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 final talk in the series features British artist Othello De’Souza-Hartley in conversation with Andy Butler, Acting Artistic Director, West Space, Melbourne.

About the Artist

Othello De’Souza-Hartley (b. 1977, London, UK) is a visual artist whose artistic vocabulary encompasses photography, film, performance, sound, drawing and painting. Working across multiple interdisciplinary platforms, his practice is concerned with ideas around the human body as a site of embodiment, often engaging with self-portraiture, masculinity and vulnerability as visually performed ideas. De’Souza-Hartley’s solo exhibitions include Campo XXV Aprile (Rome Art Week) (2018); Outside the Zone Gallery, London; Sulger-Buel Gallery, London; and Camden Arts Centre, London. His work has featured in group shows at the Museum of Liverpool; Shanghai Centre for Photography; Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool; Gasworks, London; and APT Gallery, London, among others.

Andy Butler is an artist, writer and curator. He is interested in how artmaking and artistic history intersects with the ideological foundations of our political, social and economic institutions. His work unpacks ideas and aesthetics of equality and justice within aristocratic, capitalist and neoliberal worldviews – from an emotional and conceptual standpoint. In his research driven practice, he deploys painting, video, performance, installation and writing. Andy has exhibited at firstdraft, Bus Projects, the SUBSTATION, Arts House, Footscray Community Art Centre and more. In 2019 he undertook an Asialink Residency to Manila, Philippines, and in 2020 travelled to Dhaka Art Summit with the Australia Council. He was a participant in Next Wave’s 2019 Kickstart Program. Independent curatorial projects include Always there and all a part (2017) at BLINDSIDE, and Those Monuments Don’t Know Us (2019) at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. He is Exhibitions Curator at West Space. Andy sits on the boards of SEVENTH Gallery and Emerging Writers Festival.

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.