By Christine de Kock
WHEN an eastern suburbs woman called photographer Glen Campbell a “poor thing” – because he lived in the West – it was the first time he realised the area had a stigma.
Mr Campbell, who has lived in West Footscray, Seddon, Altona and Point Cook, said the western suburbs he knew didn’t deserve a bad reputation.
He said at one time it might have been known for crime but the West was interesting, colourful and had a lot more character than people outside the West realised.
“The point is, once you have lived in the West it is like you wouldn’t really want to live anywhere else,” he said.
Mr Campbell, Victorian Landscape Photographer of the Year (2004 and 2005), and photographer Sean Keating, shortlisted for this year’s West Australian Mandorla Art Prize, believed that a photographic competition could boost the West’s reputation and change negative perceptions of the area.
Mr Campbell said the competition would give people the opportunity to bring sites often taken for granted into focus.
“You come over the West Gate Bridge and you look down and see Williamstown – it’s things like that that appeal to me,” Mr Campbell said.
He said Altona Pier, architecture in Footscray and Yarraville were among a number of iconic and interesting images in the West.
Catherine van Wilgenburg is the convenor of GWCCI’s ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ competition.
She said the idea of a photographic competition to promote the West was “fabulous”.
Ms van Wilgenburg said the project had been 18 months in the making after she heard about the idea from the two photographers until the launch of the competition last month.
She said there would be three categories of entry: professional, a category open to community members and a category for primary and secondary schools.
All entries will be held in an image bank that will be free to all members of the public to use.
“The purpose of the image bank is to give free access of positive, vibrant, fabulous images of the West,” Ms van Wilgenburg said.
“People like Melbourne West Tourism, for example, have acknowledged that there’s a real lack of good images of the West, apart from the West Gate Bridge.”
Twenty of the photographs will be selected and displayed in bus shelters in the eastern suburbs in an effort to “re-image” the West.
The overall winner will receive $5000 and there are a number of other prizes, such as the latest Photoshop software.
Lonely Planet, Fuji and the Western Bulldogs will also provide prizes. GWCCI will be hosting the Dark Room Carnevale Ball as a fund raiser for the competition.
“If people really want to support the West, they should come along to this ball,” Ms van Wilgenburg said.
“It will be fun, there’s a kissing booth, a snake charmer and fortune telling at the ball.
“It will be a wonderful reason for people to support local businesses and artists together.”
Ms van Wilgenburg said the competition has received support from many people in the community, such as Gellibrand MP Nicola Roxon and Michael Iaccarino from the Melbourne West Area Consultative Committee.
The committee is helping GWCCI to apply for funding to run the project through the Federal Government’s Regional Partnerships program.
For further information about the competition visit www.gwcci.com.au or www.truenorthphoto.com
