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Launch of Contact and Focus
17 December 2006 by Shaune Lakin.
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Exhibitions, Focus: photography and war 1945–2006
The exhibition Focus and the book Contact were launched simultaneously on 7 December 2006. Present on the day were a number of photographers featured in the book and exhibition: Mrs Barbara Beck (Second World War Army Directorate of Public Relations photographer), John Fairley and Mike Coleridge (Vietnam War Army Directorate of Public Relations photographers), Tim Page and Denis Gibbons (Vietnam War photojournalists), David Dare Parker and Stephen Dupont (photojournalists and Australian War Memorial official photographers), and the commercial photographer Heide Smith. The book and exhibition were launched by the distinguished Australian Broadcasting Commission journalist (and former Vietnam War correspondent) Tim Bowden and the AWM’s Director, Major General Steve Gower, in front of a large crowd. Tim Page photographed the proceedings, and a selection of these images is included below.
Tim Bowden and Patricia Sabine, Head of Photographs, Film and Sound at the Australian War Memorial. Photograph by Tim Page.
Major General Steve Gower speaking at the launch of the book Contact and the exhibition Focus. Photograph by Tim Page.
Mike Coleridge, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, looks at Contact with the book’s author Shaune Lakin. Photograph by Tim Page.
Mike Coleridge, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, talks with the Perth-based photojournalist David Dare Parker. Joss Jensen, the designer of the exhibition, and Nola Anderson, Assistant Director, National Collections, Australian War Memorial, are in the background. Photograph by Tim Page.
John Fairley, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, stands in front of his work, some of which he was seeing for the first time since leaving Vietnam in 1970. Photograph by Tim Page.
The photojournalist Denis Gibbons signs copies of the book Contact. Photograph by Tim Page.
The Walkley award-winning photojournalist Stephen Dupont discusses one of his photographs taken in Dili, East Timor, during 1999, at the media launch for the book and the exhibition. Photograph by Tim Page.
Barbara Beck (nee Isaacson) listens to Tim Bowden at the launch of the book and exhibition. Mrs Beck was an official photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Second World War, when she photographed the work undertaken by Australia’s women’s services. Photograph by Tim Page.
The photojournalist David Dare Parker stands in front of his portrait of the Australian peacekeeper, Private Anthony Meixner of A Company, 1RAR, in Dili in June 2006. Photograph by Tim Page.
View of the crowd listening to Tim Bowden’s address at the launch of the book and the exhibition. Standing in front is Steve Burton, one the Australian War Memorial’s own photographers. Photograph by Tim Page.
Installation view of Focus. A viewer considers Allan Cuthbert’s photographs of Hiroshima, taken in February 1946. Photograph by Tim Page.
Installation view of Focus. Photograph by Tim Page.
The oldest photograph in the collection
09 November 2006 by Shaune Lakin.
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Exhibitions, Focus: photography and war 1945–2006
Thomas Wingate’s (1807-69) photograph of the 1st Regiment of the NSW Rifle Volunteers standing in order is among the earliest Australian photographs to document the military activities of colonial citizens. It records an important moment for one of the colony’s first volunteer regiments. On 18 May 1861, the wife of the NSW Governor presented the corps with its regimental and camp colours in the Domain. One week later, the day this photograph was taken, the regiment held a review in the Domain to celebrate the Queen’s birthday; this photograph was taken at the Victoria Barracks, before the regiment’s journey to the Domain. The day marked the public debut of the regiment’s new colours and flag, and was probably the occasion that prompted Wingate, who had recently relinquished his command of the corps, to take a photograph.
Image preparation for Contact and Focus
01 November 2006 by Bob McKendry.
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Exhibitions, Focus: photography and war 1945–2006, Preparation of images
All Imagery for the book, Contact, was captured at 16bit, 600dpi, ProPhoto RGB at 200mm x 250mm. This then became our raw uncorrected file. From this file we prepared a master RGB file, where we dodged and burnt with density as well as contrast, utilising the Adjustment layer and layer mask features within Photoshop. Once all files were prepared in this fashion we were ready to place them into the designer’s (Brett Wiencke, Art Direction Creative, Manuka) Indesign layout, but before this could happen we had to create a CMYK profile that would characterise and optimise the chosen printing press. This was done by printing colour patches through the off-set printer, then measuring them against a predefined colour number and mapping the difference.
Armed with the Printer specific CMYK profile we converted all master RGB images to the CMYK profile, and then placed these image files into the Indesign document. With the colour management policies set correctly in Indesign we exported a print ready PDF.x file of the book and this was delivered along with in-house proofs to Goanna Print. For the Focus exhibition we produced Giclee fine art prints on Hahnemuhle photorag paper. This is a %100 cotton rag fine art paper. The master RGB file was corrected again repurposing for this material. As part of the re-purposing procedure we had to increase contrast and sharpen selected images. For the colour images the printing was done on the Crane Museo Silver Rag paper, a digital equivalent of a traditional fibre based paper and the above repurposing was also required.
Raw image:
Corrected image:
Introduction to Focus: war & photography 1945-2006
26 October 2006 by Patricia Sabine.
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Exhibitions, Focus: photography and war 1945–2006
INTRODUCTION
On 6 August 1945, when the atomic bomb was unleashed above the city of Hiroshima, the world changed forever. Photographs of the devastation brought home in raw detail the shocking power of this ultimate weapon.
Photography has been bound in an intimate and changing relationship with war since its invention in the 19th century. Whether as a record, an analytical tool, propaganda or revelation, photography has played a critical part in forming our response to global and local conflicts, communicating these historic events through the mass media of press and television.
Photographers report the physical impact and the emotional effects of war, the tortured battleground, its deadly aftermath, and the civilian relief, humiliation and loss. Whether working in an official capacity, as freelance or affiliated photojournalists, or as serving soldiers, each photographer brings a direct and personal focus to their imagery of the human condition.
These images are often of people, whether military or civilian, operating at extreme levels of stress, where the waiting nerves, trained for action, are stretched taut with anticipation; others are jangled by the unexpected or dissolved in grief. Even the photographs of relaxation or entertainment hint at submerged depths of emotion and latent susceptibilities.
These photographers can take us beyond the surface of the image into new perceptions and responses to place, context, and emotion.
People involved in the exhibition
- Patricia Sabine – Exhibition curator
- Shaune Lakin – Exhibition co-curator
- Hans Reppin, Bob McKendry and Steve Burton – Image preparation
- Jude Savage, Jane Murray, Jason D’Arx and Charlotte Sarossy – Travelling exhibition coordinators
- Jos Jensen and Ian Wingrove – Exhibition designers
- Michael Thomas and Tina Mattay – Text editors
