Beta issue 12

12

NOVEMBER 2014

developments in photography

BETA developments in photography ISSUE 12 editor: Jeff Moorfoot design: Penelope Anne contact: beta@ballaratfoto.org All content in this magazine is Š 2014 of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale and participating artists, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the BIFB. Inc save for fair dealing for the purposes of research, study, criticism, review, reporting news. All other rights are reserved.

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John Hay

KOSCIUSZKO TO THE KIMBERLEY

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Bear Kirkpatrick PORTRAITS

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Kent Krugh INSIDE THE GATE

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Brad Carlile

TEMPUS INCOGNITUS

Welcome to this, our twelfth edition of BETA developments in photography.

Maybe we can denote this as the ‘bloke’s world’ issue, because the contributors are indeed all male, but actually gender balance, political correctness, geographical location or the stage of the contributors career have never been a consideration for selection of what goes in each edition of BETA. It is very much a matter of how the cards fall. I always look to present a selection of portfolios that demonstrate just how diverse the art form of photography can be. It is the same philosophy with which I curate the Core Program of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, a process of making invitations that I am well into for BIFB’15. The festival will run from August 22 to September 20, 2015.

Sometimes I think the process would be so much easier if I were to only invite artists who work in my favourite styles.

Indeed I count myself privileged to be able to appreciate a wide variety of styles and genres of photography, but it is always my aim to put together a

program based on what I perceive to be audience tastes. Given that our audience is so diverse, my dastardly plan is to put together a program in which everyone can find something they can understand and appreciate…

So it goes with BETA developments in photography!

This issue brings folios from country Victoria’s John Hay, whose selection includes images from his current debut show at Bokeh Gallery in Daylesford.

The other three photographers come via an interesting online portfolio review process called ‘Critical Mass’, run by the Photolucida organisation in Portland Oregon. Ten image online folios by 200 photographers from around the world are reviewed by more than 200 reviewers, also representing an international geographical spread consisting gallerists, picture editors, curators, publishers, festival directors, consultants and art buyers.

It’s a rather gruelling process, viewing first the thumbnail images, then reading the artist statement, then viewing full screen individual images, and

finally scoring the folio and making comments where appropriate. And of course trying all the time to remain objective and fair to the artists by only reviewing folios at separate sessions with a consistent state of mind.

has seen twelve of them send me portfolios for consideration. Now it is simply a matter of deciding the right juxtaposition of style and content before these artists get their day in the BETA spotlight.

Out of this process, scores from the 200+ judges are tallied, and the fifty highest scoring folios are declared the Critical Mass top 50. There is no individual winner, the work of 50 photographers is promoted via an exhibition and publication. Of my highest scoring folios, only eight were included in the Critical mass top 50, which gives an indication of the diversity of the preferences of the large reviewing panel.

The beauty of the process is that I have seen the works of 200 photographers [a few whose work I had previously reviewed elsewhere, and four of whom have already appeared in previous BETA’s] and irrespective if they made the top 50, they have caught my eye.

Of the 200, I sent invitations to 31 artists to send me a body of work for possible inclusion in future editions of BETA, and already the response

The three other photographers we present for your viewing pleasure in 12 all come from the USA. Only one, Bear Fitzpatrick made the Critical Mass top 50. But he, along with the other two, Brad Carlile and Kent Krugh most definitely made my top 30. I hope you enjoy my choices!

Jeff Moorfoot BIFB Creative Director BETA editor Ballarat International Foto Biennale

Kosciuszko to the Kimberley John Hay

In this series of images I have endeavoured to capture aspects of the Australian landscape that ignore in the main the iconic and familiar destinations that are duplicated en masse, but rather to seek out the lesser seen and sometimes often ignored beauty that exists from the peak of Kosciuszko to the vast desert regions of Australia.

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Flinders 1

Previous Page: Mount Arkaringa

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Benambra 1

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Karanjini 1

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Falls 1

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Purnalulu 2

Previous Page: Kosciuszko 1

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Canning 1

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Disappointment 2

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Canning Dune

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Canning 3

Previous Page: Painted Desert 1

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Canning 2

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Bungles

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Disappointment 1

Next Page: Purnalulu 1

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John Hay’s photographic career began studying at RMIT for what was then a Diploma of Illustrative Photography; completing third year in 1974. He then began professional practice in the area of audio-visuals and moved to magazines in 1976. He took the opportunity in 1977 to work as assistant to John Street a high profile advertising photographer in Melbourne for one year.

After a year overseas Hay established his own business and chose to pursue an editorial client base working for Vogue Australia, Vogue Living, Vogue Entertaining and Gourmet Traveller.

These clients were the mainstay of his career for two decades along with an advertising clientele and numerous cookbooks for most of the major publishers of that period.

In 1999 he changed direction and moved into teaching at RMIT University firstly as a sessional teacher and then as a full time lecturer in the then prestigious BA photography program. In 2009 he retired and decided that after a career based around the image requirements of others it was time to create images for himself. After five years of numerous trips into the Australian outback and high country this journey of discovery has led him to his first solo exhibition ‘Kosciuszko to the Kimberley’

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Portraits

Bear Kirkpatrick

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Carole

Previous Page: Ashley - The Triumph of Death

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I define my imagery as evidence, documents of past and present human psychological states. I am presently working to develop a model to prove that acquired characteristics are not only inheritable as a result of natural selection and artificial selection, but also as the result of psychological selection as created by the environmental pressure of human memory.

Collin - The Birth of Venus

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Ashley - The Graden of Earthly Delights

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Lena

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Nicole - After the Master of St Veronica

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Francis - Charles Wilson Peale

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Jessica - The Elizabeth Phoenix

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Margaret The Winter Skaters

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Leigh - The Mockingbird Nest

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Kathryn - Burgoyne’s Surrender

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Mija - Ogata Korin

Previous Page: Marianne

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Samuel

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Nikole - Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

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Taryn

Next Page: Terry - The Temptation of St Anthony

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Bear Kirkpatrick’s forbearers were an ad hoc mixture of adventurer-navigators, naturalists, whalers, Puritans, dissidents, judges, and witches. He was born in the American south to a mother of Brahmin Boston stock and to a father who, at the time, was several days away from sent across the world to war in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Bear’s upbringing was scattered across the Eastern seaboard, resting longest on a farm in New Hampshire during his teen years where he learned the survival skills of tracking, fishing, and hunting.

He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, the University of Michigan, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has made his living by turns as a stone wall builder, roofer, bookkeeper, furniture builder, and video art installer.

His work has been exhibited at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, 555 Gallery, Flowers Gallery, the Center for Fine Art Photography, Corden-Potts, Rayko, photo-eye Gallery, Houston Center for Photography, wall space Gallery, Drift, Bowersock Gallery, and the Corey Daniels Gallery.

His work has been honored with the 2013 Critical Mass Finalist Selection, the NH Charitable Foundations Artist Advancement Grant, Amy Arbus’ Curator’s Selection at The Center for Fine Art Photography’s 2014 Portraits Exhibition, and with 3 International Photography Awards.

His solo exhibition of portraits is currently on display at The Center for Fine Art Photography, and he has forthcoming solo exhibitions at jdc Fine Art in San Diego, and 555 Gallery in Boston.

website: bearkirkpatrick.com

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Inside The Gate Kent Krugh

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These portraits of trees are photomontages, and by virtue of the process used to create them, can be considered “inverse panoramas.”

I have at times considered these images as from a divine perspective or vantage point. It is as if one crosses through a gate or threshold into another realm, spiritual perhaps, where time and space are collapsed. From the perspective of the tree, they also represent a passage of events and time.

When I select and emphasize the individual tree, my intention is to open a gate and allow the viewer

Left: Higher Ground Cedar

to listen and explore; and perhaps relate to the central figure in ways not before understood or realized.

Similar to us in its branching, arterial-like symmetry, is there another way to appreciate a tree?

John Ernest Phythian reminds us that “It is not by pretending the trees to be human that we can become and continue keenly interested in them but by seeing and feeling both their likeness to us and their difference from us.” Why are we so similar and why are we drawn so to the tree?

In the making of these images, I am attracted to the tree by its form, size and setting. Often while driving, I spot a candidate to photograph and debate in my mind if I want to pull over and wade through the wet grass or simply continue home. It is the potential for that next interesting and mysterious print that drives my ambition to collect more images.

Another tree for the collection.

Another window into creation.

Miami Whitewater Forest Bald Cypress

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Springfiled Township Shagbark Hickory

Previous Page: St Marys Fairfield Chinese Elm

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Springfield Township Shagbark Hickory Winter

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Eden Park White Oak No 2

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Heritage Park Poplar

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Spring Grove Staghorn Sumac

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Spring Grove Beech

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Spring Grove Elm

Previous Page: St Marys Fairfield Holly

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Heritage Park Mulberry No 2

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Higher Ground Ash

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St Marys Fairfield Eastern Red Cedar No 2

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Fitton Center Upright English Oak

Previous Page: Mt. Auburn Tree of Heaven

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Blackcreek Township Ash with Poison Ivy

Kent Krugh is a fine art photographer, living and working in Greater Cincinnati, OH. Ten years ago, he began to study photography seriously, first taking classes with academic professionals locally, and then attending workshops in alternative processes with Dan Burkholder and Craig Barber. He has received numerous awards in national and international print and portfolio competitions and was a Photolucida 2012 Critical Mass Finalist.

His work has been exhibited in numerous national and international group and solo venues, including a solo exhibition of “Inside the Gate” at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR. In 2013, at the invitation of curator Juan Alberto Gaviria, Krugh exhibited “Inside the Gate” in several venues for ZOOMFEST 2013 in Medellin, Columbia, South America. He also taught workshops in collaboration with Colegiatura Colombiana del Diseño, Fundacion Universitaria de Bellas Artes and Centro Colombo Americano under the auspices of the Universidad de Antioquia.

Krugh’s photography has been exhibited at three major festivals during the past four years: Fringe Festival 2010, Cincinnati, OH; FotoFest Biennial 2012, Houston, TX; and FotoFocus Biennial 2012, Cincinnati, OH. His work appears in numerous catalogs, as well as the 1st International Photography Annual (INPHA 1) published by Manifest Press, 2012.

website: kentkrugh.com

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Tempus Incognitus Brad Carlile 67

‘Tempus Incognitus’ is a series of large-scale color photographs of hotel rooms that invite the viewer to imagine the multitude of human emotions played out within their confines. Despite the fact that globalization has homogenized our interior environments, the stories that have taken place within these rooms are unique. By utilizing a laborintensive technique to capture the evolution of light, I emphasize the change of time in vivid, even 68

lurid, colors. Think of Edward Hopper interiors awash in James Turrell colors with David Lynch directing.

‘Tempus Incognitus’ records the days transitional times and shows them existing concurrently. The Cubists painted individual scenes from several different perspectives at once. In this series I photograph individual rooms at several different times of day from a single perspective.

This series has conceptual underpinnings. There are rules that combine the element of chance in these environments with predetermined rules that provide underlying parameters for this process. Multiple exposures are shot over 2 or more days and images are created in camera and on film with no digital manipulation. Each image is composed of 3-9 exposures. Only the light in the room is used to create the images – no colored bulbs or

gels are used. Exposures are shot only at pre-determined times in the day with no allowance for waiting for perfect light. I must adjust to the particular light given the confines of this schedule.

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Brad Carlile lives in both Portland Oregon and New York City. He has exhibited at MoMA Rio de Janeiro (in collection), Guatemala, Germany, Austria, Qatar, China, Argentina, and over 60 shows in the USA. Brad’s 2014 solo show was part of the 25th Encuentros Abiertos - Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires Argentina. His 2011 solo show was chosen as Portland’s best art photography show for the year.

In 2014 he was recognized as PDN photo annual winner. In 2009 he was chosen as a winner in the prestigious Hearst 8x10 Photography Biennial. He has won over 14 fine-art photographic awards. In the Fall of 2011, an article on his work was published in Exposure, the Journal of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE).

Brad’s work can also be seen at the George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles

website: bradcarlile.com

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