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GALERIE HUIT ARLES, PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN SALON 2011 Photo Vanja Karas © 2011
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www.photographyopensalon.com
GALERIE HUIT PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN SALON ARLES 2011
EXCEPTIONAL WORK EXHIBITED BY
105 PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM 32 COUNTRIES
IN RESPONSE TO THE THEME
TRANSIENCE*
*CHANGE, THE PROCESS OF CHANGING, PERMANENT STATE
OF TRANSITION, IMPERMANENCE AND THE PASSING OF TIME…
Galerie Huit Photography Open Salon invited photographers from all over the world to submit their response
to this years theme: Transience. The feedback from photographers who entered their images from a total of
52 countries was outstanding and resulted in the most extraordinary collection of ideas, visual concepts and
interpretations and became one of the most praised and talked about exhibitions during Les Rencontres
d’Arles photography festival 2011.
About Galerie Huit Photography Salon
Galerie Huit Photography Open Salon 2011 successfully launched this year its International Photographic
open call to Artists, designed to showcase cutting-edge contemporary and emerging photography from
around the world and to promote new work by talented artists who may be at any stage of their career,
offering them high profile exposure in Europe (France) and South East Asia (Malaysia).
This year showcases a selection of 105 established and up and coming artists from 32 countries, who were
chosen to exhibit at the Galerie Huit Open Salon in Arles, receiving exposure during and alongside the
renowned international Photography Festival ‘Les Rencontres d’Arles’ in Southern France.

About the Founders and Curators
Photography Open Salon was founded and curated by the Artist and
Curator Vanja Karas and Gallerist, Conservationist and Author Julia de
Bierre with an aim to promote talented photographers from all over the
world and offer them international exposure within exceptional and
unusual settings.
JULIA DE BIERRE AND VANJA KARAS
Vanja Karas, Galerie Huit Open Salon Founder, Photographer, Curator and Art Director
(UK/Serbia)
Vanja Karas is a Belgrade-born, London-based artist, curator and Art Director. Vanja curated
the Open Salon Transience installation but also exhibited her series of work Solitary, at the
Galerie Huit as part of the Open Salon. Her series A Solitary Storm on the Danube is her take
on the theme Transience and the passing of time, as the work explores comforts and
discomforts of soliitude as well as how our mood and state of mind interferes with the voluntary and
involuntary basis on which we collect, process and recall our memories. This series is a collection of 24
images which act as frame rates witin one second of a film sequence in a Polaroid format. The installation
creates a narrative of frames, however, not in a consecutive order, but how one would think or remember a
particular sequence and the passing of time.
Vanja graduated from the University of Arts in Belgrade, followed by an MA from the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts and Kings College London. She subsequently studied photography at Central St Martin’s
College of Art and Design and the International College of Photography, New York.
Vanja began her creative career in theatre directing, and from there moved on to work in a range of other
visual arts media including film, video, multimedia, graphic design and print. In 2000 she founded Magenta
Grove London, an award-winning London based design agency.
In recent years her work has been focused mainly on fine art and social documentary photography. Her
photography has taken her from Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Malaysia to Africa and Eastern Europe. She
has exhibited her work from Katmandu to Belgrade and has been commissioned for a number of private and
corporate collections, her most recent commission being for 50 St Mary Axe, (The Gherkin, London).
Vanja is the founder of Galerie Huit Open Salon with Julia de Bierre.
Julia de Bierre - Galerie Huit owner, Writer, Conservationist and Curator (France, UK,
Malaysia)
Born in Malaysia, Julia de Bierre is an Anglo-French writer, heritage conservationist, curator
and art-gallery owner. A graduate of Bristol University (Theatre and French), with a passion for
interiors and antiques, she curated the Chateau de Lucens, one of Switzerland’s most
prestigious Historic Monuments, for over a decade.
She has worked with major European art collectors and auctioneers, and created, within different castle
settings, a series of workshops, focused on fine and decorative arts.
Her bestselling book ‘Restoration Recipes’ (Quadrille) has been translated into more than seven languages,
and ‘Penang: Through Gilded Doors’ (Areca Books, English and French) is now in 2nd edition.
She contributes to leading magazines (World of Interiors, House and Garden, Eyemazing), and is the co
founder of the Galerie Huit Open Salon with Vanja Karas.
Julia divides her time between Arles, Paris and Penang (Malaysia). She brings Galerie Huit Open Salon back
home to Malaysia. She is also the founder of Galerie Huit Penang, which is in the heart of George Town, also
a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Penang, Malaysia.

About Les Rencontres d’Arles photography festival
Founded in 1970 France’s celebrated ‘Les Rencontres d’Arles’ is probably the most important event in
the international photography calendar, attracting prominent collectors, curators, gallerists, publishers and
photographers every year from all over the world. In 2010 festival attendees were estimated at 73,000,
including over 5,000 journalists.
About the Exhibition
Follwing the exhibiton opening on 4 th July, Gallerie Huit hosted an exquisite Vernissage on 8 th July in the
presence of a number of distinguished guests, collectors, curators and artists including the founder of Les
Rencontres d’Arles Lucien Clergue, Chinese contemporary artist Wang Quingson, publisher Dewi Lewis,
Artisitc Director of Forum and Quad Festivals, Lousie Clements, UK and many others. Many of the exhibiting
photographers were also present, coming from as far afield as Venezuela, Brazil, USA, Australia, Italy,
Slovenia, UK and France. The exhibiton in Arles ran from 4 th July until 18 th September 2011.
The installation will then travel from Arles to Southeast Asia to be exhibited in Galerie Huit’s Malaysian gallery
space - Galerie Huit Penang in January 2012. Both Arles and George Town, Penang are UNESCO World
Heritage Sites. It is intended that Galerie Huit Open Salon future exhibitions will travel to other destinations
with equivalent world heritage status.
GALERIE HUIT ARLES, PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN SALON VERNISSAGE 8TH
JULY 2011 Photo Vanja Karas © 2011
About the Judging Panel
Outstanding professionals from the world of photography and curating composed this years multi-national
panel: award-winning Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin (former President of Magnum, UK), Tim Cole
(Head of Photography Saatchi and Saatchi Design, UK), Dinesh Khanna (Fine Art and Commercial
Photographer, India), Richard Hsu (Creative Director h+5, Curator Shanghai TEDx, China), Vanja Karas
(Photographer, Curator and Art Director, Galerie Huit Open Salon founder UK/Serbia), Julia de Bierre (owner
Galerie Huit, Curator and Conservationist France/Malaysia).
Prizes and Awards offered by the Galerie Huit Photography Open Salon
o Opportunity to exhibit in the exceptional and prestigeous space in Galerie Huit Arles and receive
exposure for 10 weeks during one of the oldest and biggest international festivals.
o Artists have the option to have their selected images printed by the Open Salon to save them the
cost of printing and shipping.
o Artists receive additional exposure by having their work exhibited in Malaysia in January 2012.
o The overall Winner of the competition is offered a one month residency 2011/2012 with Galerie Huit
Arles
o Winning images and photographers are featured in a book catalogue
o The work is offered for sale and artists receive 50% of the sale proceeds.

About Galerie Huit Arles
Galerie Huit Arles is situated in a late 17 th century mansion, in the historical centre of town. Founded by
author/conservationist Julia de Bierre in 2007, the gallery has acquired a solid reputation for its careful
selection of artists – both established and emerging – and the quality and originality of its hangings and
installations. The scale of the mansion provides rich and varied exhibition spaces, ranging from an intimate
18 th century salon with gilded panelling to an ancient cellar.
GALERIE HUIT ARLES, PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN SALON Photo Vanja Karas © 2011
GALERIE HUIT ARLES, PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN SALON 2011 VANJA KARAS, GREAME WEBB AND JIM NAUGHTEN Photo Vanja Karas © 2011

GALERIE HUIT ARLES PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN SALLON 2011, INSTALLATION VEE SPEERS Photo Vanja Karas © 2011
GALERIE HUIT ARLES, MEDIEVAL CELLAR STEFEN CHOW POVERTY LINE INSTALLATION Photo Vanja Karas © 2011
GALERIE HUIT ARLES, MEDIEVAL CELLAR INSTALLATION Photo Vanja Karas © 2011

About Galerie Huit Penang
Galerie Huit Penang, the Malaysian little sister of Galerie Huit Arles, is situated in a traditional shophouse, in
the historic centre of George Town, on the island of Penang. Listed as an Unesco World Heritage site since
2008, the multi-cultural city of George Town is now recognised as a Southeast Asian urban treasure.
Galerie Huit Penang showcases both local and international artists in an informal setting. It is situated in
Muntri Street, once the domain of wealthy Chinese spice and other merchants. The Muntri Street area is fast
regaining another lease of life, with a lively art scene, cafes and boutique hotels attracting new energy back
to the inner city.
GALERIE HUIT PENANG, MUNTRI STREET
About the theme and the responses to the theme: Transience
The theme Transience invited work that evoked and relayed references that relate to change and the
process of changing and our relationship to a permanent state of transition, impermanence and the passing
of time.
The notion of Transience encouraged the exploration of any number of observations, concepts, emotions,
experiences and beliefs. So it is not surprising that the interpretations, response and genres relating to the
theme were so versatile, creative and thought provoking and covered a range of subject matters ranging
from personal, historical, environmental, cultural, global, political, social, geographical, fictional or seasonal.
Finslists images can be clicked through from: http://www.photographyopensalon.com/?page_id=43
Artists participated from the following 32 countries
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA, Venezuela.
105 Exhibiting Artists
Claudio Allia, Italy - Ian Atkinson, UK - Alexander Awramenko, UK - Richard Baldwin, Australia - Thomas Ball,
UK - Lyn Balzer & Tony Perkins, Australia - Jesse Morgan Barnett, USA - Peter Bennett, UK - Carlo
Bevilacqua, Italy - Michael Blann, UK - Dmitry Bobrov, Russia - Brittain Bright, UK - Camilla Broadbent, UK -
Andrew Bruce, UK - Sean Bulson, UK - Adrian Burke, UK - Anthony Carr, UK - Patricia Casey, Australia -
Stefen Chow, Malaysia & HY Lin, Singapore - Lucinda Chua, UK - Elizabeth M. Claffey, USA - David Clark,
UK - Manuel Cosentino, Italy - Neil Craver, USA - Rebecca Dagnall, Australia - Lottie Davies, UK - Glenn
Dearing, UK - Tamas Dezso, Hungary - Marco Di Lauro, Italy - Caroline Douglas, UK -William Eckersley, UK -
Tim Edgar, UK - Odette England, USA - Juan Guillermo Escobar, Spain - Colectivo Estetica Unisex, Mexico /
Colombia - Virgilio Ferreira, Portugal - Susan Friedman, USA - Ana Galan, Spain - Robin Gardiner, UK -
Candace Plummer Gaudiani, USA - Michelle Given, USA - Richard Glover, Australia - Lydia Goldblatt, UK -
Maria Gruzdeva, Russia - Catlin Harrison, UK - Oliver Haupt, Spain - Teri Havens, USA - Steve Hoskins, UK -
Nicholas Hughes, UK - Florence Iff, Switzerland - Joe Johnson, USA - Valerie Jolly, France - Ed Kashi, USA
- Jens Knigge, Germany - Linda Kosciewicz-Fleming, UK - Arnoldas Kubilius, Lithuania - Kyunghee Lee,
Korea - Alex Leme, Brazil - Wang Lin, China - Miranda Lopatkin, UK - Judith Lyons, UK - Jonathan May,
Australia - Laura Medler, UK - Jo Metson Scott & Nicola Yeoman, UK - Diane Meyer, USA - Michael
Meyersfeld, South Africa - Bressan Michele, Romania - Karenann Miranda-Rivadeneira, USA/Ecuador - Jose
Ramon Moreno, Spain - Lorena Morin, Spain - Geir Moseid, Norway - Yulia Mouraviova, Germany - Greer
Muldowney, USA - Mehrdad Naraghi, Iran - Jim Naughten, UK - Milo Newman, UK - Rikard Osterlund, UK -
Kate Peters, UK - Kyle Petersen, USA - Sever Petrovici-Popescu, Romania - Anno Pieterse, Netherlands -
Bojan Radovic, Slovenia - Jean-François, Raffalli France - Rebecca Reeve, USA - Nick Rochowski UK -

Carole Romaya, UK - Bojan Salaj, Slovenia - John Spiller, UK - Thomas Stanworth, UK - Magnus Stark, USA
- Jeffrey Stockbridge, USA - Carole Suety, France - John Sunderland, Ireland - Dominik Tarabanski, Poland -
Sabine Thoele, Germany - Prince Thomas, USA - Kurt Tong, UK - Tahir Un, Turkey - Martin Usborne, UK -
Rihards Vitols, Latvia - Manuel Villanueva, Germany / Venezuela - Vincent Goutal & Olivia Leriche, France -
Alec Von Bargen, Mexico – Mirjana, Vrbaski Serbia / Canada - Graeme Webb, UK - Alexandra Wolkowicz,
Gemany / Poland - Jon Wyatt, UK
About the 2011 winners of Galerie Huit Photography Open Salon
and the winning concept on the theme Transience
The winners of the 2011 Galerie Huit Photography Open Salon are Stefen Chow, Malaysia and HY Lin,
Singapore. They won with their concept The Poverty Line and the case study for China. As winners, they
have been awarded a one month artist in residence with the Galerie Huit in Arles where they will further
explore the concept of The Poverty Line and extend the case study to France.
Their study observes and records in a very accurate and pragmatic way the changes in the growing Chinese
economy in recent years and the numerous dramatic adjustments of the Chinese standard of living and its
poverty line. Other case studies in the same series cover Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Nepal.
Malaysia and France to follow.
POVERTY LINE BY STEFEN CHOW AND HY LIN WINNERS OF GALERIE HUIT PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN SALON 2011
Artist Statement
The Poverty Line.
This body of work explores a simple question. What does it mean to be poor?
This is not an emotional analysis of what it means to be poor. It is an examination of the choices one would
face being poor. This is an ongoing project, with the first series covering China. The project has since been
expanded to Nepal, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand. The plan is to cover countries in other continents in
coming months.
The visual representation uses a per-person, per-day rate of a national poverty line, to have a portrayal of
items found in that country that could be bought with that amount. The items are placed against local
newspapers bought on the day’s shoot.
Countries maintain their own definitions to monitor socio-economic conditions and formulate poverty
alleviation policies.
In coming up with the poverty line, developing countries largely use an absolute standard based on
consumption amount, while developed countries use a relative income or expenditure standard.
This is not to compare different countries’ poverty, but rather to have a starting point to understand poverty
within a country’s context.
Everything else is left up to interpretation.

Case Study: China
China’s national poverty line, converted into a per capita per-day basis is CNY 3.28, or USD 0.49 or EUR
0.37. This is based on China’s national poverty line of CNY 1,196 per capita annual income; standard and
exchange rates were taken as of December 2010, when the photography was undertaken.
China has seen an unprecedented number of people within a country who have moved across the official
poverty line over the past 30 years. There were 26.88 million rural poor in 2010. 85% of the poor in China are
from rural areas, and the national poverty line is largely used to monitor rural poverty, though it also affects
the large number of migrant workers in urban areas, and thus has wide-spanning influence across the
country.
China’s standard is an absolute poverty line, using income and consumption aspects with food and nonfood
expenditures. Since the earliest line of CNY 100 in 1978, China’s poverty line has been adjusted over
20 times, mostly due to inflation adjustments. For food expenditure, a basket of foods which could achieve
2,100 calories per day is used, with proportions spread amongst various locally consumed grains,
vegetables, meat, rice/noodles etc. For the CNY 1,196 standard, a pre-determined Engel’s coefficient (ratio
of food expenditure to total expenditures) of 0.6 was used. Poverty line and poverty rate calculations are
done by the National Bureau of Statistics, which conducts the National Rural Household Income Survey and
the National Poverty Monitoring Survey annually.
About the Winning Artists
Stefen Chow - Born in Malaysia, a self taught photographer, Stefen has been awarded by PDN, International
Photo Awards, PX3 while his works have been exhibited in cities including Los Angeles, Paris, Milan, Beijing
and Singapore. Stefen has lived in New York City, different parts of Asia and currently shuttles between
Singapore and Beijing for work. Stefen is considered the 7th Malaysian to ever summit Mount Everest.
HY Lin - is an economist by training and is in the profession of market research. She has a background in
economic policy and has experience in public policy making in the Singapore government. She holds an
MBA from the MIT-Tsinghua University International MBA Program. Currently based in Beijing, HY seeks
solutions that make social, environmental and commercial sense.

More information on
http://www.photographyopensalon.com
Contact:
London, UK
Vanja Karas
Founder, Galerie Huit Open Salon
Tel: +44 793 27 28 112
Email: contact@photographyopensalon.com
http://www.photographyopensalon.com
Arles, France
Julia de Bierre
Owner Galerie Huit Arles and Galerie Huit Penang
Tel : +33 (0) 682 043 960!
Email: contact@galeriehuit.com
http://www.galeriehuit.com
GALERIE HUIT ARLES LOCATION Photo Vanja Karas © 2011
Gallery Address:
Galerie Huit Arles (Please use this address for correspondence)
8, rue de la Calade! !
13200 Arles
France ! !
Galerie Huit Penang!
Muntri Street
10200 Penang
Malaysia