HEAD ON PHOTO FESTIVAL
The annual Head On Photo Festival, founded in 2004 by current curator Moshe Rosenzveig, has been quite a success story over the last few years. From its comparatively humble beginnings as a national portraiture prize, Head On has expanded to its current state as a fully fledged festival and public not-for-profit company, devoted to showcasing a diverse range of photographic practices, from the well-known and professional to the younger generation of up and coming shutterbugs.
This year sees the return of the portraiture prize to the Australian Centre for Photography, as well as a spate of shows presented by the festival in galleries and public spaces around Sydney. While the myriad of events is incredibly diverse, it is still the portraiture works that are the heart and soul of the festival, and this year’s entrants more than do justice to the growing reputation of Head On. Ranging from the historic to the striking to the emotive to the just plain bizarre, the images on display are a mixed bag of imagery that’s pretty much guaranteed to have something for everyone. While I certainly don’t envy the task of the prestigious judging panel, I can’t fault their final decisions, particularly not in awarding Canadian photographer Shauna Greyerbiehl’s hilarious if not somewhat disturbing portrait of her niece surrounded by ceramic dogs one of the top honours.
Until Jun 11, various venues around Sydney, visit headon.com.au for more information
