{"id":947307,"date":"2026-10-31T06:58:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T06:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947307\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T06:58:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T06:58:28","slug":"from-the-grimly-real-to-the-surreal-images-from-the-head-on-photo-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947307\/","title":{"rendered":"From the grimly real to the surreal: images from the Head On Photo festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"article-intro\" class=\"sc-ad76bc40-2 cNTQrm\">Striking images from Australia\u2019s largest celebration of photography capture our world right now.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"article-datetime\" class=\"sc-5cbbddda-5 hxoHkT\">October 31, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n<p>Save<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-d1b14060-4 JmUoF\">You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n<p>Remove items from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/goodfood\/saved\" class=\"sc-3f16ee48-12 sc-d1b14060-2 jyLmZI iQLtAb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<p id=\"gift-modal-heading\" class=\"sc-cc1ff359-7 cTuVzZ\">No gift articles left<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-cc1ff359-8 ctIrFC\">You&#8217;ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n<p>Close<\/p>\n<p>AAA<\/p>\n<p>This story is part of the October 31 digital edition of Good Weekend. <a class=\"sc-cba76dee-0 hdiTqm sc-f0ba6a13-2 kvkCaS\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/national\/the-october-31-edition-20261031-p619gp.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See all stories.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Great photojournalism frequently offers a harrowing glimpse into the calamitous issues affecting our world \u2013 climate change, war, human rights, social injustice \u2013 but it can also bring quirkiness and humour. Good Weekend photo editor Tegan Sadlier, who was on the selection panel for this year\u2019s Head On Photo Festival, has curated her top five entries from the event\u2019s featured exhibitions, showing during November.<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/headon.org.au\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">festival<\/a> highlights the work of emerging and established local and overseas photographers in 40 featured exhibitions in Sydney, while the <a class=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/headon.org.au\/2026-open-program\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Open Program<\/a> involves artist-run shows in Victoria and around the country.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"In his exhibition, \u201cA country underwater: Philippine corruption and climate change\u201d, Michael Varcas documents communities struggling to recover from typhoons: the country faces about 20 every year, with climate change exacerbating their intensity.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9c7ff743226ea2cea013361dc82e62a4e690a5d1.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>In his exhibition, \u201cA country underwater: Philippine corruption and climate change\u201d, Michael Varcas documents communities struggling to recover from typhoons: the country faces about 20 every year, with climate change exacerbating their intensity.Michael Varcas<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The injustice faced by asylum seekers being deported from New York by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement moves a security guard to tears in Carol Guzy\u2019s exhibition \u201cICE \u2013 Broken Families\u201d.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/9c080d52cea973a66f64a83f54cff7e85a0607e8.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>The injustice faced by asylum seekers being deported from New York by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement moves a security guard to tears in Carol Guzy\u2019s exhibition \u201cICE \u2013 Broken Families\u201d.Carol Guzy<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\u201cMy People in Gaza\u201d, by Palestinian photojournalist Abdelrahman Alkahlout, is a visual testimony of the impact of the war on civilians.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/370714c523a4d612807a253bf910228f4ad75e69.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>\u201cMy People in Gaza\u201d, by Palestinian photojournalist Abdelrahman Alkahlout, is a visual testimony of the impact of the war on civilians.Abdelrahman Alkahlout<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Trent Mitchell captures a surreal version of suburbia in his exhibition \u201cAustralian Lustre\u201d.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/7891757934efd3aeaa653069ba5d481e6f45f6d5.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>Trent Mitchell captures a surreal version of suburbia in his exhibition \u201cAustralian Lustre\u201d.Trent Mitchell<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Anna Dev\u00eds and Daniel Rueda, from Spain, add a touch of whimsy with their series \u201cWhat the Hat!?\u201d\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6ff2d6faa4576d947f826bf4e9c52c589e3c3c3c.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 bNAuyX\"\/>Anna Dev\u00eds and Daniel Rueda, from Spain, add a touch of whimsy with their series \u201cWhat the Hat!?\u201dAnna Dev\u00eds &amp; Daniel Rueda<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"inline-link\" href=\"http:\/\/headon.org.au\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Head On Photo Festival<\/a> is at various locations across Sydney from November 6-29. <\/p>\n<p>Read more from Good Weekend magazine:<\/p>\n<p>Save<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-d1b14060-4 JmUoF\">You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n<p>Remove items from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/goodfood\/saved\" class=\"sc-3f16ee48-12 sc-d1b14060-2 jyLmZI iQLtAb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<p id=\"gift-modal-heading\" class=\"sc-cc1ff359-7 cTuVzZ\">No gift articles left<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-cc1ff359-8 ctIrFC\">You&#8217;ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n<p>CloseFrom our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Striking images from Australia\u2019s largest celebration of photography capture our world right now. October 31, 2026 \u2014 5:00am&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-947307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}