This week on flickr...

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External reviews of BIFB

Kantor Portrait Prize. Image courtesy of Imaging Insider

Inside imaging a photography trade website has a review of this years Biennial, which had a much different flavour to the preceding years review

There is also an intersting poll on their mainpage, scroll down and see what readers think about the question. "Is it right that BIFB founder, Jeff Moorfoot, is not mentioned on the BIFB website or program?"

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BIFB 2019 impressions

Interior National Centre for Photography

2019-08-25 15:05:00

I had my first visit to this years Ballarat International Foto Biennale. It was a Sunday. It was a typical cold winters day in Ballarat. Which is often colder than Melbourne being at a higher altitude. I was surprised by the lack of crowds, given it was the second day of the festival. I focused on the core program.

I was also very interested to see the new National Centre for Photography as well. The exhibition there titled Capital was engaging thought provoking and several works stunning visually. Sadly one projection/movie wasn’t running,  but overall the work was professional and worth exploring. The rest of the work on show at the new National Centre for Photography required a return visit two days later. The second visit revealed work that was eclectic and engaging even if some of the subject matter was difficult to encapsulate in one exhibition. The building so far is well fitted out and the exhibition spaces a mixture of sizes and scales making them a great venue for small photographic exhibitions. One exhibition I visited 2 days later had large scale prints.

As I do every Biennale, I photographed the wall in Police Lane, I have an ongoing album on flickr as well. [The image below will be uploaded when the time is right.]

 Police Lane, Ballarat  2019-08-27 13:51:51

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BIFB 2019

Liu Bolin, Balloon No. 1, 2012 [detail]

This years program for the Ballarat International Photo Biennale has been announced. The headline Artis this year is LIU BOLIN. An artist whose work I am familiar with albeit on a small scale. As for the general paying public maybe not so much, and at $18.00 we shall see. It forms part of the core program.  I enjoyed David Lachapples work in 2017, also part of the core program, there were no surprises in his work however. I can imagine that Liu’s work will have a similar appeal to many people again this year.

I have been attending the Biennalle since it first opened in Daylesford. It was 2007. The venues were varied and iconoclastic, I remember old mills partially open to the air and small shops and even pubs, housing exhibitions across the region. Jeff Moorfoot was the man responsible and what a great advocate for photography he was and remains to this day. Over the years there has been some amazing work and the festival continues to go from strength to strength. A new National Centre of photography is being built in Ballarat as well, at 4 Lydiard St South, Ballarat. The Biennale is a feature on the calendar of the Photographic art wold here in Victoria, if not Australia. Next year we are also having another large photography festival Photo 2020. International Festival of Photography 23.4 - 10.5.2020 Melbourne and beyond. All in all a great couple of years on the horizon.


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