Ballarat International Foto Bienale 2023

This August saw the kick off of this beloved festival of photography hosted by the ever-capable town of Ballarat.

The festival was started by Jeff Moorfoot, one of the great art subversives. Jeff got it rolling in Daylesford and it soon out grew this home and it is now the biggest most prestigious photographic festival in the southern hemisphere (I think!).

Have a scroll through the gallery of images, and plan your own visit to the festival, you have until October 22, 2023…that’s enough time!

You will need at least two clear days, the first to eat up the main meal of the core program, and the second to get into the desserts of the fringe program.

I found those subsequent days saw me returning to see those things that got stuck on the way in. I’m actually planning a return visit…it is too much.

Lastly, I wanted to acknowledge Jeff Moorfoot for his most excellent vision in not only starting this festival, but doing the heavy lifting to make it what it is. Consider this, it’d growth has been stellar, he grew it from such tiny seeds to the international behemoth it is, for me the sense of scale was felt when he secured former Australian Prime Minister (and avid photographer) Malcom Fraser to be the patron of the festival.

It was one of Fraser’s last roles before he passed, and while he was arguably one of the more ugly conservative forces when he was in government, in his old age, he softened many of these positions as the wisdom of age took hold. I remember, with great fondness watching Fraser chatting with a young woman in a hijab at one of the exhibition openings. He and I also chatted about printing as he also loved the craft and had his own desktop print system.

I interviewed Jeff for our podcast, you can find the link here: https://overcast.fm/+Y3yvxDvyc

Jeff Moorfoot at the 2023 Biennale, hard at work wrangling the exhibition he curated.