Nuclear Futures

Smile! Balaklava…click!

June 30th – July 7th, 2014. In the first week of July, 2014, visiting Artist Jessie Boylan and local Photographer Lisa Redpath delivered two free workshops in Balaklava as part of a creative arts residency supported by Nuclear Futures.

The first workshop was held in the evening, in the Phil Barry Chamber at Balaklava Civic Centre, and focused on ‘getting to know your camera’. Jessie and Lisa worked with seventeen community participants. The workshop was both theoretical and hands on, with participants experimenting with some ‘painting with light’ photography outside in the dark to explore how light is captured in the camera and how it can be used creatively. Jessie commented that, “most people were keen to learn more ‘manual’ photography and were simply interested in photography because it seemed like a natural way to document and capture the world around us”.

Photo by Lisa Redpath

During her residency, Jessie also worked individually with several  participants following on from the first workshop. Kady and Felicity had a session with Jessie in their hometown of Hoyleton, which offered an opportunity to explore aperture, depth of field, shutter speed and how their camera worked generally. In Balaklava, a similar mentoring session    with Kelly at her farm involved photographing native flowers and plants, as well as farm buildings on the property.

The second workshop was a full day field excursion hosted by the Wakefield Regional Council Youth Advisory Committee (YAC). The trip was tailored    for 12-25 year olds with participants visiting some of the picturesque landscape throughout the Council region.

Photo by Carly Friedrichs

Organised as a YAC bus trip, the group left Balaklava early with the first stop at some interesting farmstead ruins out of town. The group then travelled to the swimming hole in Port Wakefield, sites at Lochiel, and stopped along the way to photograph interesting vistas such as the wind turbines against the stormy sky. Most participants had attended the Tuesday workshop, which was great for them to solidify skills. Jessie and Lisa provided mentoring during the excursion and participant’s favourite shots will be submitted for exhibition at the Balaklava Courthouse Gallery opening in late September 2014.

Positive feedback was received from participants, community partners, organisers and artists. The workshops and mentoring were undertaken in partnership with Wakefield Regional Council, Wakefield Regional Council Youth Advisory Committee and Nuclear Futures program, and are supported by the Australia Council for the Arts & Arts SA.

Photo by Lisa Redpath

Photo by Lisa Redpath