PHOTO MASTERCLASS – FUNGI IN FOCUS

The Murray region is home to a diversity of interesting fungi.

With their peculiar forms and amazing colours, fungi make intriguing photographic subjects.

In this introductory workshop, you will learn the basics of how photograph fungi in different contexts to capture both their scientific and aesthetic nature. We will focus on the particular challenges of macro-photography such as high contrast, low light and colour management, addressing both technical aspects of exposure and creative aspects of composition.

Following an indoor highly interactive session, we will then head to the field to search for fungi and practice photographic techniques.

The workshop is open to middle level to advanced photographers. No knowledge of fungi is necessary.

This masterclass is limited to 8 participants.

For further workshops please click here.

THURSDAY 18 APRIL 2024

10pm–4pm

COST: $185. Includes lunch, refreshments and field guide

ALBURY, VIC

FULLY BOOKED

Visual Narratives – Finding Words Through Images

As forms of artistic expression, photography and poetry share much in common. Both are the outcome of intense honing, of distillation – the art of reduction. Both can convey a point of view or story that goes beyond mere description. Photographers often borrow literary devices such as irony, but writers also have much to glean from photographs. This workshop explores the crossovers and co-habitations of words and images and how they might enhance and inspire one another.

Through an interactive critique and discussion of both participants’ images and those of some well-known ironists, we will explore how irony and other visual-literary devices can raise important questions – rather than necessarily provide answers – about the state of the world.

The workshop is suitable to anyone interested in the interplay of aesthetics, images and words regardless of photographic knowledge.

This workshop is part of the Writers at the Woolshed Literature Festival.

For further events please click here.

DATE: SUNDAY 21 APRIL 2024

TIME: 10:00am – 3pm

VENUE: Cottontail Winery, 562 Pattersons Road, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650

COST: $75 & $80

BOOKINGS

Seminar: To foray or to forage?

Every mushroomer knows the danger of not being able to differentiate an edible mushroom from toxic lookalike species. In Switzerland, the Pilzkontrolleure, or mushroom inspectors have been saving lives for over a century by plucking poisonous mushrooms from people’s baskets and sending them home with the edible fare. Although only a little more than half the size of Tasmania, Switzerland has 409 mushroom inspection offices staffed by 1500 inspectors.

Furthermore, a publicly accessible online atlas of fungus distribution (including 937 endangered species) helps foragers find their target mushrooms. The Swiss are well versed in fungi and foraging and this has also stimulated mycological research and resources.

Australia has taken a very different approach to protecting biodiversity including fungi, with all biodiversity being protected at all three levels of government. Hence mushroom foraging on public land is illegal. But are foraying and foraging necessarily mutually exclusive? Could carefully managed foraging be a stimulus for conservation and research? In Australia, conservation initiatives have included other unlikely bedfellows including the military and mining.

Over the last 23 years Alison has divided her time between hemispheres working both with fungi and their fans. In this talk, Alison will explore the tensions between foraging and conservation and the different approaches of various nations to both protect species and keep mushroom hunters happy.

For further events please click here.

FRIDAY 26 APRIL 2024

EVENING SEMINAR 6:30pm – 7:30pm

FREE TO ATTEND – ALL WELCOME

WILDBARK: 25 Rosenberg Street, Throsby ACT 2914

BOOKINGS

SEMINAR HEY MUSHROOM, WHERE’S YOUR ID?

In keeping with the theme of this year’s festival—identity—what does it mean to give a mushroom a name?

Recognising one mushroom as different from another, and naming it, imbues it with meaning. Being able to identify a fungus is essential if you’re planning on putting it in your mouth. Part of knowing is the act of naming. It’s the foundation of taxonomic mycology that helps us make sense of the hundreds of thousands of fungi out there.

But does defining a mushroom only by its identity risk underestimating its interrelations and so much more? Has the zeal to name and categorise distracted us from understanding mycelial fungi as living systems? In a time of mass surveillance, perhaps some mushrooms are happy to remain unknown and anonymous.

In this interactive and provocative talk, ecologist, photographer and author Alison Pouliot will explore different approaches to knowing fungi from her forest forays, interacting with mycologists and mycophiles around the world.

Alison’s most recent book, Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms was published in 2023 with the University of Chicago Press.

Further events can be viewed at this link.

FRIDAY 16 AUGUST 2024

TELLURIDE MUSHROOM FESTIVAL, USA

VENUE: Palm Theatre, 721 W Colorado Ave, Telluride, CO 81435

TIME: 7:00pm – 8:00pm MDT

Free to attend with festival pass.