https://www.fire-cracker.org/2019/08/hoda-afshar/

OUR TASK: This is a five day practical workshop in photographic image making, editing, design, layout and book production in Siracuse, Sicily. By generating our own images and texts by exploring the particular context we are in, we will then collectively edit, design and print the book. HOSTS AND GUESTS : Include Adam Broomberg, Hoda Afshar, Shahidul Alam, Behrouz Boochani, Michael Mack. OUR THEME: The workshop takes place in Siracuse, Sicily, where saving lives has just been criminalised by the government. Our book will be an urgent call to action on the frontline of this war. Our age, with its modern warfare, climate emergency, imperialism and the quasi-totalitarian ambitions of our rulers has resulted in the inevitable age of the refugee, the displaced person, and of mass migration. Exile is a rupture from home but it is also the embracing of elsewhere. Exile is not only simply a narrative of victimhood, forced expulsion, repatriation, refuge or charity. It's a transformative experience, even amongst the existential vulnerability. Exile is also a powerful force that unleashes a productive impulse. To wander away. Toward increased sensitivity of different cultures, places and communities. The spirit of Exile is anti-traditional commitment, a rejection of honour, morality, country, liberty, family. It’s a rejection of social conformity and our artistic strategies. One must be a nomad. Not to be at home in one's home. To recognise one’s own privilege and to reject it. By supporting one another to abandon our physical, emotional and artistic comfort zone, we will explore the spirit of exile as a point of creative departure and political action.

A documentary made on the story of my life and practice by Compass program on ABC TV:

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/watch/compass/the-eyes-have-it/11279510

Producer: Deborah Boerne Editor: Andrew Barnes Researcher: Wendy Boynton Series Producer: Jessica Douglas-Henry

Photographer Hoda Afshar will be joined by Kon Karapanagiotidis, CEO and founder of Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, and Arnold Zable, renowned writer, storyteller, educator and human rights advocate, to discuss this year’s topic of creativity in the face of adversity.

The panelists will share their own experiences and tell the story of Behrouz Boochani, a writer, journalist, scholar, cultural advocate and filmmaker, who has been detained on Manus Island since 2013.

This panel will bring together seven artists from the National Anthem exhibition, who in addition to their roles as visual artists also work in ways to reshape and transform public, community and institutional spaces. Moderated by Andy Butler, panelists include Kay Abude, Hoda Afshar, Archie Barry, Hoang Tran Nguyen and Steven Rhall.

Hosted by the Centre of Visual Art and Buxton Contemporary, this is a free event, open to everyone.

The 2019 Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture finalists have been selected by Guest Judge, renowned Australian photomedia artist Marian Drew. The $20,000 biennial national award will be announced at the exhibition opening to be held at Tweed Regional Gallery on Saturday 13 July at 5pm.

2019 Olive Cotton Award Finalists

Hoda AfsharMelissa AndersonRiste AndrievskiGeorge AngelovskiSimon BernhardtIsaac BrownChris BudgeonMargaret Ellen BurnsSteve BushBrett Canet-GibsonDave CarswellPeter ChengFrancis CloakeMichael CorridoreEmilio CrescianiJudith Nangala CrispinGerwyn DaviesAgnieszka DavisIsaebella DohertyElla DreyfusStephen Du PontJustin EalandJacqueline FelsteadSteph FullerDouglas GibsonGary GrealyNatalie GronoImogen HallGeoff HarveyPetrina HicksKalyanii HoldenVanessa HowellsShea KirkDavid KnightLisa KurtzKellie LeczinksaJane LongRobyn MacRaeGarrie MaguirePaula MahoneyBelinda MasonMia Mala McDonaldAndrew MerryMario MirabileBrett MoffattFiona MorrisCameron NevilleTyrone OrmsbyJudith ParrottIlana PayesMartine PerretViki PetherbridgeClare RaeSissy ReyesRenate RienmuellerAllison RoseAnnette RuzickaKarl SchwerdtfegerRobert Scott-MitchellSam ScoufosKrystal SeigermanRussell ShakespeareDamien ShenStephanie SimcoxJeremy SimonsChris SinclairGrant SmithLisa SorginiMarc STapelbergDavid StefanoffTristan StillJacqui StockdaleDarren TanNathan StolzCyrus TangCraig TuffinGreg WeightTamara WhyteYiorgos ZafiriouAnne Zahalka

Olive Cotton Award

The Olive Cotton Award for photographic portraiture is a $20,000 biennial national award for excellence in photographic portraiture dedicated to the memory of photographer Olive Cotton. The winning work is acquired for the Gallery’s Collection. The exhibition is selected from entrants across Australia and is a significant opportunity for photographers living and working in Australia. Entries are now open for the 2019 exhibition to be shown from Friday 12 July to Sunday 22 September.

The award was launched in 2005, and is funded by Olive Cotton’s family and dedicated to her memory as one of Australia’s leading twentieth century photographers. The Award has grown and gained national recognition attracting entries from well-known and emerging photographers across Australia. The award boasts a major acquisitive biennial prize of $20,000, selected by the Award judge. In addition, the Friends of the Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre Inc. fund $4000 for the acquisition of portraits from the exhibition entries to be chosen by the Gallery Director. Visitors to the exhibition may also vote for their 'people’s choice', which awards $250 for to the most popular finalist.

The Gallery thanks art dealer Josef Lebovic and photographer Sally McInerney, Olive Cotton’s daughter, for their ongoing support of the Award and also the Friends of the Gallery committee for their contributions, both financial and practical, to the Award and public program events. We also thank the many volunteers who assist with the huge task of receiving and despatching artworks and many other facets of the Prize organisation.

Subverting the idyllic with tales of desperation

By BRONWYN WATSON

As a young artist growing up in Iran, Hoda Afshar was identified from the get-go as a talented photographer. She was 23 when the World Press Photo Foundation selected her as one of Iran’s top 10 young documentary photographers.

For the past 12 years, Afshar has been living in Australia, and during that time she has attracted other accolades. Last year, for instance, she won the Bowness Photography Prize and the Sotheby’s Australia People’s Choice Award for her portrait of Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, writer, filmmaker and asylum-seeker. Earlier this year, Boochani’s memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, won the Victorian Prize for Literature among other awards. In 2018 Afshar visited Manus Island and, using photography and film, produced a series of stills and a film, Remain, featuring Boochani and other detainees who remain on Manus Island despite the detention centre’s closure in October 2017. Remain is showing at the UQ Art Museum in Brisbane and it takes an unflinchingly political look at the ramifications of national policy. The asylum-seekers, for instance, look directly at the camera while telling their stories of the desperation that led to suicides, swallowing razor blades, shampoo or washing powder. These confronting stories are dramatically contrasted with the seemingly idyllic environment of the lush tropical rainforest. At the UQ Art Museum, senior curator Peta Rake says Afshar’s film documents “the precarious tightrope of existence that the stateless men of Manus Island now inhabit. The film’s pathos treads a thin but at times invisible narrative between the men who are no longer living and those who remain on Manus Island, unable to leave … Afshar as director and Boochani as assistant producer intelligently weave a poetic narrative throughout the film, one at odds with the news reportage we have of Manus; a violent island out of sight, out of mind. The focus in Afshar’s film, however, is on subverting the idyllic — achieved through the stories of these men overlaid with stunning and eerie landscapes. Remain is highly urgent for our times, and a must-watch for all Australians.” Hoda Afshar is also exhibiting in National Anthem at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, until July 7. Hoda Afshar, Remain, 2018. Collection of the University of Queensland, purchased 2018. On display until August 31, UQ Art Museum, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane.

Remain, 2018 addresses invisible histories through the contentious interlinked topics of Australian border protection and the human rights of asylum seekers. Filmed on the infamous Manus Island, an immigration detention facility in Papua New Guinea, the work delivers a powerful depiction of the prolonged mistreatment of detainees.

Afshar weaves a haunting narrative as her camera follows a group of stateless men who remain on Manus Island despite the centre’s closure in October 2017. Through a series of intersecting stories, each recount the violence and hopeless desperation they have experienced, including their observations of murder, riot and suicide. One such voice is Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian writer who recites poetry. Another man vocalises a palpable sense of stripped identity and purpose through song. These deeply confronting stories are dramatically contrasted by the seemingly idyllic tropical environment in which the work is set among lush, tropical rainforest. Described as a ‘green hell’ by one of the protagonists, the men are imprisoned in a perpetual state of limbo.

Through a re-thinking of the documentary form, Hoda Afshar’s collaborative two channel video enables the revelation of concealed histories and repressed voices. Unflinchingly political, the artist draws attention to the ramifications of national policy on the human rights of the individual.

https://art-museum.uq.edu.au/whats/future-exhibitions/hoda-afshar-remain

Perspectives, a new initiative developed by ACE Open, Guildhouse and The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, University of South Australia. This annual series of thought-provoking lectures invites leading artists, makers and thinkers to Adelaide to engage with the compelling ideas currently shaping our world.

Unmaking Images: Image-making and representation

In this lecture, Hoda Afshar discusses the connection between images and representation, and asks how the medium of photography might be used to untangle them. Retracing the history of her own practice, Afshar recounts how the camera has served her as a tool for exploring issues of identity and marginality, both as a documentary photographer in Iran, and as part of her visual-art practice after migrating to Australia.

Focussing on the themes and approach of her most recent series, ‘Behold’, recently shown at Melbourne’s Centre for Contemporary Photography, and ‘Remain’, made on Manus Island in collaboration with Berhouz Boochani and recently exhibited as part of the MCA’s Primavera 2018, Afshar explains how her concern to share the stories of others has necessarily overlapped with her questioning of the limits of image-making, all the while acknowledging its real potential to reshape how we see the world.

This lecture will conclude with a Q&A facilitated by Adelaide based independent curator and arts writer Rayleen Forester.

Perspectives: shaping the world through visual culture.

‘Eyes on Australia’ – part of ‘Eyes on Main Street’, an international photography festival in downtown Wilson, North Carolina. Curator Lucy Stranger builds a showing of nationhood through lenses of femininity and cultural diversity, countering the way Australia’s multifaceted geography, culture, and politics have historically been represented through the structuring and homogenising master-gaze of colonial masculinity. The show features the work of eight female photographers: by Tamara Dean, Prue Stent and Honey Long, Hoda Afshar, Karla Dickens, Raphaela Rosella, Jasmine Poole and Marcelle Bradbeer, running until 4 August.

Colin Pantall's thoughtful reflections on the history of photography, representation, ethics and power, including an analysis of my work ‘Remain’--published by World Press Photo. It's a privilege to read such important and timely analyses, and an honour to have one's work and approach so carefully considered.

One of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve done—in conversation with the incredible poet and writer Omar Sakr. Thanks to Liminal Magazine for connecting us.

Hoda Afshar & Behrouz Boochani's collaboration on AJ+, news and current events channel by Al Jazeera

"The majority cannot even handle the idea of freedom anymore." Around 600 refugees have been trapped on Manus Island. And their living conditions are only getting worse.

MGA Foundation is delighted to announce that Melbourne‐based, Iranian‐born artist Hoda Afshar is

not only the winner of the $30,000 William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for her

photograph ‘Portrait of Behrouz Boochani, Manus Island’ (2018), but has also been awarded the

Sotheby's Australia People's Choice Award. It is recognition that this photograph has resonated with

audiences across all levels, a powerful image that elicits an intellectual, aesthetic and emotional

response.

Sotheby’s Australia is the premier auctioneer of art, decorative arts and jewels within Australia, and

extols creativity and scholarship. Sotheby’s Australia’s support of the Bowness Photography Prize is a

reflection of the national and historic importance of this prize and the MGA Foundation is

profoundly grateful to partner with Sotheby’s for their award. Afshar will receive $2,500.

PROFILE

Building on her earlier works essaying colonialism and her experience as an Iranian migrant to Australia, photographer Hoda Afshar turned to presenting the humanity of the men detained on Manus Island. “Photography has turned into this whole trend of empty landscapes – no sign of human presence whatsoever, just traces of human beings. Traces of a tyre on asphalt, rubbish, leftover food, signs that say there were people here, but no human presence. It shocks me. I think, yes, it’s important to acknowledge the history of photography, how image-making has abused and manipulated narratives. We have to acknowledge the relationship between image-making and power. But to dismantle it is not to completely avoid that dialogue.” By Maddee Clark .

Primavera 2018, curated by the very special Megan Robson, will be open to the public from this Friday 9th November at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. I couldn’t imagine being in the company of a more talented and relevant group of artists; Caroline Garcia, Hayley Millar-Baker, Spence Messih, Phuong Ngo, Jason Phu, Ryan Presley and Andrew Tenison. This will be a Primavera to remember!

My video work ‘Remain’ will be featured as part of the show for the first time in Australia. This work was made in close collaboration with Behrouz Boochani and a group of other refugees who still remain on Manus Island. So much pain and love has gone into making this work. Please check it out if you are in Sydney and encourage your friends and family to see it too.

I had the honour of Judging the National Photographic Portrait Prize this year with Dr Christopher Chapman, the senior curator of the National Portrait Gallery and Anne O'Hehir, the curator of photography at National Gallery of Australia.

Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September 2018, 10am–4pm

The documentary image: by embracing its reality as a fiction—by announcing its own presence—what it becomes is a sign. A sign that traces its own history. An evidence.

In this workshop, Hoda Afshar will draw on her experience as both a documentary and art photographer, as well as a researcher and teacher to explore questions about the nature and possibilities of documentary image-making today. Reflecting on her own concerns with the communicative and world-making power of art and photographs, Hoda will guide participants through her process of constructing narrative-based work that is both conceptually focused and personal, and which intersects the usual lines between ‘staged’ and documentary photography. Held over two sessions one day apart, attendees will be encouraged to bring their own work to the second session for a round table discussion. Hoda will provide individual advice about developing a visual language that reflects the thematic concern of each student’s work, and above all, about constructing an image series, as opposed to the traditional way of ‘saying everything in one photograph’.

Behrouz Boochani—Manus Island (2018).

Behrouz is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, writer and filmmaker. He fled Iran in 2013 seeking asylum, and arrived on the shores of Australia on his thirtieth birthday—four days after the Rudd Government announced its offshore detention plan.

I sent this portrait to Behrouz after I returned from Manus in April 2018, and called him. I said, this is you, Behrouz, with your passion, your fire, and your writer’s hands. It symbolizes your resistance. He heard this, and paused. You are right, he said. But I do not see myself in this picture. I only see a refugee. Someone whose identity has been taken away from him. A bare life, standing there beyond the borders of Australia, waiting and staring. He fell silent, then said… This image scares me.

I'll be in Conversation with Behrouz Boochani about my travel to Manus Island earlier this year to spend time with the men detained by Australia’s offshore processing policies. My work for All We Can't See explores and challenges and relationship between the detained and the detainers, informed by my conversations with Behrouz and others during my time on the island.

Behrouz will be joining us via Skype from Manus Island. He is a Kurdish journalist, poet, filmmaker and artist who has been detained for five years now. Under the most arduous of circumstances, art has given him purpose, solace, and a connection with the world beyond the island prison. His book ‘No Friend But the Mountains’, has just been released through Pan Macmillan Australia. The evening will be hosted by human rights lawyer, activist and filmmaker Jessie Taylor. Her films include ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’, a film that looks at the circumstances surrounding individuals and families who “decide” to become boat people, taking the treacherous and – sometimes fatal – voyage from Indonesia to Australia.