The Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB) festival has an ambitious aim: to be a world class celebration of the photographic arts in the great tradition of the Recontres de la Photographie d'Arles in France. It is the biggest photographic event in the southern hemisphere.

The Core Exhibition Program will be devoted to the works of invited photographers, the BIFB Fringe Program is open to any photographer or group of photographers who can find a suitable venue in Ballarat or the immediate district and pay the modest registration fee.

Of the core program photographers I have previously mentioned Lauren Simonutti previously here on junk for code and here on conversations. One of the Australians is Wayne Quilliam, an Indigenous artist based in Melbourne, who is 2009 NAIDOC Aboriginal Artist of the Year.

Quilliam is primarily a social documentary photographer who works across a variety of areas including Indigenous affairs, sports, corporate events, photographic exhibitions, model and actor portfolios.

Quilliam's work appears to based on superimposing female bodies onto rocks, or more likely matted leaves of a forest floor, so that the body appears to be made of these natural materials. The image is striking but the inference is one of female body and nature with its patriarchal associations.

Another group of Australian photographers with a presence is the MAP group who did a project on the drought--Beyond Reasonable Drought. The Many Australian Photographers (MAP Group) is an independent association of documentary photographers, and their project for the Foto Biennale was MaPping Ballarat. This group of working professionals adopt a mostly social documentary in style and approach in capturing a day in the life of Ballarat.

Alas there are no images from this show under a creative commons licence I cannot any.