Session 1: Documentary photography in the digital age
11 am - 12.30 pm
In this accelerating age of digital image culture, photography is a key tool in the battle for our attention and affiliation. Over the last decade the authorship, meaning and authority of images has shifted.
How have real time reporting, citizen journalism, changing social, political and media landscapes and drivers like engagement metrics impacted integrity, ethics and authenticity in photojournalism? How has the diversification of storytelling voices added to the landscape of documentary photography? How has the role of the photographer/ artist changed?
This session will explore the questions above through the unique perspectives and experiences of the panel.
Chaired by Ellen Smith from Guardian Australia, this panel will feature Andrew Quilty, Hilary Wardhaugh, Rachel Mounsey and Chris Hopkins.
Tickets $20 (includes admission to all symposium talks)/ $18 MAPh members
Ellen Smith has worked as a photographer, picture editor and videographer at the Herald Sun and was the Deputy Picture Editor at News Corp's internal wire service.
She has freelanced for commercial and media clients including AAP and also volunteered on photography and book projects for the East Timor Eye Program and The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
She now is the Assistant Picture editor at Guardian Australia.
Hopkins is a freelance photojournalist from Australia.
His work is an examination of the effects of systemic and embedded societal inhumanity that is not often covered in mainstream media. His intention – to bring these human rights issues to the forefront of public awareness – is to ‘use photography to show intimate commonalities despite our differences, to create empathy and inspire a different, more benevolent way of thinking’.
Born and raised in rural Victoria, Australia, Chris began his photographic career after travelling extensively internationally across a six-year period.
After two years of commercial photography, in 2012 he documented the lives of abandoned Vietnamese children living with the genetic consequences of Agent Orange and was awarded Australia’s Walkley slideshow prize.
Chris is currently producing work for: ‘They Teach Us to Sing but there Are no Songs About Us’ – which led to the landmark High Court of Uganda decision in March 2022 finding the Ugandan Government guilty of human rights abuses on children living with intellectual disabilities – and ‘Windows’ – a profound visualisation of the ingrained racism that permeates his hometown of Melbourne, specifically its public housing residents.
Chris divides his time between his long-term project work and commissioned assignments for major media outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, SBS, NRC Handelsblad, Getty Images and The Irish Times.
He is the recipient of three Walkley Awards, a two-time National Photographic Portrait Prize Finalist and in 2021 was awarded 2nd Place by Pictures of the Year International (POYi) in the Daily Life category.
He has also earned honors and commendations from Festival della Fotografia Etica, United Nations Media Awards, Amnesty International Media Awards, Melbourne Press Club, and the Australian Photography Awards.
He is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.
Rachel Mounsey is an Australian photographer, photojournalist and member of the Oculi collective. Based in Victoria’s most isolated town, Mallacoota, Rachel captures the social and environmental stories and issues affecting regional and remote Australia through work that crosses the boundaries between press photography, documentary and fine art. After studying photojournalism at La Trobe University, Rachel began her photography career working on regional papers at Fairfax Media. She now works freelance and regularly contributes to national mastheads including The Age and The Guardian, while also working on her fine art practice. Rachel has been a finalist in photography awards including the National Portrait Gallery’s National Photographic Portrait Prize and the Head On Portrait Award (both 2020) and was a semi-finalist in the 2019 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize. Nominated for a place in World Press Photo’s prestigious Joop Swart Masterclass (2020) for her work covering the black summer fires in her home town of Mallacoota, she also received a nomination for entry into the 2021 Prix Pictet prize for photography and sustainability. Rachel’s work is held in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art and a large selection of her black summer bushfire photographs are held in the picture archives at the National Library of Australia.
Andrew Quilty is an Australian photojournalist and reporter who was based in Afghanistan from 2013 to 2022. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the George Polk Award, the World Press Photo Award and the Overseas Press Club of America award. His first book, August in Kabul: America's Last Days in Afghanistan was published in 2022. His second book, This is Afghanistan, chronicling, in photographs, his nine years in Afghanistan, was published in October 2023.
Hilary Wardhaugh (b. 1963) is an Australian photographer whose work explores the complex relationship between humanity and the environment and other more introspective projects often viewed through a feminist lens. Her imagery frequently incorporates themes of irony and contradiction and offers a critical perspective on social and environmental issues. Wardhaugh’s larger collaborative projects like the #everydayclimatecrisis Visual Petition and the Loud and Luminous project (with co-Creator Mel Anderson) integrated elements of activism, using photography to inspire change.
