Reportage Censored

View fullsize

Documentary photographer David Maurice Smith views one of his images that got censored. Part of his Living in the Shadows project

Every year at the end of May Sydney's Circular quay turns into a light show as part of the Vivid, Lights, Music and Ideas festival. Every year it draws large numbers of visitors, many carrying cameras, some even tripods! It is for this reason that the Reportage photo festival must have been thrilled to be involved this year they had a screen near the Harbour and some of the best work from photojournalists around Australia and the World.

 

This is as good as it would get. On the Eve of the opening night Destination NSW  (a tourism body)stepped in and censored several of the images leaving the slide show in disarray with many photographers pulling all there work on a matter of principal. For me the telling quote is the following. You can find the gallery of some of the censored images here. When you are looking at the images that were censored keep this quote in mind and try to connect the dots.

'We just don't want violence, dead people or anything that could distress people. In that public domain area it's about entertainment and engagement.'' 

Ms Chipchase

For more Information written by others check out

•  Sydney Morning Herald 
• The Australian 
• Guardian  
• Oculi 
• Daily Life  (Slide show of some of the censored photos)
• Develop Photo
• Vice 

Stephen Dupont opens the Reportage Projections 

As one might expect from hard boiled photojournalists they would not take it laying down. There was a special screening of the full "Real Reportage" projections inside Customs House, almost all three hours of it due to the curfew at 11pm where only 40 or so of the original hundred or more made it to the end.

The Censored Exhibition

At the end of the Reportage photo festival the team behind the festival still felt like they needed to do something more about the censored photographs. During the festival Hyde Park played host to Photovile, a photo exhibition in shipping contains this would prove to the the ideal place to hold an exhibition of the censored photographs. It was held from Monday June 24 to Wednesday July 3.

As part of the Exhibition there was a public talk from the Director of Photography at The Global Mail Mike Bowers, Oculi photographer David Maurice Smith, Reportage Festival Director Stephen Dupont, MP Amanda Fazio and Anna Maria Antoinette D'Addario.

The below clip is the short elegant speech that David made which sums it all up quite well.