changing environment.
“My images take the viewer on a journey through the places I have seen, and introduce them to the people filled with hope, sharing intimate moments of their lives, that I have documented.”
Hamish continues to travel, to develop a photographic style and to tell stories of people from around the world, through his images.
Awaiting Answers – Natalie Grono
Awaiting Answers
The movement of the 400 villages has formed to put pressure on the government to investigate and resolve land disputes in the eastern state of Vera Cruz, Mexico. They are accusing Dante Delgado, the former Vera Cruz governor in 1992, of stealing their land and of human rights violations. They have decided to come to Mexico City to demand he be investigated and their land returned.
Approximately 120 people are camped out on top of a car parking station in front of the Monumento a la Madre in the middle of the city. Every day the farmers and their families protest naked for 4 hours to state that they are naked of their justice.
I was interested in capturing the daily lives of the community of the movement, from the unusual and eye-catching protest to how they survive squatting in the middle of one of the world’s biggest cities.
Natalie Grono
Natalie loves to cover cultural themes and issues.
Before starting work full time for the Newcastle Herald in 2007 she worked briefly in wedding photography, retail, public relations, and picture sales and spent some years traveling. While in South America she completed a Foundry Photo Journalism Course in Mexico City and has completed a BA Communications at the University of Newcastle and a Photography Certificate at Ultimo Tafe.
Natalie has been awarded 1st place in Feature Photography in the “Northern NSW Journalism Awards” in 2008 and has been featured in several exhibitions and competitions such as the “Moran Prize 2009”, “Head On Portrait Prize 2008”, “Olive Cotton Award and Reportage in 2006.”
Children of Auburn – George Voulgaroupoulos
Children of Auburn
“Children of Auburn” is my photographic portrayal of a side of Sydney that most people will never see. This series provides a glimpse into the life of the next generation of Australians living in Auburn, peering behind the curtain of this little-known side of society. Auburn is a small suburb in Sydney’s west, a landing point for many migrants and refugees when they first arrive in Australia.
Recent events have spurred an increase in displaced Afghan, Iraqi and Sudanese refugees seeking a new place to call home, a haven from a troubled past, which is an important and overlooked aspect of Australian culture. Will this next generation of Australians hold onto their cultural heritage, or will they be overwhelmed by the pressure to assimilate? The body of work parallels my journey as a photographer, as an observer of a culture, mirroring my own experiences as a 2nd generation Australian.
George Voulgaropoulos
George is a Photojournalist. He works as Staff Photographer for suburban newspapers like Canterbury/Bankstown Torch, Auburn Review, and Cooks River Valley Times. He is in the process of receiving his Diploma of Photography at Sydney Institute of Technology TAFE and also spends his weekends working as a Wedding Photographer.
His images have been published in BBC World News, Australian Traveller, Advocate Insider and Real Time Arts Magazine and have also been awarded several local art prizes such as the 1st prize in the 2008 Auburn Mayoral Photographic Awards.
Journey of the Cross – Billy Law
Journey of the Cross
World Youth Day (WYD) is the largest youth event in the world and was held in Sydney, Australia in 2008. From 1 July 2008, the WYD Cross and icon followed a fifteen day walking pilgrimage through Greater Sydney, encompassing Wollongong, Parramatta, Broken Bay and Sydney CBD, culminating in the WYD Cross being carried into the Opening Mass of WYD08.
I wanted to experience this event from a non-Catholic perspective without prejudice and unbiased point of view. I gained their trust and was allowed to spend three days following the pilgrims on the last haul of this journey, trying to understand the true meaning of Catholicism. The spirit and devotion of the prayers are undoubtedly admirable.
What happens on the big day is not important because from this experience, I understand the only one thing that can unite everyone in this world as one is to ‘Believe’.
Billy Law
Billy Lawwas born in 1976 in Malaysia and now resides in Sydney, Australia. After many years as an art director in advertising, Billy has decided to pursue photography full time. Billy uses photography as the medium to record the extraordinary from the ordinary. His fast growing portfolio within the last few years has earned him a solid base of clients and projects.
Billys photographs have gained recognition through major awards and have also featured in exhibitions including ACMP Trampoline Projections 07 and Head On Contemporary Portrait Prize 2008. He is currently working on his first solo exhibition.
The Burn – Craig Proudford
The Burn
This series is a look into one of the most dramatic harvesting practices in Australia.
The cane burn only takes fifteen minutes out of a two year crop cycle. For such a small part of cane farming, those fifteen minutes are some of the most intense undertaken by any farmer and could make or break two years worth of hard work for the farmer or their neighbour which is why the techniques of cane burning are not as simple as just lighting a fire. Soon to be replaced by harvesting and milling methods that don’t require the cane to be burnt, the cane burn will shortly be extinguished as a farming practice.
Craig Proudford
Craig was born in Sydney’s south western suburbs and demonstrated a love for visual arts at an early age.
After completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Graphic Design, Craig went on to work as a Graphic Designer in Australia and the UK.
Having always maintained an interest in photography, after returning from overseas in 2005, Craig decided to pursue it full-time.
He has since been working as a photographic assistant with a range of photographers and developing his own style through his personal work.
What Craig enjoys most about photography is the opportunity it gives him to look at the world in a different way and focus his attention on the smallest details giving them a new perspective.
Inventions – Kristian Taylor-Wood
Inventions
Commissioned by McCann Erickson for their Stare gallery, “Invention” is a look into Kristian Taylor-Wood’s wonderfully diseased mind. Influenced by a love for 70’s and 80’s horror films such as “The Shining” and “American Werewolf in London” and recalling his fond memories of a childhood spent breaking into abandoned buildings, Kristian has conjured up a quirky new post apocalyptic world of Lonely people and their Inventions.
Kristian Taylor-Wood
Born in Croydon, south east of London, Kristian Taylor-Wood began his photography career at the cult UK based magazine Dazed & Confused. And so began a life long love affair with the world of photography.
“It’s the way photos can change someone’s perception of the world we live in. Photographs are the materialization of my imagination.”
It is this imagination that has captured the attention of clients and galleries nationally and internationally. Through his photography Kristian brings humour and beauty to even the most unsettling subject matters.
McCann WorldGroup’s Stare Gallery invited Kristian to be one of the first artists to exhibit in their space.
“I don’t want people to just pass my pictures by. I want them to stop and think about what’s going on and then make up their own story.”
Between the lines – Mikael Wardhana
Between the lines
“Between the lines” is one of my recent editorial projects inspired by some elements of Greek culture combined with tribal styling. What I wanted to portray here is sophistication and elegance in an unusual way. I wanted to depict an oddness and androgyny-look in this series, hence all the not-so-complete poses from the model. I chose to shoot this project with my Hasselblad V series camera on Kodak Tri-X films.
Mikael Wardhana
Mikael Wardhana is a young fashion photographer recently completing his art degree from RMIT University, Melbourne. He purchased his first camera in 2004 and instantly fell in love with photography as a medium to express himself.
Having studied commercial photography, fashion photography has been his focus for the last 3 years. Mikael’s fashion work has been published in a variety of printed and electronic media, such as The Shutterbug Magazine, The Light Magazine, Capture Magazine and Fallen Magazine. His work has recently been published in major fashion magazines worldwide. Mikael has recently moved to Sydney to pursue his career in Fashion photography.
Landscapes about Us – Ward Roberts
Landscapes about Us
Ward Roberts’ Landscapes About Us series is a distilling exploration of loneliness and isolation.
Robert’s casts his lens to both natural and urban environments in search of locations of melancholic stillness. Rich in all life but human, a sense of desertion & desolation resonates across these landscapes. Arresting silence fills each frame. The landscape is a character; a flesh-less substitute for a lonely human soul who has endured trying times and relationships, but rests now in solitude. Robert’s employs tight formal compositions, but pure minimalism is frequently disrupted by a single object of significance which punctuates the vacant landscape.
Ward Roberts
Ward Forsyth Roberts was born in Adelaide. He lived abroad in Hong Kong for a number of years and returned to Melbourne, Australia where he studied photography in High School.
Ward went on to study photography at RMIT University and graduated with a Bachelor of Photography in 2008.
In the same year, he was awarded the Victorian Photography Student of the Year award in the portraiture category, the ACMP Les Walkling award for Architectural, Industrial and Commercial Photography, the Irwin Maclaren Landscape Award and the Blindspot exhibition peoples choice award.
Interesting Faces – Stephen David
Interesting Faces
These images are from a series titled “Interesting Faces”. After approaching people in the street I placed them by a nearby wall and took 6-12 images. The whole process from “Hi” to “Bye” took 4-5 minutes, with the actual photography taking less than 1 minute. Taken at busy locations, like Flinders Street, meant that most people were in a hurry and rushing by.
All portraits were shot on 35mm film or digital and some were taken with on-camera flash.
The idea of the series stemmed from the old addage of “looking at the ordinary and seeing the extrodinary”. The simplicity of the headshots relies on the subject and their expressions.
Stephen David
Originally from India, Stephen arrived in Australia in 1969. In 2000, he completed his degree in Photography at RMIT Universtiy, Melbourne.
Having studied commercial photography, he has mainly focused on personal work for the last 9 years, with the exception being a number of weddings he has photographed. He looks forward to exhibiting his personal work in the near future.
Untitled – Stewart Leishman
Untitled
This series is a personal ongoing documentation of urban commuters in their urban environment. My original inspiration started whilst capturing contemporary architectural buildings with daily commuters in their day to day environment.
I began to relate to these people on their quest to reach a destination, a goal, which I guess is what we spend most of our lives doing. I’ve also found in my own experiences that the lightness & darkness in each image somehow represents the 2 sides to most human behavior patterns with all the shades of grey in between.
Stewart Leishman
Stewart was born in Sydney, grew up in Cairns and now lives in Melbourne. His profession for the past 12 years has been cooking, working as a chef. He accidentally discovered photography whilst on a holiday in Hong Kong. With a Sony Cyber shot point & shoot, there was no stopping.
Even now, after two and a half years of photographing, he is surprised to look back at the images that he created without knowing any compositional laws. A friend commented that he had an eye after viewing snap shots, however it needed refining. “It was that moment that could have crushed my hopes and dreams but his encouragement lead me on to the path of photography”.
Untitled – Dan O’Day
Untitled
It’s the witching hour. That time of night where everything outside is completely still. My senses are heightened and soon become exaggerated…all thoughts quickly convert to paranoid realizations. Before I know it the pounding coming from inside my chest is the loudest sound in the room, “stop thinking, stop thinking, stop thinking”
Am I alone? Or are there other bedroom soldiers out there at war with their own imagination.
Dan O’Day
Holding his first solo photographic show in 2006, Dan has held a number of solo exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions since. His work has been well documented in the Canberra press as well as being included in a number of national publications. He has been lucky to be the recipient of numerous art awards, including the Canberra Critics Circle 2007 Photographic Award and in 2009 being a “Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize“ finalist.
His latest solo exhibition “My Paper Pictures” was held at the Catherine Asquith Gallery in Carlton,Victoria.
