Former Governor of Victoria, and patron of the Biennale John Landy helped launch the event while comedian Brian Dawe also attended.

Biennale spokesperson Fiona Brook said the opening weekend was a success.

"The first weekend of June is a very exciting one for the Daylesford Foto Biennale with many launches and openings that celebrate photography in all its forms," she said.

"The depth and diversity of the program is substantial and features work from across Australia and the globe."

The Clunes exhibition at Town Hall and the Convent gallery exhibition in Daylesford were opened on Sunday.

The festival is a month-long, bi-annual series of exhibitions, workshops, seminars and other photographic events designed to showcase the art of photography to a broader audience. The Daylesford Foto Biennale is inclusive of

all genres of photography, embracing all ages, cultures and proficiencies, and provides a platform for the expression and promotion of the photographic idiom.

Ms Brook said organisers were delighted with crowd numbers at the openings.

"Seven hundred and fifty people over four events is fabulous.

"There was a great deal of enthusiasm at all of the launches. I think people will spread the word. Hopefully it's a sign of what is to come over the next month," Ms Brook said.

Expanding on the Daylesford theme of photographic diversity, the seminar sessions in 2007 will take their audiences on many varied photographic journeys - from pinhole to publishing, from bytes to boat people, from landscapes

to the linked ring.