Head On Photo Festival 2023

Head On Photo Festival is an international annual photography festival based in Sydney, Australia, showing emerging and established photo artists. The Festival is held across multiple venues, including commercial galleries and public outdoor spaces.

Overview

Every year Head On Photo Festival is an opportunity to see the work of emerging and established photographers from Australia and worldwide. Head On Photo Festival 2023 is a 22-day event featuring over 110 exhibitions, 700 artists, and a variety of talks and events reflecting the biggest global issues that have had our attention over the last 12 months. 

This year’s highlights include works that capture life in Ukraine, including American photographer and veteran Gary Ramage’s 'The Consequences of War', and Italian-born photojournalist Diego Fedele’s 'East of the Dnipro River', both picturing the heartbreaking aftermath of Russia’s invasion; 'Lonka project', showcasing 455 portraits of Holocaust survivors decades on from World War Two; and American photographer Barbara Peacock’s unfiltered 'American Bedroom', capturing what goes on behind the doors of American dwellings.

Australian photographer Matthew Newton will present 'The Forest Wars', a 20-year documentation of the logging industry in Tasmania. The group exhibition 'Australia + Fashion Photography' will showcase cultural artefacts from the 1970s to recent times.

The festival also offers a free program of talks with exhibiting artists, as well as conversations and workshops. This includes a screening of Vischniac, a documentary about the life of pioneering microscopic photographer Roman Vishniac, accompanied by live music and a post-screening Q&A.