Paris ‘97

Paris '97 from Stephen Dupont on Vimeo.

From the Archive - Paris '97 Stephen Dupont"

Grappling with Stephen's extensive archive over this year and a bit, gave us the idea to dig into the vault and highlight some of the work that he has done in the past years; work that is not currently featured on his site and that has been hidden away for some time.

The first collection of photos we've extracted and selected are from the Parisian runways in '97.
Steve at the time was commissioned by 'Le Monde' newspaper in Paris to document the collections everyday for the paper; given by them unlimited access to cover the shows in his own style of Reportage.
What surfaced from this shows elements of a Lisette Model or Dorothy Arbus world... freaks... Model androids, fashionistas at their best... the weird eccentricities and superficialities of the fashion world come to show in Dupont's shots.

Steve mentioned it was one of the most stressful assignments he'd ever done at the time...
"The experience was quite unpleasant at times, facing the daily grind dealing with arseholes basically, so much pretension and egos flying around. At the same time I was challenged and loved the moments constantly gracing my viewfinder... It was a total freak show actually... I was possessed as well by the unbelievable sexuality and beauty everywhere, the supermodels who are like beautiful and flawless androids. The weeks I spent shooting were crazy, working days and nights and parties, lots and lots of parties..."

Paris '97 by Stephen Dupont

Multimedia slide by Anna Maria Antoinette D'Addario

Dogs of Bucharest

Dogs of Bucharest from Stephen Dupont on Vimeo.

In 2001 I traveled to Bucharest, Romania to document the stray dogs, around 300,000 that inhabited the city. Of pressing concern was the decision by the recently appointed mayor at the time, Traian Basescu, to allocate 17.5 million dollars for the round up and extermination of the animals.
Furious animal rights groups, spearheaded by former French actress Brigitte Bardot, in turn, declared war on the mayor. Bardot flew to Bucharest, where the two in a public rapprochement signed an agreement to temporarily hold off on the killing....

In the meantime teams of city dogcatchers began roving the city with mobile sterilization vans, and removing the dogs to the city’s four major detention centres. Members of ‘Vier Pfton’, an animal rights group based out of Vienna, worked against the clock to find owners for the strays. A chemical compound to be used for lethal injections had already arrived in the country.

In 2012 Bucharest still has its stray dog population but numbers have dramatically reduced...

Multimedia slide created by

Anna Maria Antoinette D'Addario 2012

Music

"Lume, Lume, Soro Lume" - Nabila

"Doina" - Slava Kazykin Ensemble

"Superata Sint Pe Lume" - Gabi Lunca

The Rituals of Death - 2012

This essay looks inside the traditional Nepalese Hindu rituals and cycle of death at Kathmandu's Holiest shrine for cremation, Pasupatinath. From the hospital located right alongside the ghats where patients come to die, the washing and blessing rituals for the dead, hair cutting ceremonies and the cremation of the bodies. Pasupati is the second holiest place for Hindu's to be cremated outside of Varanasi in India. The mourning and burning rituals take place on the ghats lining the Bagmati River that eventually leads into the Ganges River. The cremations are open to the public and as bodies  are cremated there are other Hindu practices taking place throughout the temple complex, with bathings, pujas and pilgrimages. There is an atmosphere of humanity clashing with ancient traditions and the environment. Animals roam freely among the people and wood is still used for the body cremations causing plumes of toxic smoke to constantly hover around the temples and its surroundings. Due to environmental damages caused by the fires the Nepalese Government is planning to ban the ancient practice of using wood this year and replace the cremation ghats with electric ovens instead.

Sydney Festival 2009

An exclusive artist-in-residence behind the scenes look inside the 2009 Sydney Festival, curated by Fergus Linehan. This film made by Stephen Dupont features Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grace Jones, Bon Iver and more.

Afghanistan: The Perils of Freedom 1993 - 2009

Afghanistan: The Perils of Freedom 1993 - 2009 from Stephen Dupont on Vimeo.

A film by Stephen Dupont. This is an installation of my exhibition Afghanistan: The Perils of Freedom 1993 - 2009 which was held at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, Australia in October 2010. The exhibition is currently touring around Australia and it is available for bookings here and internationally.