Acknowledgement of Country

Presented by Photo Australia, Melbourne (www.photo.org.au) and Autograph, London (www.autograph.org.uk), PHOTO LIVE is a series of 10 online conversations between artists and curators from Australia and the UK that will explore ideas of identity and belonging in the context of human rights, representation and social justice. This program highlights the importance of centring black, Indigenous, feminist, queer and other marginalised voices and storytelling in photography.

The fourth talk in the series features artist Silvia Rosi in conversation with Pippa Milne, Senior Curator, Monash Gallery of Art.

About the Artist

Silvia Rosi (b. 1992, Scandiano, Italy) works with photography, text and moving image to explore ideas of memory, migration and diaspora. Inspired by West African studio photography, Rosi’s practice explores personal history through self-portraiture, drawing on her Togolese heritage and family traditions, especially matrilineality, and women’s labour. She was awarded the Jerwood/Photoworks 2020 Award, and in 2021 exhibited as part of the digital billboard campaign Portrait of Britain and CIRCA’s ‘Past / Present / Future’ at Piccadilly Circus organised in partnership with the Serpentine Gallery, London; her work was also shown at Getxo International Image Festival, Basque Country; Landskrona Foto; Athens Photo Festival; and the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Pippa Milne is Senior Curator at Monash Gallery of Art and has previously held curatorial positions at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. Recent exhibitions include Bill Henson: the light fades but the gods remain(2019), Robin Boyd, a portrait of an Australian house (2019), and An Unorthodox Flow of Images (2017).

Photo Australia produces PHOTO International Festival of Photography in Melbourne and across regional Victoria. Delivered in collaboration with over 40 cultural institutions, museums, galleries and universities, the Festival features free exhibitions, outdoor displays and artist commissions, alongside events and education programs. The Festival invites artists, curators, writers, academics and audiences to interrogate the major issues of our time through a central theme. The theme for PHOTO 2022 is ‘Being Human’ and the Festival will run from 29 April to 22 May 2022.

Autograph ABP was founded in 1988 in London to support black photographic practices. Between 1988 and 2007, Autograph worked as an agency to initiate projects in gallery spaces, museums, at festivals or in public sites. It developed expertise in influencing policy and practice and was able to demonstrate alternative models of making and sharing creative work produced by artists from the UK and abroad. In 2007, Autograph applied for charitable status and moved to a purpose-built permanent home in Rivington Place, Shoreditch, which provides an important London showcase for its annual public exhibitions, a dedicated learning studio and a place to welcome the many institutions, informal groups and individuals with whom we make and share cultural projects.

1854 Media is a multi-award-winning digital media organisation with a global community including millions of photographers, arts lovers and international brands. Its portfolio includes British Journal of Photography, the world’s oldest photography title (est. 1854), and its awards are among the most viewed photographic exhibitions in history.