This newly introduced Digital Screens initiative for projections of international photography and New Zealand work becomes a key part of our Festival as we create an accessible selection of free photography experiences to sit next to core featured exhibitions by well-known NZ photographers.
Hormoz - “Ajutila”
Hormoz is a French photographer and director. His major works have been shown in many magazines, festivals, and galleries. He mainly explores surrealistic, nightclubbing and social issues.
“Ajutila”: Cindy meets photographer Hormoz at his exhibition “Je vis” (“I realize”), a project conceived with Dal, a disabled person. Cindy is of Malian origin, Muslim culture and born disabled. She wants to tell her personal story. Cindy and Hormoz imagine a photographic series in which Cindy seeks to undramatize the image of sexuality linked to disability and African cultures.
Rochelle Wong - Seven days in Afghanistan
Rochelle travelled solo to Afghanistan last year. Even though she only scratched the surface, she found the war confronting, the landscape breathtaking, and the people warm. While travelling around the country, she talked to people on roadsides, drank tea in people’s homes, spent time in workplaces and got invited to a wedding. Locals would talk about their daily lives but also about life before the war. Rochelle’s photos present a small snapshot of the continuum of everyday life in Afghanistan.
Rochelle is a Melbourne-based photographer who works in corporate communications. She is interested in travel, social documentary, post-war British youth subcultures, and counterpoints to mass media representation. Rochelle is working on a photo essay in which she asks people around the world five questions to reveal a commonality in all of us irrespective of where we come from.
Lara Gilks (NZ) - offbeat fairytales
These images draw from two series – ‘my backyard theatre’ and ‘white lies’. This body of work disturbs the everyday reality – that allows for an escape from reality into the playful but eerie world of the fairytale.
The characters bring an incongruous theatre to the landscape, yet they are defiant and stand their ground. The masks allow the actors to see but not be seen – a costume that allows one to look out but keeps the world from looking in.