Summer Retreat - The Muse Within
Robertson Hotel
MARCH 8-10th 2024
We live in a world saturated with images, yet photography still has the power to move us. What gives a photograph its power? How do we take a compelling image? Turning the lens on yourself, or those closest to you, can be a powerful way to create intimate and memorable photographs. Learn alongside some of Australia’s best contemporary photographers how to craft an image that reveals unexpected truths and inner worlds.
In Our Nature, with Tamara Dean
Award-winning photographic artist Tamara Dean will take participants through the magnificant gardens of Robertson Hotel to explore portraiture in nature: https://www.tamaradean.com.au
Walk away with your own self portrait in collaboration with Tamara Dean.Working with the fundamental notion that humans are part of nature, Tamara Dean’s workshop seeks to position the self within the landscape. Referencing Dean’s approach to her 2020 series High Jinks in the Hydrangeas, the participants will engage in a site responsive investigation of the surrounding gardens, finding ways in which to integrate their body into the landscape/foliage. Immersion, patterns, color and texture will be elements to consider.
Participants are encouraged to bring various clothing options for experimentation and variety. Also a sense of play, and with that a sense of humour. A tripod and camera with a self timer capability will be necessary.
The Photographic Object, with Atong Atem
Mythological Portraiture Workshop
Inspired by the vastness of mythology and myth making, this workshop asks us to rethink the
possibilities of personal storytelling within a cultural framework. Participants will be guided in making a self portrait work depicting or celebrating a personal, mythical figure. Whether a water spirit, a saint, an ancestor or an imagined figure, participants will consider their own cultures and beliefs as tools for personal and creative storytelling.
Drawing on the immense cultural research that informs much of my artistic practice, participants will be encouraged to research their own cultures and families to establish visual tropes and iconography that will inspire their own Mythological Portrait. This workshop will inspire participants to rethink their relationship to Mythology and to embrace the mundane as well as the sublime. From pop culture to nature, animism to Sci-fi; everything is sacred.
1. Participates will do preliminary research prior to the workshop and are encouraged to bring items of significance (outfits, photographs, objects etc).
2. The workshop will begin with a discussion about personal storytelling and mythology where we will share our stories and view images throughout art history that may be inspiring.
3. Participants will spend some time preparing props and backdrops for their self portrait, using props, and spaces in the hotel ballroom that align with their vision. Participants will then photograph themselves. I will assist each participant in achieving their desired result.
4. Photographs will be printed
5. Participants will work on the printed photographs to enhance the printed photograph, whether mounting them on paper and painting intricate borders in the style of illuminated manuscripts or cutting and collaging to create surreal creatures or weaving strips of multiple photographs to obscure their final photographs.
https://www.atongatem.com
Lisa Sammut
Working in sculpture,video and installation, Lisa Sammut’s practice oscillates between notions of cosmic perspective, belonging, connection and time. Privileging the poetic, intuitive and experiential, her immersive installations use a wide range of media to alter perceptions and question human-centric thinking. Overlaying celestial phenomena and human narratives to investigate themes of otherness, power, and agency, recent works have considered the ways cosmic forms andforces mirror the elusive dynamics, relations and dimensions of our personal and social worlds.