Premier's multicultural photographic award

[bago100]

Hi all

A very good friend alerted me to this. I've extracted the following from Premier Beatie's website.
________________________________________
2005 Premier's Multicultural Photographic Awards
The Premier's Multicultural Photographic Awards will be held again this year with more than $25 000 in cash and prizes on offer.

The photographic awards are open to professional and non-professional photographers, and there is also a school student category.

Nominations for the photographic awards are now open until Friday 12 August 2005.

The theme for this year's awards is diversity at work, which is a marvelous opportunity to capture our multicultural heritage and showcase Smart State diversity.

Entry into the awards is free. Visit the 2004 awards winners and short listed entries to see Queensland's multiculturalism in action.
________________________________________

The link is
http://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/multicultural/awardsevents/photographic_awards/index.shtm

I't wouldn't surprise me if one of our talented Queensland members wins this.

If you are a resident of anywhere else but Queensland, then you're excluded from entering

Cheers and good luck

Graham

[birddog114]

What happens if someone send their works to one of the Queenslander photogs, and he does his job up there?

[sheepie]

Not intending to offend anyone, but....

what crap - what this really means is find someone who looks as much 'non-australian' as possible and take a photo of them - that's then called celebrating our 'multicultural diversity'.
I would much rather something that demonstrated the kind of community feeling that certain people generate - the sort of people that come along once in a lifetime (we have one or two people in this category on our forum) - this whole emphasis on multiculturilism is becoming stale.

[Link]

Without entering the great debate on multiculturalism, I think a winning image for this comp would need to show cooperation between 'anglos' and 'non-anglos' people. I mean, the focus should be on the concept of harmony and not only a picture of someone foreign-looking.

Link.

[sheepie]

Agree - I don't want to get any more involved in a debate on multiculturilism (my views are on the emphasis of it in our society, not the nature of it itself - if that makes any sense at all).
Problem is, we are reminded of it all the time - this comp, for example, sounds very much like the "Sydney Life" competition held by the City of Sydney (see http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Community/GrantsAndAwards/SydneyLifePhotographyExhibition.asp). Note the winning entry from last year.
In the Queensland comp - why, if the subject is 'Diversity at Work', couldn't the example have been an older (near retirement) worker showing a younger (apprentice) how to do something? Is this not diversity?
Anyway, I've had my bit to say - I obviously got out of bed the wrong way today

[bago100]

Not intending to offend anyone, but....

what crap - what this really means is find someone who looks as much 'non-australian' as possible and take a photo of them - that's then called celebrating our 'multicultural diversity'.
I would much rather something that demonstrated the kind of community feeling that certain people generate - the sort of people that come along once in a lifetime (we have one or two people in this category on our forum) - this whole emphasis on multiculturilism is becoming stale.

I think your comment is out of line on this forum. I made the post to inform interested members, not to denigrate the theme of the competition or its purpose, and if you think about it, the interpretation of 'multiculturalism' as you have done.

Your comment is not going to encourage any member thinking of entering the competition and it certainly discourages me (or anyone else for that matter) from informing members of events and competitions.
*slams the door*
Graham

[gstark]

*slams the door*

Now, now, children ... play nicely ...

Graham,

Let me see if I can diffuse this a little bit ...

I note that the name of the contest is "2005 Premier's Multicultural Photographic Awards", and while I agree with Sheepie that, as a standalone topic, diversity at work should impart something beyond multiculturalism, clearly the contest's focus and intent is somewhat more restrictive than a contest with a standalone topic might enjoy.

Perhaps Sheepie missed (as I certainly did the first two times I read your original note) that relevant part of the contest's name? As I said, I missed it on my first two readings, and that's absoultely no fault of anyone but myself: I just skipped the word, and basically scanned, rather than fully read, the message.

Sheepie did preface his comment with a disclaimer that he didn't want to offend anyone, and I'm prepared to accept that he means that in good faith; equally, I don't think it was intention to actually discourage anyone from entering, but he merely wanted to express his point of view that diversity has a valid place beyond multiculturalism.

Was his comment out of line? I think perhaps more out of context - as noted above - rather than out of line.

Your original posting is appreciated, and I really don't accept that Sheepie meant to attack you, or give you the impression that your posting was wrong, inappropriate, or unwelcome either.

As you both know, I'm happy to see vigourous discussion here, but we also need to be wary to not take comments made about subjects as personal attacks.

I said at the start of this posting that I hoped that I might be able to diffuse this a little; did I succeed, or have I made a total mess of it?

[Slider]

I certainly think it's worth a look.

[sirhc55]

Gary - give up your day job and become a mediator - you are very, very good

[Sheetshooter]

I remember all too well the uproar on a BRISBANE-SPECIFIC photography discussion board last year when the winning shot of an Asian family in a backyard with a Hills Hoist was announced. It had particular significance for me because a friend here in Sydney had been commissioned to shoot a series of multiculturally-focussed photographs for an exhibition at Fairfield Regional Gallery of immigrant families in their own backyards at about the same time.

Xenophobia was in no short supply on the Brisbane discussion board but when considered in the context of regional differences it became obvious just why such a programme is seen as necessary if the community is to grow and become unified.

Australia is a Federation of States which started out as distinct and separate colonies. Their foundations and development have been markedly different and this has in turn given each State its own appeal, or lack thereof, in the eyes not only of the locals but also of immigrants. The integration of people of differing nationalities or cultures is nowhere near as commonplace or widespread in Brisbane .... let alone in the rest of Queensland .... as it is in Sydney or Melbourne . Clearly the Premier's Department and the departments concerned with community relations see a need for a programme of eductaion (call it propoganda if you will) that is at variance with what might be needed in Sydney or Melbourne.

When I spoke in favour of the winning shot in the environment of the Brisbane forum back then I was castigated by one and all for even eating "wog" food or taking an academic interest in Middle-eastern ehtnicity let alone appreciating the winning shot.

These contests are all weighted in a particular direction by the agenda of the Government agencies that initiate them. Mention was made of the City Of Sydney comp that was conducted through the auspices of the Museum Of Sydney last year. I entered an image of two architectural structures entirely different national style in a Sydney suburban street. It has proven to be a very successful and much lauded shot but in the Sydney thingy it did not even rate a mention. Not that it bothered me at all, but I was chatting about it to a colleague who also entered. He made comment that there were no people in my picture and so it would be automatically disregarded. The world is inhabited by people but people do not make up the entire world. (Truth be known it is we people that destroy the world - but that is another issue). The hand of man on its own is clearly too subtle for a comp such as that - we need to wheel the corpse into Court, so to speak. (Incidentally, as a moment in time that shot of two structures has just become a more valuable statement due to the demolition of one of them.)

Any Government funded award or contest open to all-comers such as these is essentially an instrument of thought control - how else could they justify the prize money? Certainly not just for 'art'! In the eyes of the organisers the level of objection would be seen as justification for further action on their part.

To close, I recall an off-camera comment made at the time of the opening of SBS Television by the then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser: "This will be as much about broadening the knowledge of old Australians as providing a link with their old culture for new Australians.

[gstark]

Gary - give up your day job and become a mediator - you are very, very good

But nobody has answered my question, Chris.

Sheetshooter, very interesting comments and observations, and especially so noting that there will be differences in the levels of integration of the various cultures from one city to the next. Thank you for reminding us of this important factor.

[Dargan]

Brisbane City Council has a neighbourhood competition. Perhaps that would be a more inclusive name for a state competition? Whatever the issue or outcome, this is a very well funded competition and thank you Graham for informing us of it. There is not much time left to meet the challenge but I am going to put my thinking cap on.