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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Kill them with kindness, 2006

by Alex Kershaw

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 Finalist

Kill them with kindness, 2006

Kill them with kindness is a portrait of my grandmother, Dawn Atkins. This image resulted from a year-long series of photographic visits to my grandmother's house and garden, drawing on her passion for ikebana, the ancient art of Japanese flower arranging. The project began from a desire to use photography as a way of spending time and to archive what is ultimately fleeting - our corporeal experience of time. In this image Dawn holds a strelitzia cut from her garden toward a biscuit barrel my late grandfather carved for her while serving in New Guinea during World War 2. Composed in front of the garage door these objects are re-ordered creating a portrait of intimacy and estrangement. The flower becomes a kind of magic wand used as a domestic invocation or perhaps a fishing rod for memories. The image records and remembers family lineage - a photograph designed to make old histories speak again and allow new conversations to circulate.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007
(More information, View all 75 photos)

Gus and full moon at the farm
Home 6, Hedy Zahalka
Solitude
Barry

Related information

Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell
Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell
Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell
Lindy Lee - Birth and Death, 2006 by Robert Scott-Mitchell

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007

Previous exhibition, 2007

Photography is the most pervasive and popular medium for portraiture and makes a natural fit with the Gallery, being a natural extension of the Gallery's longstanding commitment to photography as a contemporary portrait medium.
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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