The Walkley Foundation presents events throughout the year to encourage excellence in press photography, including workshops, exhibitions and slide nights.
Melbourne Slide Night: Wednesday July 7
For the second year Slide Night will travel to Melbourne, showing at The Age on the evening of Wednesday July 7, 2010. The Slide Night is an annual celebration of Australian press photography. It's a chance for photographers to show off the in-depth projects that don't always make it into print, to an audience of peers and photo-lovers. We welcome work from photographers on any theme - show us your best work! On the night we'll take a vote on the best in show, and the winner will recieve a prize from our photography sponsor Nikon.
We're now inviting submissions, particularly from all the very talented photographers we know there are in Victoria! To submit, please send no more than 20 images to walkleys@walkleys.com by 5pm on Thursday June 17. And don't forget a title and some information about your photos. Submissions can be on any theme, but tend to work best when they do have a clear theme or tell a story. Click here to check out some of the work from the Sydney Slide Night to get a sense of the event.
To RSVP to this free event, email walkleys@walkleys.com by 5pm on July 2.
Sydney Slide Night: Thursday May 20
The Sydney Photographers' Slide Night was held as part of the Head On photograpy festival this year, on May 20 from 6pm at Tusculum House in Potts Point. Lisa Wiltse was named the "best in show" as photographers and their friends, family and fans came together to celebrate great photography.
The work on show ranged from environmental activists to hairy wrestlers… Obscure sports actually emerged as a minor theme, including the sassy ladies of roller derby (Louise Kennerley), the amazing knitted jumpers of New Zealand’s curlers (Braden Fastier), and the teams of the World Elephant Polo championships, who looked like colonial relics of centuries past (shot by Krystle Wright). Images spanned the globe - from Mongolia and Bolivia to India, Papua New Guinea, Armenia, Samoa, China… and of course our own backyard.
At the end of the night the audience voted on which photo essay they liked best, and Lisa Wiltse was voted the winner with her series on "The Mennonites of Manitoba". The images show a community that time seems to have forgotten; their simple clothes, use of traditional farming techniques and rejection of many modern conveniences are the hallmarks of a 16th century European preacher named Menno Simons. Their predecessors settled in eastern Bolivia's farmlands more than 50 years ago, coming from Mennonite colonies in Canada, Russia, Mexico, Belize and Paraguay, looking for a better life.
But, Wiltse writes, "the tranquility of the Mennonite settlement of Manitoba in eastern Bolivia was transformed into fear and confusion when, last June, suspicions were confirmed that at least 100 women and girls were raped by members of their community.
"The accused, ranging in age from 18 to 41 years old, targeted the women in the community's homes. They sprayed a narcotic substance that rendered the women unconscious and then raped them. Now many teenage victims fear they are unable to marry because the Mennonite community requires that its women remain virgins until marriage in order to retain the respect of their peers."
Lisa Wiltse from Media Alliance on Vimeo.
As Lisa's work in Bolivia continues, she wasn't able to join us but will recieve, via post, a flash Coolpix S8000 camera courtesy of Slide Night sponsor Nikon Australia. She is currently working on a project documenting the effects of climate change on the people of Bolivia; click here to learn more.
Also popular in the best-in-show vote were Anna Thompson’s “Mongolia’s Magnetism”, then Glenn Lockitch with “Whale Wars” and Louise Kennerley’s “Derby Girls”; but thanks and congratulations must go to all the photographers who shared their work on the night:
- Tim Clayton – “Jen and Jane: A Love Story”
- Andy Drewitt – “Armenia”
- Stephen Dupont – “Port Moresby”
- Braden Fastier – “Curling”
- Luke Hemer – “Grunt: Wrestling in Adelaide”
- Onur Karaozbek – “Poetry in Colour”
- Louise Kennerley – “Derby Girls”
- Glenn Lockitch – “Whale Wars”
- Gary Ramage – “Embedded"
- Torsten/AFP – “Samoa Tsunami”
- Belinda Pratten – “Esperanza August 2009”
- Anna Thompson – “Magnolia’s Magnetism”
- Dave Tacon – “IKEA in China”
- Vikky Wilkes – “Last Light”
- Lisa Maree Williams – “Catch the Light”
- Krystle Wright – “Teams of WEPA”
- Lisa Wiltse – “The Mennonites of Manitoba”
- Pete Longworth – “Hide and Seek”
- Palani Mohan - “Kumba Mela, India”
Nikon-Walkley Press Photo Exhibition
NEWCASTLE: May 7 - June 19, 2010
Laman St Newcastle, NSW
Previously...
Geraghty, Drewitt honoured at 2009 SlideNights
2009 has been a big year for our photographers' SlideNights, held in Melbourne for the first time as well as Sydney. Both events saw crowds of photography enthusiasts turn out despite the late-winter chill; perhaps the free pizza and beer helped!
In both Sydney and Melbourne our sponsor Nikon donated a Coolpix P6000 camera to the photographer whose work was voted "best in show" by the audience.
In Sydney Kate Geraghty was voted "Best in Show" for her moving black-and-white photoessay on the displaced people of wartorn Democratic Republic of Congo. The win turned out to be well-timed, as Kate's camera had just been stolen as she returned from Africa! Also popular with the audience were Torsten's extraodinary body of work from the South Pacific; Bob Barker's images of the birth of his daughter "Amelie Belle"; Onur Karaozbek's delicious "Stage Women"; and Krystle Wright's gorgeous black-and-white shots of "Ocean Swimming".
Meanwhile in Melbourne, Andy Drewitt's documentary series on a "Donkey Shelter" was voted the best.
