The moon is one of the common things that unites the world, with everyone looking up to the same view. And the moon has been in the focus of photographers across the globe for generations, especially for the past 50 years since Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon.
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To tie in with the anniversary, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale has the moon in its sights with the exhibition To The Moon and Back, which will be shown at the Ballarat Observatory.
Curators Rebecca Najdowski and Dr Colleen Boyle, who are colleagues and self-confessed "space freaks", have brought together a collection of images that show not just the moon but the cultural impact of lunar landings and the inspiration the moon provides.
We sat down and did a massive brainstorm about who we thought we might want to have in the show and we certainly were thinking about local and international photographers because the moon is something that is for everybody," Dr Boyle said.
"Everyone can look at it no matter where they are."
Among the artists involved is Penelope Umbrico, who collects images of the moon from the internet and pieces them together to create large scale images. "Her work is about our rights to certain images and what happens when we put something on the internet," Dr Boyle said.
Melbourne photographer Andrew Curtis will also have works on show that might appear to be from the moon, but are actually from earth.
"Andrew Curtis photographs piles of dirt or quarries and makes them look like another planet through really dramatic light effects - which makes you think about the moon even though you know it's not," Dr Boyle said.
"A lot of these works were made well before the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. The moon is something that is always going to be there and inspire people but in very different ways."
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Other artists include Matt Lipps and Sharon Harper (US), Sasha Huber (Switzerland/Finland), Jorge Maes Rubio (Spain), Vincent Fournier (France) and Qicong Lin (China).
The Ballarat International Foto Biennale runs from August 24 to October 20.
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