In Focus Festival artists and artworks

Acclaimed Ethiopian born, South Sudanese artist and writer Atong Atem’s layered portraits explore the role photographers take as story tellers; interrogating the relationship between public and private spaces and investigating themes of home and identity. 

Atem’s work has featured in international and national exhibitions including at the Tate Modern, London, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, and in Africa Fashion at the National Gallery of Victoria in partnership with Victoria and Albert Museum, London.   

Born in Ethiopia and now living in Melbourne’s West, Daniel Temesgen creates portraits that are intimate, luminous, and grounded in community. His subjects appear in transitional spaces such as cars and shorelines: ordinary yet cinematic, capturing moments of movement, change and self-possession. Focusing on friends and peers, his work explores layered identities and cultural richness through a personal lens.  

Temesgen has collaborated with leading brands including Celine, Rimowa, YSL and Nike, creating imagery and videos that resonate with audiences globally.  

Contemporary photo-media artist Jody Haines (palawa) works at the intersection of memory, body, and Country. Rooted in Indigenous feminist K/new/Known materialism, her work explores themes of identity, representation and the female gaze.  

Installed in the glass windows entrance of the Civic Precinct and Community Hub are seven digital prints lifted from a multi-channel projection and sound installation work, Against the Wind.  Filmed on tommeginne Country (lutruwita) and Kulin Country, Haines collaborated with two contemporary Indigenous dancers, Zoë Brown-Holten and Amelia O'Leary, and her own body, to explore connection to dance, Country, memory, light and sound.   

Capturing both the familiar and the extraordinary, Nicole Reed’s work has led her from remote communities in Australia to Pyongyang, North Korea. In Scenes from the People’s Paradise, these intriguing images ask you to take a closer look at a place that is virtually impossible to accurately capture due to restrictions.  

Reed’s photographic practice spans editorial, documentary, architecture and portraiture, collaborating with well-known publications, sporting teams, comedians, and innovative artists and designers. 

London-based, internationally acclaimed artist Simon Terrill works across photography, sculpture, video, installation and large-scale public works, exploring the idea of the crowd as a tool to examine community and self-performance. 

Capturing the patterns, blurs and configurations of mass movement, Terrill looks to the crowd as a model of collectivity and transformation. Since graduating from the Slade School in London, his work has featured in museums and public galleries both nationally and internationally.  

Vietnamese Australian artist Spencer Nguyen creates integral connections with local inhabitants to poignantly capture their daily routines and links to their environment. Selected from Nguyen’s most recent artist books, these portraits of community ambassadors explore narratives of self-identity and fragmented memories.  

With a Bachelor of Arts in Photography, Nguyen’s work has been exhibited at Centre for Contemporary Photography in 2022 and 2020.  

Offering thought-provoking perspectives through photography, Wenmiao Xin explores themes of gender, identity and sexuality, challenging societal norms and celebrating diversity. Influenced by her upbringing in China and experiences in Western cultures, Xin creates images inspired by her background and identity as a lesbian, feminist, and woman of colour.  

While some photographers use the camera to record their environments, others adopt it as a tool for creation. Examining the parallels, differences and connections between constructed and documentary photography and exploring artists’ intentions and processes, Maribyrnong City Council’s current exhibition at the Civic Precinct and Community Hub, The Art of Observation, considers not just what we see but how we see. 

The exhibition features work by Suzie Blake, Wilfred Disney Chapman, Jody Haines, Grant Hobson, Karenne Ann, Anna Kiparis, Viv Méhes, Kip Scott, Gayle Slater, Simon Terrill, Pierre Vairo, James Voller, Sarah Watt and Ammar Yonis alongside documentary images by unidentified early twentieth century photographers. 

Browse the catalogue and plan your visit here.