Some of Ballarat’s more unusual faces will find themselves hung in unusual spaces as part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.
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Photographer Nigel Stevens’ exhibition Ballarat Style highlights the colour and diversity of the city, with a focus on memorable faces and their unique traits.
“My exhibition is on Ballarat people and how they choose to express themselves, looking particularly at creative, different sort of people in the city,” he said.
“They’ve got a creative element they like expressing.”
Mr Stevens photographed 40 Ballarat residents, finding models through word of mouth.
“It was a bit of a ripple effect. I knew some had interesting style and photographed them, then asked them to find their friends and bit by bit I got a big collection … ranging from people with dreadlocks to short hair, gothic style to manga so it was quite broad.”
Having a BIFB exhibition has been on Mr Stevens’ bucket list since attending the last few biennales in his home town, and he’s making his exhibition debut in the biggest photographic festival in Australia.
Like his models, the venue for Ballarat Style is also a little offbeat, with the portraits hung on the walls of Il Picolo Gelato in Sturt St.
“For me it’s a perfect venue to show my art work. It’s got nice flat walls, people come and go or stand and eat ice cream and look.
”I think it’s good exposure and gives photographers the opportunity to show work to people that normally wouldn’t come across it.”
The gelateria is one of many unexpected venues to host BIFB. The Ballarat Synagogue, Pancake Kitchen, Suttons House of Music, Lords & Lads Barbershop, Ballarat Base Hospital and Ballarat Convent are among other unusual spaces that will become galleries during the month-long festival.
And visitors will get to walk up the grand stairs of the Ballarat Town Hall, an area normally off-limits to the public, to view the Michael Kantor Exhibition.
BIFB director Fiona Sweet said one of the festival’s goals was to get audiences to “pop in to spaces that they’ve never been in to before” to view amazing photographs.
“In our very own Ballarat International Foto Biennale, exploring and discovering art in laneways, shops and basements has long been a cultural pastime.”
The Ballarat International Foto Biennale runs from August 19 to September 17.
