Photo 2021: What to see at the International Festival of Photography

Where: Michaels billboard, corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale streets, Melbourne.

Silin Liu has the honour of being both an artist and a time traveller. Liu has seamlessly inserted herself into some of the most recognisable and historic moments in history, which are being displayed on the rotating billboard above (the recently closed) Michaels camera store. "We're showing her standing next to Frida Kahlo on one side, and then standing next to Andy Warhol in Tiananmen Square [on the other side]," says Redstone. "The artist places herself in historical moments, inviting you to question what is true." Each image takes around a week to digitally insert Liu and the end result really does make the viewer question if they could pick a real image from a doctored one.

Where: On the Metro Tunnel construction hoarding across Melbourne. 

If you're the CBD anytime during Photo 2021, it'll be hard to miss the Metro Tunnel Creative Program. After all, it comprises more than 500 metres of art. The Metro Tunnel hoarding (the fencing around the construction sites) will become a huge outdoor canvas for the festival, featuring the works of 16 artists like Maree Clarke, Kenta Cobayashi, Jesse Boyd-Reid, Ann Shelton, Felicity Hammond and Emmanuelle Andrianjafy. Redstone's pick of the tunnel works is local artist Lillian O'Neil, who's created collages from vintage magazines. "You see it from a distance, but then when you get close, it reveals all these other more intimate details," says Redstone.

Where: Argyle Square, Carlton.

Imagine how many times a day your face is picked up on CCTV. Now imagine that CCTV is also enabled with facial recognition tech and your face is used to construct a profile of local citizens. That's roughly the premise of Broomberg and Chanarin's Spirit is a bone, which gives us a glimpse of what portraits might look like if created, without our consent, by machines. The result is a series of "quite haunting" portraits created from multiple people categorised by their professions. "It's kind of challenging who has the control over our images," says Redstone.

Where: 225 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

Buckle up and prepare to question your very existence in The Merge – a Photo 2021 commission by Copenhagen collective Sara, Peter and Tobias. For The Merge, the trio trawled the globe to document how close we as humans have come to creating a perfect simulation; and in doing so have also started questioning if we ourselves are actually living in a simulation. "It's kind of the Matrix approach, but using simulation theory that's been explored around the world," says Redstone. "They've gone to different tech and robotic companies and photographed these kind of slippages between the real and the digital that exists in everyday lives."

Where: Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.

The focus of Simon Fujiwara's short film Joanne is his former secondary school teacher, Joanne Salley, who in addition to teaching was a champion boxer, artist and beauty pageant winner. She was also the target of a British tabloid scandal after students circulated privately taken topless photographs of her, forcing her to resign. Subsequently, Salley and Fujiwara embark on a journey to rebuild her image. "It's looking at the power of photography and the truth and meaning of how we're presenting ourselves and our self-identity through photography today," says Redstone. 

Where: Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.

Natural beauty meets manufactured beauty in Garden Variety; a site-specific exhibition that uses the splendour of the Royal Botanic Gardens. All six artists involved with the project have responded to the gardens in their work, while also questioning the idea of the space (and all gardens) being utopian and politically neutral. Think about it this way: yes, these gardens are free, beautiful and largely accessible to all – but they also only exist due to colonisation. Wander through the gardens, ponder at the artworks, and consider the space through a new lens. 

Where: Argyle Square, Carlton. 

Zanele Muholi considers themself a visual activist; photography is the means for them to assert the rights of, and to give powerful representation to Black queer communities. The South African artist-activist presents two series for Photo 2021, 'Somnyama Ngonyama' (stark yet playful self-portraits using ordinary objects as props) and 'Face and Phases' (a portrait series capturing queer women from South Africa, in a response to the discrimination they face). You can see both series as part of works being presented at Argyle Square. 

Where: Online.

Historically, the stories and knowledge of First Nations people have been overlooked, ignored and manipulated. In Affirmation, those stories are put front and centre as Victorian First Nations artists reclaim the lens of history and how they are presented. The online exhibition brings together work from artists like Paola Balla (Wemba Wemba, Gunditjmara), Deanne Gilson (Wadawurrung), Tashara Roberts (Dja Dja Wurrung, Yorta Yorta,) and Pierra Van Sparkes (Pibbulman) with works that hope to make audiences reflect on truth telling (and what may have been left out or changed in the process).

Where: Seventh Gallery, Richmond. 

Be the first to discover some of the most exciting early-career photographers. "This is our showcase of new talent from the best artists coming out of Melbourne's leading art schools," says Redstone. Established artists and art educators from around Australia put forward a list of nominees for the exhibition, five of which (Kat Wilkie, Sam Forsyth-Gray, Sarah Ujmaia, Sorcha Wilcox and Bec Martin) were selected by Photo 2021 and Richmond's Seventh Gallery to take part in the exhibition. Expect works that explore different ways of telling stories through photography. 

Where: The Substation, Newport. 

There's a definite thread of cinematic scale and splendour in the work of Amos Gebhardt; unsurprising given the artist's dual background in photography and film (Gebhardt has previously worked on films like Snowtown). And their latest exhibition, Spooky Action (at a distance), is no different, with its lush portrayal of queerness, identity, resistance and entanglement. Spooky Action brings together Gebhardt's photography and large-scale moving image installations, including 'Evanescence' – a whopping 20 metre-long video installation where 40 performers merge with different materials from the earth.