Each year the Robyn Beeche Award profiles exemplary folios by Bachelor of Arts (Photography) students in their final semester of the program. In honour of the late fashion photographer’s unique vision and experimental drive a $2000 prize from the Robyn Beeche Foundation will be awarded to one student to support their graduating portfolio.
WHAT: Robyn Beeche Photography Award exhibition
WHEN: Award announced 5.00-7.00pm Thursday 8 August 2024
Exhibition RMIT Open Day 10am-4pm Sunday 11 August 2024
STUDENT TALKS: 2:00pm Sunday 11 August 2024
WHERE: SITE EIGHT Gallery, Building 2, Level 2, Room 8, RMIT School of Art, Bowen Street, Melbourne.
This year, the Robyn Beeche Photography Award was given to Dylan McLardy for his Latrobe series. The award was judged by Jack Beeche and Margie Pink from the Robyn Beeche Foundation and Daniel Boetker-Smith, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography, supported by RMIT academics Dr Ray Cook and Dr Alison Bennett. Reflecting on the exhibition, the judges were moved by the strength and diversity of the folios from all the finalists. They were repeatedly drawn to scope of McLardy’s project and reflected on the intimacy of his engagement with his subjects, a quality that was also evident in the work of Robyn Beeche.
Dylan McLardy: ‘Latrobe’
Growing up in and around this community you feel the resilience of living in an area that feels forgotten, like so many other rural areas. I have also seen some of the most welcoming people, people who are so willing to trust and help out wherever possible. This strong sense of ownership is a big part of rural towns where your community is an extension of yourself.
Latrobe Valley has the highest crime statistics other than Melbourne CBD. 1 in 32 chance of being a victim to violent crime. 1 in 12 chance of being victim of property crime. Chronic health problems are also more common than Australia’s average.
Despite Latrobe supplying 85% of Victoria’s power, it is underrepresented and has a huge disparity in wealth compared to the rest of Victoria. How can an area expect to have change when no one is seeing the issues.
This series aims to show a glimpse of what I’ve seen personally from Latrobe Valley
– Dylan McLardy
more images
Lee O’Donoghue: ‘We are our only hope’
My work is a prod into the trope of domestic drudgery, its master: the patriarchy, and the internal crusade to break free. It takes the motif of the laundry: the endless washing, a small room, a cage, but a sanctuary at times: an excuse to delay the inner revolution. It takes aim at the conditioning of girls and women by patriarchal systems that strive to maintain the foundations of a compliant and streamlined society. A system that holds us in, that stealthily primes us to hold ourselves in. In the face of the monolith of patriarchy, what if we were to down washing, slip on our armour and call on the release of our anima to pull us out of the laundry? We could be our own knights in shining armour, our own Obi Wan Kenobi, nay our own Princess Leia.
– Lee O’Donoghue
more images
Nanook Aston-Boyle: ‘Eating Lotus’
‘Eating Lotus’ offers a modern interpretation of the 18th century tale of the Lotus Eaters. This fictional series utilises obscured narratives of individuals seeking solace in realms where the pressures of daily life briefly dissipate, commenting on themes of decadent lethargy and resistance against rapid societal progress. Inspired by the Victorian era, ‘Eating Lotus’ employs a blend of gesture and performance to parallel the societal shifts of the past with contemporary dilemmas, illustrating how the rapid technological advancements and cultural changes of today mirror the social upheavals of the Victorian period. Amid the rapid changes of modernity, Victorian poetry and art often turned to classical myth, reflecting a longing for timeless narratives. Similarly in today’s context, this series explores how individuals, particularly young people, grapple with the overwhelming pace of technological and social change, often resorting to acts of resistance and withdrawal.
– Nanook Ashton-Boyle
more images
Brin Armstrong: ‘Pierrot’
This series aims to follow small-town circuses and capture them with poignance. They are, in their classical sense, an artform that is slowly disappearing. I’ve attended these events in rural areas which usually feature a very low turnout, yet I’m always struck by the level of performative commitment which remains of very high quality. I am compelled to glean what motivates the performers to entertain in this fashion, where they draw their influence, and why the artform appears to be relatively unchanged from a century ago. There has been no shortage of classical circustry in photography’s history, yet now it appears to me that the art form is under threat of disappearing, and if that is the case, I hope to have a better understanding of it before it does. This series is unfinished, the artistry as well as the setting has been captured to some degree, however the focus now will be on behind the scenes and the humanity of the performers.
– Brin Armstrong
more images
Robert Crerar: ‘Pup Play’
‘Pup play’ often involves the creation of a persona. It is a subcultural form that allows exploration of identity, sexuality, and community. The physical expression of persona through gear and physicality also facilitates an exploration of self. These images are drawn from a larger photobook that represents members of the pup community and their pup personas.
– Rob Crerar
more images
Finalists gain a great deal of exposure and experience through inclusion in the Robin Beeche Award. In addition to support with printing for the exhibition, students gain a great deal of exposure and professional development.
The exhibition is a feature of RMIT Photography Open Day program. Finalists learn a great deal about how to talk to the public about their work by invigilating the gallery throughout the day. In 2022 over 30,000 people attended RMIT Open Day and the works are highlighted via RMIT Photography social media.
ABOUT ROBIN BEECHE
Australian photographer Robyn Beeche (1945–2015) documented seemingly opposing worlds: the post-punk, new romantic fashion and music scenes of 1980s London, and Hindu ceremonies held in the Indian pilgrimage town of Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh.
Beeche became renowned in London for her groundbreaking photos of painted bodies, transforming the body into a canvas and a site of dynamic exploration. Collaborating with counter-culture personalities Zandra Rhodes, Vivienne Westwood, Leigh Bowery and Divine, Beeche was drawn to personalities who were fascinated with the possibilities of physical transformation. Employing imaginative makeup and sophisticated lighting, bodies were fragmented, distorted and transformed into sculpture. Regularly visiting India in the mid-1980s at the peak of her career proved life-changing with Beeche settling in Vrindavan permanently in 1992.
For the next three decades Beeche captured both the serenity and dye-drenching ecstasies of Indian religious rituals. The colour saturated week-long Holi festival in Vrindavan reminiscent of Beeche’s experimental work with makeup artists.
Anne O’Hehir, curator at the National Gallery of Australia, stated that:
Much of Beeche’s work of the 1970s and 1980s exists in its own place between fashion photography and art photography. For me there’s an interesting tension in her work between the image as decoration and the image as portraiture – particularly in the images of famous figures – Leigh Bowery, Sir Roy Strong, Andrew Logan.
Beeche’s inspiring life story has been told in Stephen Crafti’s book Visage to Vraj and Lesley Branagan’s revealing documentary film A Life Exposed – Robyn Beeche: a photographer’s transformation, which was first broadcast on Australia’s ABC TV in June 2013. The film reveals how Beeche, at the centre of London’s high fashion world, finds that fame and success are no longer enough and traces her intrepid move to India to rediscover herself. Beeche sadly passed away in 2015 at age 70 and is survived by her sister Gai. In 2016 the Robyn Beeche Foundation was established with the purpose of maintaining and promoting Robyn Beeche’s photographic archive in order to provide charitable support to emerging artists and cultural exchange.
http://www.robynbeeche.org/about.html
Australian-born photographer Robyn Beeche became renowned in London for her ground-breaking photographs of painted bodies, and collaborations with counter-culture personalities Vivienne Westwood, Leigh Bowery, Divine and Zandra Rhodes. At the peak of her career, Beeche experienced the Indian colour-throwing festival of Holi. “Drawn like a magnet”, she gave up her high-flying career for the life-changing move to India in order to document vibrant religious traditions as spiritual service.