Canberra Re-Seen 2 : Secret Scenes

How do you see Canberra? Through its people, buildings or suburban landscapes? Would you like to develop your own unique photographic vision of our city?

Join PhotoAccess and Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG) for Canberra Re-Seen 2 : Secret Scenes, a four-week mentored black and white darkroom photography workshop presented in conjunction with CMAG’s Seeing Canberra exhibition. In this hands-on, ‘learn-through-making’ experience, you’ll explore using analogue photography to discover, investigate and respond to the artistic legacy of Ted Richards, one of the Seeing Canberra featured artists and a significant contributor to our city’s photographic history.

Edward (Ted) Richards lived in Canberra for most of his life, working as a photographer at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and the Australian War Memorial and running a commercial photography business based in Manuka. During the 1960s, he also created a personal series of images of scenes of the growing city. Two of Richards’ works feature in CMAG’s Seeing Canberra exhibition, each showing his talent for capturing surprising and revealing details of people’s lives in the city’s landscapes.

In Secret Scenes, you’ll join established Canberra photographer Wouter Van de Voorde for four sessions exploring how Richards’ work captured surprising and revealing details of people’s lives in the city. The program will kick off with a curatorial tour of the Seeing Canberra exhibition, as well as an opportunity to review CMAG’s holdings of Richards’ work. You’ll then spend time out and about with Wouter, discovering little-known aspects of Canberra’s cityscape, investigating scale and drama both inside and outside buildings and capturing figures in relation to built landscapes.

This is primarily an analogue photography workshop, and over the four weeks you’ll be supported to learn how to shoot with and develop 35mm black & white film and create stunning prints in the PhotoAccess darkroom. You’ll be able to explore how treading in Richards’ analogue footsteps can inspire you to see our city’s urban landscapes in entirely fresh ways.

At the conclusion of Secret Scenes, you’ll be invited to contribute some of your images to a culminating Canberra Re-Seen exhibition, to be shown in the PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery from 10 June – 10 July 2021 and featured in our Online Gallery.

Secret Scenes is the second instalment in Canberra Re-Seen, a three-part workshop series presented jointly by PhotoAccess and CMAG in celebration of the Seeing Canberra exhibition. In each of the three workshops, a different expert tutor supports you to discover one of the ACT’s landmark photographers featured in Seeing Canberra, create new work inspired by these diverse artists’ responses to the city and contribute to the PhotoAccess Canberra Re-Seen exhibition.

Explore the other workshops in the Canberra Re-Seen series: City of People and Ambivalent Landscapes.

If you would like to enrol in all three Canberra Re-Seen workshops, PhotoAccess would be pleased to offer you a 15% discount on the total cost of the three workshops. Please email us at [email protected] or call our office on 02 – 6295 7810 (Tues-Sat, 10am – 4pm) to take advantage of this offer.

Secret Scenes is suitable for everybody with at least basic photography skills, and will have lots to offer for more experienced photographers. You don’t need prior film or darkroom experience. Ages 16 +.

For Secret Scenes, you’re welcome to bring your own 35mm film camera, with charged batteries and whatever lenses or other accessories you would like to use. If you don’t have a film camera, we have some available for use. Please contact us in advance of the workshop if you’d like to talk to us about equipment.

As well as great creative tutoring and a new group of friends, your Secret Scenes workshop fee includes access, at no extra cost, to the PhotoAccess darkroom (including chemicals) for each workshop session, and for the entire month of March 2021. You’ll be welcome to come in and do extra printing outside of the workshop sessions. We’ll also provide you with a 35mm black&white film and a pack of printing paper to get you started. You can purchase further darkroom supplies from the PhotoAccess shop.

At the conclusion of Secret Scenes, you’ll be invited to contribute some of your images to a PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery Canberra Re-Seen exhibition bringing together work from across the three workshops in the series. The exhibition will run from 10 June – 10 July 2021 and will also be featured in PhotoAccess’ Online Gallery.

Participants from the Canberra Re-Seen workshop series will meet in a single session to collaborate on curating and laying out the exhibition. This session will be led by PhotoAccess’ Engagement Officer, Wouter Van de Voorde, and will be scheduled for a date in May 2021.

Please note that you’ll be responsible for printing/producing, and if you choose, framing your own work for the exhibition. Your Secret Scenes workshop fee includes the gallery space, hanging materials, installation support, marketing and promotion and a catered opening event, and the build of the digital exhibition.

Enrolments for Secret Scenes close at 9am on Wednesday, 3 March 2021. PhotoAccess reserves the right to cancel the workshop if there are insufficient enrolments. If we have to cancel, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and you’ll receive a full refund. For late enrolments or queries, please email us at [email protected]

PhotoAccess will happily refund or transfer workshop fees up to 7 days prior to the start date of the workshop. If less than 7 days notice is given PhotoAccess will transfer fees to another workshop but will charge a transfer fee of either 25% of the workshop cost or $50, whichever is less. No refunds or transfers can be given once a workshop has started. Please see Terms and Conditions for further details.