WHIP Around: the art of photography
Free event. Bookings required.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, join the Women of the Hunter in Photography (WHIP) Collective to hear micro talks about their individual careers, achievements and the stories that have shaped their practices.
ABOUT WHIP
WHIP (Women from the Hunter in Photography) is a collective of Hunter based professional photographers. Recently formed in 2020, WHIP came together to share stories, ideas, knowledge and inspiration, to create opportunities to work collaboratively, to raise the profile of local professional women photographers, and to promote photography as an important multi faceted art form in our region.
SPEAKERS
Introduction: Edwina Richards
Ed is an award winning freelance photographer, educator and arts practitioner specialising in community arts projects and activating under-utilised space. In recent years she has worked in various capacities with the annual Exposure Photographic Festival / Central Coast Council, Dungog Art Foundation, Singleton Council, Renew Newcastle & Out Of The Square Media. While her practice often confusingly straddles both art and commercial worlds, she describes her approach broadly as "a documentary sensibility with an eye for the cinematic”. Richards currently works from a co-operative creative space know as The Soap Factory in Mayfield East, and founded the WHIP Collective at the end of 2020.
Speaker 1: Clare Weeks
Clare Weeks is a Photomedia artist working primarily in digital and performance video art. She is currently undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy (Fine Art) Postgraduate Degree at the University of Newcastle where her topic of research is narrative explorations of Multiple Sclerosis, theatre and the medicalised self. In 2011 she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and since this time has documented through visual, text and oral means, the artists’ experience of living with disease. Using her own body as the site of transgression her aim is to make visual the un-seen experience of living with chronic illness.
Speaker 2: Simone de Peak
Simone De Peak is an Australian Press Photographer with the Newcastle Herald specialising in editorial, documentary and portraiture photography. Simone’s work has been published in Australia’s leading mastheads including Newcastle Herald, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, and Australian Financial Review. She was awarded a Walkley for her coverage of the Newcastle Pasha Bulka Storms and has been a Finalist in the Moran Photographic Prize and Head On Photographic Awards.
Speaker 3: Kate Kennedy
Kate Kennedy is a birth photographer based in Newcastle NSW. Her work covering Newcastle and the Hunter Valley region. Kate has photographed natural and caesarean births in birth centres, hospitals as well as homes. Kate’s love of photography began in a high school darkroom, developing 35mm film by hand. This interest in analogue photography continued into adulthood where she studied at the University of Newcastle and found an affinity with medium format and a passion for the documentary genre.
Speaker 3: Wednesday Sutherland
Wednesday Sutherland is an emerging visual artist working across contemporary and traditional photographic processes. Sitting somewhere between narrative and documentary work, her process-driven works often veer into painterly abstraction. In 2020, Wednesday was awarded the Newcastle Emerging Artist Prize for Photomedia. She also curated The Lock-Up’s annual commercial fundraiser COLLECT, showing over 100 works by local artists and raising much-needed funds for the gallery. She is completing her final year of Bachelor of Creative Industries at University of Newcastle.
Conclusion: Louise Faulkner
Louise is a passionate self-taught photographic artist who has achieved awards for her portrait, documentary, landscape & architecture photography. With a background in science, land and environmental management, Louise’s fascination for the natural world feeds her photographic practice. Louise has exhibited in group shows and collaborated with other artists, including a 2020 exhibition of works at Newcastle Art Space. Louise was recently awarded a finalist berth in the prestigious Bowness Photography Prize and exhibited in the Monash Gallery of Art, Victoria.
Image: Kate Kennedy
