Without doubt, the biggest drawcard in Australia for the photographic community is the ‘Head On Photo Festival’ in Sydney.
The annual festival features numerous exhibitions selected from around Australia and the planet … and I’ve been fortunate enough for the last few years to be part of the selection panel that ploughs through several hundred collections of fabulous photographic works to decide what actually ends up on the exhibition walls (or fences!) of Bondi Pavilion and the beach front, Paddington Reservoir Gardens and other venues around Sydney.
The festival also hosts the Head On Photo Awards (Portrait, Landscape and a new one – Exposure), which attracted entries this year from as far afield as Bulgaria, Malta, Greece and Slovenia, to name just four of many.
(NB … I must confess to a little bit of bias … have been a Head On Award winner in the past, a finalist lots of times and an exhibitor on numerous occasions.)
This years collection of exhibition works on display was one of the best I’ve seen. It was excellent to see the work that we agonised to select on a computer screen way back in March, exhibited in the best locations at Bondi, Paddington and more. The same can be said for this years awards … the finalists in Head On Portrait Prize in particular were absolutely brilliant this year.
Head On, however, is not just about awards and exhibitions … it’s the coming together of talented (and newby) photographers from around the world to engage, discuss, swap ideas, learn, celebrate the photographic image and perhaps share a drink or three. Was excellent to catch up with imaging colleagues and friends at a splendid Bondi Pavilion opening eve and across the five days that I could afford to stay … amongst them Mark “Crusty” Baker (who kindly provided luxurious accomodation), Stephen Dupont and the delightful Martina Reys (great Rwanda show you two!), Michael Coyne, Peter Solness, Max Pam, Barbara McGrady, Diana Lui, Marta Soul, Donna Squire, Mike Magee, Simon Harnest, Katherine Griffiths, John Swainston, Max Mason-Hubers, Glenn Porter, Diane Brooks (thanks for the rides !) … and two ‘first time’ Cairns based photographers … the lovely talented Emese Gyalog and new to our city landscape photographer Danielle Jayde. (My apologies to those I may have missed mentioning !)
Of course, all this would not be possible without the amazing tiny Head On team who move mountains to put the festival together … Festival Director Moshe Rosenzveig OAM, Anita Schwartz, Stephen Godfrey, Callum Boland, Charles Mackean and volunteers. Brilliant …
Cairns photographers recognised for their work in the festival this year were the afore mentioned Emese Gyalog and Danielle Jayde, Marc Steiner … and … a certain Brian Cassey 🙂 (no great big deal … this time it was just a semi-finalist in the ‘Exposure’ category with ‘Marilyn Monroe 60 Years On – Bonn‘ 😉 … shown at the festival bottom below.)
Images from top … © John Swainston (promoting Stephen Dupont’s ‘Rwanda 30+ Bearing Witness to Genocide’ exhibition on festival opening eve), © Brian Cassey (Stephen Dupont at the opening eve of ‘Rwanda 30+ Bearing Witness to Genocide’), © Brian Cassey (Martina Reys talks to Rwanda genocide survivors at ‘Rwanda 30+ Bearing Witness to Genocide’), © John Swainston (Head On work displayed on the Bondi Beach waterfront), © Brian Cassey ( my selected work in ‘Exposure’ – ‘Marilyn Monroe 60 Years On – Bonn’)
Brian is that your photograph of young Marilyn … wow!
Thanks for your account of it all I am working on getting ready for the launch of Until Justice Comes – my magnum opus published by Upswell Publishing . See you next round . Juno Gemes
Thanks for the insights, Brian. I wish I could have been there to see a few shows and catch up with people, like you.
Yeah … we miss yer Tim 😉 … Congrats on your Head On portrait recognition … AND … your Portrait of Britain accolade !! (you don’t need me to tell you how good it is !;-) )
Hi Juno, Thanks for your message and question … very appreciated !
To be honest I wasn’t around when the original ‘Red Velvet’ images of a very young then red haired Marilyn Monroe were made by photographer Tom Kelley in 1949 before her acting career took off.
Strangely Tom’s image didn’t receive lavish attention until Hugh Hefner selected it for the first centrefold in the first ever edition of Playboy Magazine in 1953 !
2022 marked the 60th anniversary of Marilyn’s untimely death and the idea was to make an image that evoked the feel of ‘Marilyn’ using a local girl Bonn Marie. It was never meant to be a ‘copy’ … more like a tribute to a beautiful but troubled personality of the past.
We tossed around a few ideas and made many more other images but this one sort of just happened … (we both knew the ‘Red Velvet’ set.)
Bonn (aided by the mastery of make up artist Sue Kim) did a nice job of morphing into Marilyn’s character and look … the resemblance to Tom Kelley’s original image is chilling.
A couple of little interesting asides about the original Kelley image. Originally … pre Playboy … Marilyn faced right to left in the frame. Hefner decided to reverse it in the magazine centrefold … and that’s the way I made the image with Bonn. As well as making Hefner’s new magazine a massive success, Kelley’s image … an image of tastefulness and sophistication … became truly historic, played a key role in shaping 20th century history, led to a redefinition of female sexuality in America and spawned a sexual revolution.
So there you have it 🙂
Pleased you have responded to Emese … she’s a lovely woman that is relatively new to photography but has a talent and drive. I really hope that you two get to enjoy some Hungarian conversations !!
Good luck with ‘Until Justice Comes’, Juno … will look out for it 🙂