My Thematic Photobook

Roughly every four months, I write a piece for the APS Focus page in Australian Photography magazine. This is my latest piece, published in the July 2022 issue now in newsagencies.

At the time of writing, I’m participating in a free workshop spread over 6 two and a half hour long sessions. It’s a program designed to assist folk who are sixty-five or older to do something with their boxes of slides of past travels, their prints falling out of family albums, or even their smartphone snaps. Small groups of participants are learning how to creatively review their photo collections, how to scan slides and prints, and how to manage and process digital files.

With the assistance of experienced tutors, participants are curating selections of mages from their own archives and will use them to tell stories through printed 50-page photobooks. The project is being run by Photo Access in Canberra, the ACT and region’s centre for contemporary photography, film and video and media arts. Like the APS, it is an established non-profit body, and is a friendly creative community making, sharing and investigating photographic culture in the interests of artistic expression, cultural participation and positive social change. This particular project was made possible through private donors plus a Creative Partnerships Australia Plus One matched funding grant.

If you know that I’ve previously made quite a few photobooks and have been on my photographic journey for many years, you might wonder why I am participating in this workshop. Well, I am seeking to improve my curatorial skills, to develop my ability to combine words with images to tell a story, to motivate myself to find special images in my huge collection, to create a new photobook that is more than simply a collection of some of my photos, and to learn new things – because I firmly believe we can always learn more.

So, for the project, I have decided to create a book providing a glimpse of my life as an adult, all of which has seen me living in Canberra. It will look at who I am – my component parts if you like.

Our group’s tutor suggested that I select the images I will use, then place them in the book under various themes rather than in chronological order. She has also suggested I include scans of relevant objects acquired along the way and of newspaper and magazine articles that add to the overall story.

My chosen themes are my family and friends, my employment and volunteering, Canberra events (that I have organised, participated in or photographed), Canberra places (that I have photographed), well-known people (that I have met and/or photographed), and my extensive involvement with photography.

1988.08.12 – Prime Minister Bob Hawke launching Australopedia © Brian Rope

I currently have identified around one hundred images and scans for potential inclusion in the book. That’s probably too many for fifty pages, so I still need to be a little more ruthless in whittling the numbers down.

I very much hope my finished book will be good enough to enter in this year’s APS Photobook Awards? You should be reading this in July – by which time entries for that event will have opened. Entry is free and open to all APS members and camera club members. There is no limit to the size, format, or number of pages. And entries have to be submitted by 7 October 2022. Full details are on the APS website at www.a-p-s.org.au. So, why not participate?

As published in Australian Photography magazine

Footnote: All the photobooks created by participants in the project are to be launched at an event at PhotoAccess scheduled for 6 PM on 21 July 2022.

Keeping it Personal

Roughly every four months, I write a piece for the APS Focus page in Australian Photography magazine. This is my latest piece, published in the March 2022 issue now in newsagencies.

As published:

One of the things we all should do is set ourselves personal projects to work on. In recent years, I have identified various projects I thought might lead to the production of photobooks or even exhibitions.

Creating photobooks is quite straight forward really. The cost of a particular size book is known ahead of time, so you can decide what to make and be aware of exactly how much money you need before proceeding. And if you do make a good one, you could always enter it in the annual APS Photobook competition – either in the portfolio category or the storytelling category. And there are also other photobook competitions you might decide to enter.

The projects I have embarked on in recent times have been diverse, despite the pandemic restrictions. Walking, cycling or driving around your close neighbourhood is all you need to do when searching for shots. I found the roadside littered with many more than usual corflute signs when it was election time here. See. Stop. Photograph. Repeat. The end result was 54 images – plenty for a photobook.

Then I found Love. Well sort of. Someone was, and still is, painting graffiti all over the place and, most particularly, around the suburbs closest to where I live. Every artwork primarily consists of images of a dinosaur/worm/alien, often accompanied by a heart and messages. I’ve completed a book Expressing Love in Canberra featuring many of those artworks that I photographed. If nothing else, I have a documentary record of those since removed or painted over! And, I’m adding to my collection every time I see a new work. I’d actually like to acquire one work that is painted on an electrical box door so I could display it along with my photos and the photobook at an exhibition.

Love 041 – © Brian Rope

When I first saw some Say Less graffiti on buildings in two suburbs on opposite sides of a major entrance road to our city, I had no idea what it was about. However, I quickly thought about the old saying that one picture is worth a thousand words, and the concept for a book about saying less with words and more with images started to take shape in my mind. Again, I’ve made a photobook.

Cover of Say Less photobook © Brian Rope

Say Less is also about graffiti (or street art if you prefer) and explores various meanings of the term.

Lyneham Flats 004 © Brian Rope

My possible exhibition could explore Love, Say Less, Corflutes and, maybe, also E-Scooters – the method of transport that has made a relatively recent appearance here, welcomed by many but irritating others because of perceived misuse as the scooters litter our streets.

Having an exhibition is more difficult to achieve. Firstly, there is the difficulty of getting a timeslot in a gallery. Getting into most of our local galleries is a real challenge. You have to compete with many graduating students keen to emerge and establish their names, as well as numerous already established photo artists from other parts of the country and even overseas.

I ask myself if older folk like me who have been in numerous group exhibitions over the years but never had their own solo show, can now emerge and be lauded as photo artists? I don’t know, but I’ll keep pursuing a solo exhibition and, in the meantime, will make more photobooks. What was the closing date for that competition I read about?

Self Reflection

Roughly every quarter, I write a piece for the APS Focus page in Australian Photography magazine. This is a modified version of my latest piece, published in the March 2021 issue now in newsagencies. A few words in the final two paragraphs have been varied following rule changes relating to the MCPP.

As published:

I first joined a photographic club in 1977 and the APS in 1986 and have learned an enormous amount about photography during the years since. Most importantly, I am still learning – as I believe we all should. In recent years I have been closely involved with two areas within APS – the Contemporary Group (CG) and the Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (MCPP).

I chair the CG, edit its monthly online magazine and administer its Friends group on Facebook. I learn from each and every image I see, and from the discussions that take place about them on social media. Recently we have conducted some Zoom sessions for interested CG members and, just last night, we shared a few images in such a session and had interesting conversations about them. The newest CG members learned from that – so too did those who have been involved for many years.

The MCPP is now in its third year. Again, I have learned a lot from seeing which entries were selected as finalists in 2019 and 2020, and which were not. Of course, different judges might select different finalists and winners. Anyone who has ever attended a club judging or entered an international competition knows that. More importantly, if they listen to judges’ comments, or read adjudicators remarks, or carefully read available artist statements and study individual works, they will have learned.

A requirement to submit a concept statement with each entry in the MCPP challenges some photographers, but we should all see it as another way of learning. If we cannot describe what we were seeking to reveal through our image, then how did we manage to create an image relating to our concept?

So, are you entering in 2021? I hope you are and that you have some great images and words illustrating some excellent concepts to submit. I also hope you will be amongst the finalists and, maybe, even take home the $10,000 prizemoney. Most importantly, I hope you learn something from developing concepts, creating images to illustrate them and writing your associated concept statements.

I managed to have one of my entries selected as a finalist in 2020. As I prepare my entries for other such competitions (not the MCPP as management of it have been ruled ineligible now) I will look again at works previously entered and others of mine that haven’t made the cut. I will also look more at other past entries, such as the one by Roger Skinner below. I will be seeking to learn again.

20190918 Roos Songlines © Roger Skinner

Those of who become finalists in the 2021 MCPP will have their prints displayed for seven weeks during July and August at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre (MRAC). This is a significant move to an art gallery within the Museums and Galleries of NSW network, allowing scope for interaction with other galleries in that network. The acquired annual MCPP winners will go into this regional gallery’s permanent collection, adding a great deal of prestige for the winning artists.

Entries close on Friday 23 April at 11PM AEST via https://www.a-p-s.org.au/ or https://myphotoclub.com.au/.