On Sunday I managed to get to a few of the feast of photographic exhibitions from some well respected Australian and international photographers exhibiting as part of the FotoFreo program.

One of the highlights was definitely Brad Rimmers exhibition: Silence - The West Australian Wheatbelt.

Brad Rimmer, a three time winner of the Perth, Photo Image Award presents a remarkable solo exhibition of moving, emotive and memorable images of Brads journey through the West Australian Wheat belt. These beautifully presented images are not only technically brilliant but leave me wanting to know more about the stories behind the images.

Brad Rimmer: Silence - The West Australian Wheatbelt is open until the 16th May 2010 at the Fremantle Prison. Coinciding with Brad's exhibition is the realease of his first book by the same name, which i'd love to get my hands on.

Another one of the moving FotoFreo exhibitions at the Fremantle Prison is "The Blue Room" by Eugene Richards. This exhibition is a highly emotive journey through abandoned and neglected areas of Western America including Kansas, Nebraska and New Mexico.

These moody, dark images leave me asking "what was life like here in years past"?  To add to the erriness of this exhibition is Eugene Richards voiceover on a multimedia presentation of his images that left me impressed if not a little haunted!

I was fortunate enough today to get a reminder email about the events of fotofreo 2010.  Tonight was a talk from Bruno Barbey from Magnum Photos.  An incredible photographer who's still going strong, producing relevant and moving images more after more than 4 decades in the game. 

I always find it interesting to see how some of the worlds most accomplished photographers tackle issues that still trouble me...such as to ask or not to ask permission to take a photograph of a subject. Bruno's philosophy: Take picture first ask permission later.  Afterall how else do you get a natural shot?

For those in Perth, the next month offers a visual feast of photography exhibitions, workshops, talks and discussion groups and i hope to see as much as i can over the next few weeks. Make an effort to see what you can because some world class photographers are here to inspire us from half the world away.

See you in Freo!