Newsletter: November 2011

If you are intending to come to FotoFreo 2012 we strongly urge you to register your participation. Registration will also provide you with substantial discounts for a range of paid events, including some workshops - you will get FotoFreo Mates Rates. To register just go to the website.

FotoFreo is pleased to announce that the relationship it has developed with FORM, starting with FORM's involvement in the Martin Parr project, continues to grow. FotoFreo now has an agreement with FORM for the use of the Midland Junction Railway Workshops, referred to as the Atelier, to be used as an exhibition space for the FotoFreo Fringe.

The attraction is that a large number of exhibitions will be possible all in the one space and the Atelier is walking distance from the Midland Junction railway station - which is at the opposite end of the railway line connecting directly to Fremantle. 

WA Life Photo Competition

FotoFreo is establishing a photography competition, entitled WA Life, which will become a regular event at all future FotoFreo festivals. The theme of the competition is life and living in Western Australia. The competition will be open to all photographers - students, enthusiasts and professionals. You don't even have to be a West Australian.

There will be a prize pool of more than $10,000 with a substantial cash component for the first prize. There will also be a popular choice award. Entries will open in the last week of November and close on the 15th of January, 2012. Each entrant can submit up to three (3) images and from the entries received fifty (50) will be selected for an exhibition. The exhibition images will be displayed in shop windows throughout Fremantle during the month long FotoFreo 2012 Festival. Full details of the competition will be announced within a week. 

Magnum Workshops & Scholarships

Good news! The Magnum workshops are on again at FotoFreo 2012. Presenters will be Antoine D'Agata (France), Donavan Wylie (Ireland) and Trent Parke (Australia).

The Magnum workshops will be held in the now much renovated and refurbished North Wing of the Fremantle Arts Centre. This is truly a fantastic venue. The workshops will be conducted during the first week of the festival, that is, between and including Monday the 19th through to Friday the 23rd of March.

Also, the Western Australian Department for Culture and the Arts has again agreed to provide funding for three scholarships for Western Australian photographers to attend these workshops. FotoFreo will be calling for applications to fill these places in the next few weeks.

Murray Fredericks: Salt

The photography of Sydney born Murray Fredericks is strongly influenced by his time spent in awe inspiring and monumental landscapes. It is the essence and the spirit of these places that his photographs seek to capture.

Fredericks describes his work as "derived from a perspective that views culture as something that cannot be wholly accounted for through social construct." 

The exhibition showing at FotoFreo 2012 as part of the Core Exhibition Programme is a selection of work from several projects he has undertaken over the last decade and most of which are ongoing. 

Fredericks undertook and completed a Masters of Art and then his MFA at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW some years after his photographic career was well established. Salt will be showing at the Fremantle Arts Centre. 

More on the FotoFreo Fringe

The Fringe is the 'open' section of the festival exhibition programme and we encourage submissions on any subject or issue. Submissions are still being sought.

We would also like to remind any overseas photographers that FotoFreo has waived the application fee for FotoFreo 2012.  Furthermore, if you happen to be in India, we have arranged for a collection point in New Delhi where you can send your images and FotoFreo will cover the cost of transporting them to Fremantle for the festival and then back to India. The specific details of the collection point will be advised in the next month or so.

Ed Janes, Power of the Building
(a FotoFreo Fringe exhibition)

Ed Janes is an architect by training and has been involved in the development and teaching of specialised applications of architectural photography. He has also had a long involvement in the design and manufacture of furniture. 

Power of the Building is an exhibition of images of the interior of the South Fremantle Power Station. Ed Janes first visited the South Fremantle Power Station in May 2009 and was immediately captivated by its grandeur and cathedral like qualities. Ed describes his response to the place "I love the location, the scale, the extraordinary variations of light, the vast range of textures, the vivid colours and vibrancy of the sometimes excellent graffiti and the many and varied encounters with other visitors."

Ed Janes’ large format photographs eloquently capture the spirit and feel of this much photographed, monumental but abandoned building. Power of the Building will be shown at the Midland Junction Atelier.