PHOTODUST is an independent art and photography organisation based in Melbourne, Australia.
We are a not-for-profit Asia-Pacific curation project. Our aim is to engage and encourage collaboration between artists, for the production and publication of photographic and lens-based art.
PHOTODUST aims to establish a unique perspective toward visual culture. For this purpose, we are constantly searching for artworks that involve the use of photography and related processes.
The rules are simple: all photographic and lens-based works will be considered. Our only requirement is that the work should be produced by artists born or based in the Asia-Pacific region.
CURATORS:
In alphabetical order.
Andrew McLaughlin
Ariel Cameron
Bella Li
Christine McFetridge
Chris Parkinson
Dan Sibley
Mauricio Rivera
Mike Read
Sudeep Lingamneni
CONTRIBUTORS:
Aline Brugel
Alister McKeich
Andrew Brown
Andrew McLaughlin
Anna Maria Antoinette D'Addario
Ariel Cameron
Athena Zelandonii
Bella Li
Blanca Galindo
Catherine Croll
Charlie Kinross
Chloe Bartram
Chris Bowes
Chris Parkinson
Christopher Button
Christine McFetridge
Claire Capel-Stanley
Dan Sibley
Dat Vu
David Simon Martret
David Veentjer
Devika Bilimoria
Diana Yong
Dianne Reid
Dwi Asrul Fajar
Erin Baker
Ezz Monem
Flavia Dent
Georgina Campbell
Grace Feng Fang Juan
Grace Pundyk
Ian Gibbins
Ilona Nelson
Jacqueline Felstead
James Hunter
Jess D’cruze
Jessie Imam
Jessye Wdowin-Mcgregor
Jimmy Langer
Jody Haines
Jonah Meyers
Jordan Madge
Jue Yang
Justyn Koh
Karolina Nowosielska Solevag
Kip Scott
Kris Washusen
Leanora Olmi
Lena Sheridan
Lisa Bow
Lydia Beilby
Lyndal Irons
Madeline Bishop
Marcelle Bradbeer
Mary Macpherson
Mauricio Rivera
Meg Hewitt
Melinda Smith
Michael Hurse
Mike Read
Morganna Magee
Natasha Cantwell
Nikki Lam
Paige Townsend
Pia Johnson
Renee Stamatova
Richard Butler-Bowdon
Robert Albazi
Robert Musgrave
Shen Wei
Simone Darcy
Siying Zhou
Snehargho Ghosh
Sonya Louise
Sudeep Lingamneni
Susan Doel
Taha Ahmad
Tammy Law
Tania Lou Smith
Tanja Milbourne
Tiffaney Bishop
Tim Allen
Todd Johnson
Travis Fryer
Yixuan Pan
EDITORS:
Bella Li
Chris Parkinson
Christine McFetridge
Mauricio Rivera
PARTNERSHIPS:
Photodust has a collaborative series with Peril (http://peril.com.au), an online magazine focused on issues of Asian-Australian arts and culture. Peril’s mission is to be a platform for Asian-Australian voices that empowers the creativity, agency and representation of Asian-Australian people in arts, society and culture.
Ownership of intellectual property rights (i.e. copyright and any other intellectual property rights) of the material published in this website, unless otherwise noted, belongs to PHOTODUST. All rights reserved.
By submitting work to PHOTODUST, you are confirming that you own the copyright to this work or have permission from the copyright holder to submit it. You are granting PHOTODUST a non-exclusive licence to use the work in its submitted form, for publication on the PHOTODUST website for as long as the website exists and to include in any publication (both digital or in print) that PHOTODUST may produce in the future.
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENCE:
This website is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
A licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided that you attribute the work.
Their preference is that you attribute this publication (and any material sourced from it) using the following wording:
Source: Licenced from PHOTODUST under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence.
Construct is a series of detailed, aerial landscape photographs captured above the industrial environments that circle the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
This series operates like an elevated screen shot of the repetition, pattern, form, structure and detailed organisation and automisation of these different industrial landscapes.
Peering from above, there is always something to see, learn and understand. This elevated perspective of industry presents a frozen moment of aesthetic contemplation of the structures embedded in industry and the tension that occurs as technological and industrial development further defines suburban landscapes.
Construct is a series that allowed me to critically engage with the space that big business and corporations occupy and how that space is used for their – and indeed our – perpetual needs.
Through this series I want the viewer to connect with the aesthetic implications of industry, its relationship to our desires, and the industrial, environmental and human effort that sustains these desires.
MANUSCRIPT.
It is a silent yet consistent method of organisation that makes business more efficient.
Away From Home is a series of photographs that explore the dualities that surround the idea of home: between presence and absence, permanence and impermanence and belonging and displacement. The project engages in the lived experiences of liminality from the perspectives of the transnational diaspora from Burma. Away From Home investigates themes of migration, belonging, place and notions of home.
Travelling to an unfamiliar place can be a surreal experience. As if in attendance at an extravagant theatre production endowed with elaborate set pieces and costumes, my first visit to Lombok, an island east of Bali in Indonesia, elicited such marvel. The effect of this place on the senses was overwhelming; the smell of burning coconut, the frenetic energy of outdoor markets, the intense colours of architecture and clothing and the ritual of early morning prayer amplified my sense of being.
The predominately Muslim people of this island depend, for the most part, on subsistence farming and live in small villages. The portraits I present here, of local farmers, schoolchildren and island workers, blur the lines between documentary and fiction. They attempt to capture the sense of magic encounters from a foreign world where such subsistence in life presents a paradox of beauty and play.
The Winter Garden
Opening Wednesday 19 July, 6-9pm
Gallery 2, Trocadero Art Space
Suite 1, Level 1, 119 Hopkins Street, Footscray, 3011
‘The Winter Garden’ is an ongoing documentary photography project based in Christchurch, New Zealand, following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. The work considers themes of belonging, community and connection to place after a period of prolonged trauma and transition.
Key Dates:
Exhibition Opening Night
JULY 19, 2017
6-9pm
Artist Talk
AUGUST 5, 2017
4-6pm
Exhibition
JULY 19 - AUGUST 5, 2017
Opening hours: 12-5pm, Wed-Sat
Christine McFetridge is a New Zealand born photographer and writer based in Melbourne. Her practice and research meet at the intersection of social documentary, oral history and the photobook to examine empathy and the correlation between community and belonging.
www.cargocollective.com/christinemcfetridge
Please consider following PHOTODUST on Twitter and Instagram
The series ‘Tokyo Is Yours’ is inspired by manga, printmaking and film noir, and set in Japan post the Great East Earthquake of 2011. Initially fascinated by the apparent inability to evacuate Tokyo in the case of a major disaster, I wanted to explore what it is like to live there. I was confronted by a culture that still surprises me in both its traditions and in its innovations, and how they co-exist in this inescapable bubble.
I strive to use a visual narrative to question our relationship with the world and with each other regardless of origin. To focus on connection and the strong visceral relationships equally found with people, places, animals, and objects. It is a quest to explore the layers between things, memories, human connection, fear, and escapism through the fantasy and metaphor I find in reality.
As an immigrant, I have lived in two different postcolonial states: the Chinese communist nation in the ‘80s and ‘90s and the Australian Commonwealth nation from early 2000’s to now. If the former’s socialism is considered as a result of decolonisation, the latter’s membership of the Commonwealth suggests the remaining link to the root of colonialism.
As a new Australia citizen, I search for my new socio-political position through establishing a relationship to the colonial history of Australia.
Image credit: Disturbances of the Stillness (video still), 2014, HD video.
This Wild Song is a long term project by artist and curator Ilona Nelson which sees her creating photographic portraits of Australian female artists and transforming them to become a part of their work. Over the coming months, Photodust will feature portraits and interviews from Ilona Nelson’s ongoing project.
Introducing Lumina a new Australian collective of award-winning photographic artists intent on breaking ground in visual storytelling. Founded by eight women who are leading practitioners in the documentary genre, Lumina marks a unique voice among Australian collectives.
The collective launches officially on June 8, 2017, with an exhibition opening the same day from 6-8pm at Black Eye Gallery, Darlinghurst in Sydney. The exhibition aims to present a glimpse of the unique visions of each artist in one show.
The show will be opened by Claire Monneraye, Curator for the Australian Centre for Photography and refreshments provided by Young Henrys.
Following the launch an artist talk and discussion will take place at Black Eye Gallery on Saturday June 10, 2017 at 2pm, providing the public with an opportunity to explore the work and objectives of the collective and talk with Lumina members.
Lumina founding members are: Donna Bailey, Chloe Bartram, Aletheia Casey, Anna Maria Antoinette D'Addario, Lyndal Irons, Morganna Magee and Sarah Rhodes.
Exhibition curated by Anna Maria Antoinette D'Addario.
Key Dates:
Exhibition Opening Night and Official Launch:
JUNE 8, 2017
6-8pm
Artist Talk
JUNE 10, 2017
2pm
Exhibition
JUNE 6 - 18, 2017
www.luminacollective.com.au
Instagram: @luminacollective
Facebook: Lumina Collective
www.blackeyegallery.com.au/future-shows/
Please consider following PHOTODUST on Twitter and Instagram.
Varanasi, Kashi, City of Light. Home to many elderly Hindu migrants that come to the city with the hope that when they die their bodies will be cremated on the banks of the river Ganga and when their ashes merge with the muddied water they will be closer to receiving ‘moksha’, liberation from the cycle of reincarnation.
Widowed women and young Brahmin priests perform evening Aarti in the ashram temple overlooking the Ganga River in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh India.
Within Brisbane, one of Australia’s largest cities, are pockets of bushland scattered amid the suburban sprawl. Often adjoining public parks, the outskirts of these undeveloped sanctuaries are visited by many of its local citizens. While most are content with enjoying the artificial recreational areas, a few residents go a little deeper and explore the undergrowth, sometimes finding spaces to create secret shelters away from prying eyes.
The areas featured are close in proximity to where the artist and his friends spent time hiding from the rest of society during their adolescence. By returning to these places and probing further into the bush, the project seeks to document the hide-outs, objects and paths found by the artist over a number of years, piecing together the traces of other travellers who have visited these once familiar locations.