[caption id="attachment_9691" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Maleonn Ma (China) exhibits at 2011 Ballarat International Foto Biennale"][/caption]

Photography competition open for the Ballarat International Foto Biennale 2011 in Australia, held August 20 - September 18.

After the highly successful 2009 Ballarat International Foto Biennale and the Daylesford Foto Biennales of 2005 and 2007 the Ballarat Foto Festival is expanding into a truly global event. The organisers intend it to become the Arles of The Antipodes - a must visit event for photographers, publishers and all viewers who enjoy photography.

The first Ballarat International Foto Biennale in 2009 brought some of the very best international and Australian photographers to Ballarat for a month long celebration of eclectic, wide ranging exciting photographic exhibitions.

The next Ballarat International Foto Bienale BIFB’11 will run from Saturday August 20th 2011 to Sunday September 18th 2011. Check out the exhibition programme.

The festival will once again present a diverse and eclectic mix of the very best of photography and photographic art from all corners of Australia and around the world. 

The Festival's mission is to celebrate Australian photographers and Australian photography on the world stage. Photography is the premiere art medium of the 21st century. Our aim is to educate and inspire and question by presenting photography from the World to Australia and from Australia to the World of Photography.

If you want to know more about photography in Australia and connect with photographers and events there, check out the Free Radical group who coordinate the R. Chee Ball Prize 2011 for portrait photography.

Ballarat is an inland city in Victoria State, around 110 km from Melbourne.