You’ve probably come across the work of German-born Julia Schauenberg somewhere over the past few years. Outside of being the resident photographer for Frankie, she's had her work featured in various papers, print ads and right now she’s got a portrait in the HeadOn exhibition at the Australian Centre for Photography. At the end of last year, Julia and her partner Ben Grace took over BlackAndBlue Gallery for a month, to exhibit the work from their book Good Old World, which documented a year of global travel where they met up with some grandmamas and papas, listened to their stories, and then felt obliged to bring them home. Ben through words, Julia through photos.

I loved looking through Good Old World. What was the idea? What did you learn?
Thank you. It came from the realisation that there are all these people out there that have lived amazing long lives, while at the same time here we are trying to find ourselves and make decisions about our own destinies. We felt we had to bring back some wisdom. We took off, quite spontaneously, travelled the world for ten months and met the most amazing people. We learned so many things. If you find a course that is greater than yourself, you will live a happier life. Another one is, there is only so much vodka one can drink.

Has looking through a lens for so long changed the way you see things?
Starting with a thought process that ends in one frame is usually an interesting journey, which puts everything in perspective… I don’t think it’s changed the way I see things, it’s just defined it a little.

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Julia travelled from Germany to Sydney eight years ago, fell in love with the city, and stayed put. She graduated from COFA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and followed it up with a Master of Arts, which won her the Kodak Photography Student of the Year award in 2003. She’s been freelancing since then, and cites her favvy photographers as Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Martin Parrs and William Eggleston. And outside of them, she’s inspired by nature but moreso by human behaviour.

You did a series on redheads where you put them in white T-shirts in front of a red brick wall. If I was giving advice to someone who wanted to hide their ginger hues, I would tell them not to wear white T-shirts or stand in front of red brick walls. They all look kind of sad, angry, and a little bit defeated... Mean?
The idea was that if you are born as a redhead in Australia, because of the harsh sunlight, you’re pretty much an outsider from birth. There are also all those clichés about redheads, and the nicknames, all of which has an effect on who you are. Photographing them in a mugshot way, as if it was an ID photograph or their passport, accentuated the idea that you can know people by looking at them. That’s why they are looking straight at the camera. And the red brick wall? Well that’s just so Australian. It worked very well together.

Have you ever made any difficult or political decisions in your work?
Not so far… I’m sure I’ll have to at some point. Luckily I’ve not been asked to do anything I feel morally opposed to. If an advertising job for cigarettes or something evil is paying a fortune, I don’t care, I’m not interested. When I joined my agency I told them that I wouldn’t sell my soul and they’re cool with that - I think we’re all responsible for the world we live in.

So what’s next?
I’m working on my next personal project which I can’t reveal too much about as yet, but it’s something I’ve been interested in for a long time that's starting to take shape. Until then, you can see one of my portraits at the ACP, or you can buy my book at www.goodoldworld.com – which would be great, because they’re taking up my kitchen space.

“Some people are just unlucky. We think it’s really important that these people be given better opportunities than they have. So, if you’re luckier than they are, there’s always something you can do to help.” And thus begins the philosophical underpinnings of the Yellow Bird Project Manifesto. Yellow Bird Project was begun by Montrealers Casey Cohen and Matthew Stotland in 2006, out of a mutual passion for music mixed with what Casey calls a mutual desire to “do something truly meaningful.” It’s an inspired idea. Casey and Matt contact their favourite musicians, ask them to design a T-shirt, get them to pick a charity, and then sell the resulting band T on their website to said band’s loyal and devoted fanbase.

Not only is it for a good cause, but you end up with a personal band t-shirt unlike any you can pick up at merch stores – and they’re comparably cheap at only US$25. Plus, the guys have taste - artists like the Shins, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Devendra Banhart, the National, and our very own Holly Throsby and Wolfmother have all tried their musical hands at design. Broken Social Scene were added to the roster just last week. “We know that there are so many people out there who love the same kind of music we do, and so we thought that this would be a challenging way to bring people together, by harnessing artists’ creativity and channeling people’s generosity.” With no industry contacts, and no experience doing anything like this, it would have been an outrageously difficult thing to get started – but in the project’s first two months, they estimate they raised as much as US$10 000.

I asked if the ‘Yellow Bird’ came from an image continually evoked by Conor Oberst, AKA Bright Eyes? “Right on the money… Since this project was inspired by the music we listen to, it was fitting to have a name which was derived from one of our favourite songwriters. Also, we really liked the image of the Yellow Bird. It can be interpreted in so many different ways. Typically in music and literature, a brd represents freedom. In our case, it could be freedom from disease, abuse, torture, addiction, pollution…” The charities selected range from international organizations like Greenpeace and Amnesty, to far more specialist ones clearly personal to the artist – like Lake Ontario Water Keeper, Acoustic Neuroma Association, and the Elliot Smith Memorial Fund.

So what’s next? “We just recently released a brand new T-Shirt from Broken Social Scene, and we have designs in the works from bands like the Magic Numbers, the New Pornographers, Elvis Perkins, Sunset Rubdown and others. So we definitely want to grow. But we also want eventually to diversify.” They have a “very special musician” writing a theme song for the organisation, and a lot more to come. So sign up for updates, and in the meantime, have a browse, and have a buy. I just ordered one, and it costs only $32 Aussie bucks, including shipping, to wear my music on my sleeve and a charity on my back. “The charity will get 100% of the profit, you get a cool T-shirt, the artist gets to raise awareness for their favourite charity, you get to raise awareness for your favourite artist, and we feel the satisfaction of a job well done. Everybody wins. Now if that’s not lucky…”

I’ve always been fascinated by visual representations of music – be it through album art, posters, live projections, merch and music videos (speaking of, check out Bjork’s newie here). There are a few notable creatives in the Sydney scene that consistently delight with their ability to convey the mood of music – I’m thinking of Jefferton James, the We Buy Your Kids collective, Kris Moynes and of course, Greedy Hen.

Greedy Hen is the collaborative works of Katherine Brickman and Kate Mitchell who evolved “with snowball-like force” into an illustration, graphic design, and art workhorse that started in Sydney sometime in 2005. Their poster for Bill Callahan (above right) was one of my favourites of last year, and their ongoing work for Broken Stone Records is always enchanting – so I was curious about what they listen to:"Our music tastes are wide and various. Usually we get totally obsessed with a song and play it on repeat for an entire day (ie Cry Cry Cry by Little Red ) until one of us nearly explodes and then we move onto something else. When it comes down to a tight deadline Mitchell gets pumped to Axel Foley. Brickman goes on autopilot to Grizzly Bear.” Scroll down for more...

Dappled through this issue is art about to show from April 2 at Somedays Gallery, as part of an exhibition put together by Sydney artist LoveAriel. She made the one up and to the left, while James Jirat Patradoon’s is above right. What’s the idea? “The idea behind Cause We Can is very simple – just to get friends, artists and musicians together, supporting each other, and lending a hand all in the name of expression and creativity. Also, to give lesser experienced (but superbly talented) artists a chance to sell work cause I know how hard it is!” Familiar names like LoveAriel, Beastman, Eamo, Erin Forsyth, Numskull, Smitten By Stephanie and Ainslee Fletcher are some of many showing their work through the month of April. Keep scrolling.

“I love everything about Polaroids. The simplicity; the colours; the novelty of a photo popping out; the thought process behind every shot; the sound the camera makes… and it's just so old school.” From July 12 2006 to July 11th 2007, Nerissa Parker commissioned herself to take one Polaroid each day, in a prolific project that we imagine would exercise ones patience as much as ones creativity. All 365 are on exhibition at China Heights Gallery for only a couple of days (Feb 22 – Feb 24), so put it in your diary NOW. What are her plans for the future? “Possibly another photo a day project with either a Holga or even talk of a pinhole camera. I'm also working on finishing my book of poems, which I'm also illustrating.” So she's not attempting to do it for the rest of her life, like this guy.