The special event in London featured discussions and presentations by a selection of women and non-binary artists who reflected on their practice and the experience of making art in Australia today, including Ying Ang, Atong Atem, Zoë Croggon, Liss Fenwick, Naomi Hobson (Kaantja/Umpila), and Lisa Sorgini.

Welcome and opening remarks

Duncan Forbes, Head of Photography, V&A

Elisabeth Bowes, Australian Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

Elias Redstone, Founder/Artistic Director of PHOTO Australia

 

Session One

Hometown photography: Autobiography in the contemporary photobook

Artists: Ying Ang, Liss Fenwick, Lisa Sorgini
Moderator: Marta Weiss, Curator of Photography

 

Photographers often draw from their surroundings and circumstances. In this session, hear from Ying Ang, Liss Fenwick and Lisa Sorgini as they address topics and places close to their own lives, weaving autobiography into their practice in intriguing ways.

 

Ying Ang’s The Quickening unveils her personal experience of motherhood and postpartum depression; Liss Fenwick captures a psychological portrait of her hometown Humpty Doo in the far north of Australia; and Lisa Sorgini witnesses the women and mothers of her community, a creative process that simultaneously reflects on her own lived experience.

 

Hosted by Marta Weiss, Curator of Photography at the V&A, this conversation unpacks the artists’ different approaches to autobiography in their photobooks.

 

Session Two

Constructed realities: characterisation and collage in the contemporary photobook

Artists: Atong Atem, Zoë Croggon, Naomi Hobson
Convenor: Catherine Troiano, Curator of Photography

 

Photography is an inherently constructed medium – whether in the performance it captures, or its material components that are built through collage and adaptation. This session brings together three artists whose experiences in other artforms help to shape the ways in which they construct new realities through photography.

 

Hosted by Catherine Troiano, V&A Curator of Photography, this conversation includes First Nations Kaantju/Umpila artist Naomi Hobson speaking about Adolescent Wonderland, a series that captures the joy of her remote community through characterisation and play. Dancer and collage artist Zoë Croggon speaks about merging archival imagery with new photography in ways that test the possibilities of paired images; and Australian-South Sudanese artist Atong Atem speaks on Surat, a series that uses performance and the family photo album to explore her arrival to Australia as a refugee.

 

Closing Remarks

Elizabeth James, Senior Librarian, Collections and Content, National Art Library, V&A