Reportage Festival has announced an overview of its 2008 program of Australian and international photojournalism. From 8-26 October, Reportage Festival will feature a cinematic showcase, exhibition, documentary films and special guest talks.
One of the key components of this year’s festival is The Cinematic Showcase, featuring Australian and international photojournalists including John Moore (USA) from Getty Images, Seamus Murphy (Ireland) and Stefano de Luigi (Italy) both from the prestigious VII photo agency.
Now in its eighth year, Reportage Festival is one of Australia’s premier showcases for photojournalism. With its key objectives to increase interest and understanding of photojournalism as an exciting visual medium, Reportage attracts audiences from the general public, media, galleries and public institutions.
The guest curator for 2008 is internationally acclaimed Australian photographer Stephen Dupont. In Sydney for the festival’s launch, Dupont said, “As one of the founders of Reportage, my passion for the event has grown over the years. As curator, I am determined that the 2008 program of exhibition, cinema and talks will further establish Reportage as a pivotal event for taking photojournalism to as broad an audience as possible. I don’t know of a more powerful medium than photography to bring us cutting edge story telling and a defining stamp on History".
While enjoying considerable growth over the years, Reportage has remained true to its grassroots philosophy to bring outstanding photo essays to the big screen for public consumption, as well as important and compelling visual narratives that, for the most part, remain unseen in their entirety.
Festival Director Jacqui Vicario said “The Festival has received an incredible spectrum of photographer’s work ranging from Cambodian gangs to Japanese Manga and prostitution in Tijuana, in addition to photo-stories from around the world including West Papua, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and China.”
This year, Reportage will also launch The Nikon Reportage Grant for Australian Social Photo-Documentary. Open to Australian and international professional photographers, the $10,000 biennial grant will fund a photographer to research, create and produce a new and compelling social documentary work in Australia. Entries are being accepted until Friday 15th August 2008, further information at http://www.reportage.com.au/grant/.
An independent jury of three will decide on the recipient for the grant, to be announced on the opening night of the 2008 Reportage Festival. The photographer will have until August 2010 to complete their project, which will be shown at the 2010 Reportage Festival.
Nikon Marketing Manager Craig Gillespie said, “We at Nikon feel strongly about investing in social documentary photography in Australia and continuing our long-standing commitment with professional photographers. Fostering new perspectives is something we are particularly excited about”.
The 2008 Reportage Festival also marks the event’s transformation into a biennial festival. This new timeframe will not only allow organisers to establish the festival as the peak event of photojournalism in the Asia-Pacific region, but will also provide photographers with a greater opportunity to submit bodies of work that require a significant amount of preparation, planning and travel.
Reportage Festival is divided into three parts:
Reportage Festival Cinematic Showcase
Chauvel Cinema, 8-17 October
The Cinematic Showcase will feature a montage of Australian and international photojournalists work. The 2008 jury for The Cinematic Showcase is Alasdair Foster, Director of Australian Centre of Photography; Mike Bowers, Managing Photographic Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald; and Johnny Lewis, Photographer.
Entries for the 2008 Reportage Festival Cinematic Showcase close Friday June 27, 2008.
Reportage Festival Exhibition
Australian Centre for Photography, 9-26 October
This year Reportage will present an exhibition titled Figure Umane (The Human Figure) by Italian photographer Giorgia Fiorio.
Reportage Festival Talks & Documentary Series
Australian Centre for Photography and Chauvel Cinema , 11 & 12th October
A weekend of social activities, floortalks, documentary films and a lecture series organised in conjunction with the Australian Centre of Independent Photojournalism, UTS.
[Releae by Next Step Media]