Published: 10 May 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Israel’s loss has certainly been Australia’s gain. Rosenzveig is the founder and director of the Head On festival, Australia’s premier photography event, which is currently running in Sydney until May 20.
This year the festival features some 150 exhibitions in about 100 venues across Sydney, and involves the work of approximately 700 photographers. The festival includes talks, workshops, seminars and other events. “This year there’s around $70,000 worth of prizes, with nearly $25,000 of that in cash,” Rosenzveig told The Jewish Independent.
This showcase for international as well as local photographers’ works had modest beginnings over 14 years ago. Having built a prominent career as a photojournalist, commercial photographer and producer/director at SBS television, Rosenzveig saw the need to help emerging photographers and initiated the Head On Portrait Prize in 2004: “The idea was to increase the scope or opportunities that photographers had to show their work and for the public to see their work,” he said.
At that time, he explains, it was difficult for photographers to gain a foothold and break into the industry. “Up until then, there were only a handful of places that showed photography, and of those places that did, they usually showed the same people over and over again.”
The evolution from prize to festival started in 2009 following a sold-out forum about photography. “We filled up the Chauvel cinema: 350 seats! It was fully booked and people loved it – absolutely loved it. We got fantastic feedback and I thought there’s room to do something here that is more along these lines; that engages with photographers and the public.”
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The next year, 2010, saw the first festival. Rosenzveig had modest hopes. He expected at least 20 exhibitions in the launch year but 67 shows ended up being presented and it has just taken off from there.
Part of Rosenzveig’s motivation to create more opportunity was the way in which it was decided to choose the Portrait Prize entrants – anonymously: “We chose the work with no name, so we ensured that people got in based on merit only – not on pedigree or whether they were known or unknown.”
This formula has continued to play a big role in Head On’s success, especially as a festival. The anonymous selection process has resulted in the discovery of many “unknown” photographers; emerging artists who may have, until then, flown under the radar. “The festival site and the very festival itself are watched by other festivals and people in the industry as a source for material for their own festivals,” Rosenzveig adds.
As well as the 40 portrait prize finalists and three prizes in each category, all exhibitions featured as part of the festival are selected in a similar way: a panel goes through the submissions anonymously, a process assisted by an app which was developed by Head On: “This ensures the judges can’t see the name of the photographer; they can (only) see the pictures and the descriptions (of the works).”
This necessarily streamlines the process; there’s close to 6000 entries this year over four categories. Most submitted are for the portrait prize and the others are for landscape, mobile, and students.
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The Student prize is a more recent addition - now in its third year. “The idea was to engage with young people who do photography, because at the moment, the curriculum does not.”
Rosenzveig describes the area as “visual literacy” and says it holds great interest for him. “Everyone learns how to read and write, and people can articulate quite well … there’s a lot more room to educate people with what you can do and cannot do with images and how you potentially manipulate reality through photography; this is an area that I’m very interested in – making sure that people are more visually literate… teaching people more visual language.”
Of local note, he referenced some great works from nearby Sydney schools: “We have some fantastic photos from students, including those attending Jewish day schools such as Moriah and Emmanuel.”
Having the festival tour to America, China, India and Europe has also further fanned enthusiasm for this Australian initiative and increased interest, introducing the international photographic elite to talent Down Under.
Local talent also shines in the multi-disciplinary advisory board which guides Head On as well as its organisational team: “We have a very small team - a very, very lean organisation, and we rely on volunteers. Whatever we need, is usually heavily subsidised or pro bono... And we’re non-profit, so whatever we raise goes back into the organisation.”
And the most exciting aspect of Head On? “We changed Sydney! People started buying photography,” he proclaims. Photography is a not very well understood art form- especially for collectors. We’re hoping this will [continue to] create some change.”
Main photo: Moshe Rosenzveig (Zorica Purlija)
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