Petrina Hicks

We take it for granted that a photograph provides an objective visual record and photography has become the prime medium for portraiture.  It therefore seems paradoxical that a photograph can also elicit the response that ‘it doesn’t look like me’.   This suggests that the camera is not necessarily as objective as might be thought or alternatively that physical appearance is only part of what might be considered a true portrait.

A photograph records just one tiny moment – less than a quarter of a second from a whole life.  Petrina Hicks confronts the necessarily fragmentary nature of the photograph, supplementing its inadequate realism with a fulfilling and ‘timeless’ idealism. The three images of Lauren have been subtly altered in the computer by Hicks to create portraits that are immaculate and perfect, somehow more real than real.  Lauren’s unearthly and ethereal appearance subverts the supposed objectivity of the camera.
 
In presenting three similar photographs of Lauren, Hicks conjures up the kind of variations of an image typically found on a photographer’s proof sheet.  With this invitation to choose the ‘best’ likeness from the group of three, Hicks suggests that there is no single truthful likeness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Petrina Hicks
Lauren in Red 2003
Collection of Shannon Keogh, Sydney

Petrina Hicks
Lauren 2003
from the series Lauren
Collection of Shannon Keogh, Sydney

Petrina Hicks
Lauren 2003
from the series Lauren
Collection of Shannon Keogh, Sydney