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Hello and welcome everyone.
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Welcome to the National Portrait Gallery here in Canberra.
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My name is Robert.
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I'm going to be your host for today.
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Welcome to our onsite audience.
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It's lovely to see
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people in real-life at our program today,
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and welcome to everyone who is coming into us through Zoom
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and through Facebook.
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Welcome.
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I can see that people are streaming in
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from all over the country and even from overseas.
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Today is a special in conversation session,
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which is introducing Living Memory:
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The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2021.
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And just before we pass over to our curator today,
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I'd just like to give a few housekeeping tips for everyone,
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for those on Zoom, if you could keep your cameras
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and microphones muted, that would be fantastic.
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On Facebook and Zoom
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you can participate in the conversation
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by using the chat function
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and send us your comments and your questions.
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And if it's possible,
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we will be able to feed some of those through
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into the conversation.
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We are recording today's presentation
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and it may appear on our website
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and exist in the Facebook realm as well.
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If you would like to access the live captions on Zoom,
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you can go to the live transcript icon
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at the bottom of your screen and select show subtitle,
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just to note, these are auto-generated
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and the machine sometimes does a little garbled
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interpretation of the words, but it's pretty accurate.
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We have our session being interpreted through Auslan today,
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and Mandy will appear in the corner of your screen.
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I think that's probably all I need to say
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other than to acknowledge that today
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we are broadcasting here from the Liangis Theatre
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on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.
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And I'd like to pay my respects to their elders past,
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present and emerging,
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and to acknowledge their continuing connection
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to the lands and the waters and the communities
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of the Canberra region.
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And I would like to extend that welcome
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to any First Nations people
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who are in attendance in our audience today.
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So without any further ado,
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I'm going to hand you over to Sandra Bruce,
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our Director of Collections and Exhibitions,
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so that we can have a closer look
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at some of the 79 finalists
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in this year's National Photographic Portrait Prize.
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Sandra.
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Thank you, Robert.
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Thank you so much for coming today,
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whether it's here at the National Portrait Gallery
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in-person, or whether
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you're coming to us from all over Australia,
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potentially all over the world.
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I am,
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as Robert said,
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one of the curatorial team members here
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at the Portrait Gallery,
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and one of our longstanding traditions
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is the National Photographic Portrait Prize.
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We are now in the 14th year of that prize,
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and it has certainly become a much loved tradition
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with not just our audiences,
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but also with photographers from around Australia.
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I think it's seen as
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an exciting opportunity to be a part of
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if the many thousands of photographers
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who enter their portraits,
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who take that brave leap to enter their portraits,
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make it into the finalist list and are exhibited.
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And we're very proud to be able to give Australian
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photographers that opportunity.
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With Living Memory
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it's an evolution, it's an expansion,
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it's I guess you could call it a special edition of
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what we've been doing for the 13 or 14 years now.
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And it is absolutely a result of
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the last 18 months or so that we've been living through.
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We have all experienced extraordinary circumstances.
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We've all been
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pressed in,
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into
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existing in a world that none of us
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have really experienced before.
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And so we acknowledge, and we fully expected
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that when we did the call-out
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for what we call the NPPP
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this time around that a lot of the entries
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that we would receive would reflect
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some of these situations.
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We wanted to
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commemorate that, we wanted to acknowledge that.
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And we really wanted to give all of us
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the chance to reflect on some of the commonalities
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in those lived experiences.
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To do that we decided to make it a bigger exhibition.
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Normally we would probably get around
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40 to 45
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finalists that would be invited to exhibit.
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This year as Robert mentioned,
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we have resulted in an exhibition that we've had to give
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over an entire pavilion of the gallery to,
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because we've got 79 finalists in the show.
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Now just a little caveat,
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that means that unless you want to be here
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until about eight o'clock tonight,
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I cannot talk about a whole of them.
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So I am just going to pull out
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a handful to really look at today
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that we can explore a little bit together,
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but that does not by any means necessarily mean that
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I'm privileging one over another.
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It's kind of like, I think probably
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asking a parent to choose their favourite children.
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You can't really do it.
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It's not very fair.
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And every single work that is in this exhibition
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is there because it deserves to be there.
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Now,
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when we invite photographers to
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enter, there are some conditions of entry.
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It probably won't surprise you to know
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that the primary thing is it has
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to be considered a portrait.
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Surprise, surprise!
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It must look like
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a recognisable human being or human beings
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for it to qualify.
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The other thing that we ask all of the photographers
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is that the photograph is taken
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within a specific time period.
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And it is always in the period immediately
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following the previous year for the NPPP.
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So these entries opened in the second half of October, 2019,
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and they closed at the end of March this year.
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So really we're looking at about a 16 month period
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in Living Memory.
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As I go through the slides, what I've done is
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we have some fantastic staff here at the gallery
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and Mark is our photographer.
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We have our own,
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and he's taken these beautiful installation shots
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of the exhibition.
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And I really wanted to do that for our online audience,
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because I do appreciate that
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we're trying to give you a sense of what that exhibition
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or what our exhibition looks like,
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because well we hope you can come to Canberra
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before the exhibition closes,
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we know that it may not be a possibility.
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Now,
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when we look at,
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as I mentioned, all of these,
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all of these lived experiences
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that we've had over this last little while,
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there was one that came before COVID
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and that was
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the bushfires.
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Now this is Elizabeth and Brian.
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Their property is in East Gippsland.
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And,
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you know,
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it's bushfires in Australia that we know what they are.
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Some seasons are worse, some seasons are better,
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but two summers ago was one of the worst,
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if not the worst season of bushfires we'd ever had.
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And quite a few photographers
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put themselves into those spaces.
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And
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there were many, many people who were affected
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by bushfires, who were generous enough
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to let those photographers into their lives
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and help us to understand
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exactly what they've lived through
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and what they're going through.
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And I think one of the things that I really love about
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Christopher's photograph,
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which he's called "Pride,"
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is that what he has absolutely captured in this,
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is this beautiful couples
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determination to stick together, I guess,
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and support each other
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in spite of everything they're living through.
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And
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Elizabeth describes
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her
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husband as
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someone she can be very proud of
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despite what she calls his battle weariness.
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And I just think
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this really does speak to Australian's resilience
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and determination to keep moving forward
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and looking forward, regardless of dire straits.
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It wasn't just
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one isolated part of
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country Australia that was impacted by the fires.
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Now, this is Max.
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The thing that I find really interesting
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about Max,
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and his property is in Wangarabell.
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Oh, I just did that to Mandy.
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I am so sorry.
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(laughing)
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Max.
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The thing that struck me
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with this portrait of Max by Rachel Mounsey
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is that
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his focus was very much on being really aware
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and really cognizant of nature
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coming back into the space
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that had been decimated by fire and observing
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the sounds of the bush coming back,
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the insects, the birds,
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some of the undershoots coming up from the undergrowth.
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And
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for him,
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as you can see in the quote, he says,
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"It's a lamentable game of survival,
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"but it's beautiful to watch."
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I was living in Melbourne that summer.
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And
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one of the situations that I think really
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struck us in Victoria was the fires that spread
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through East Gippsland
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and
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impacted right up to the coastline.
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And this is a shot of
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Young Finn
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steering his
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family away from the fires
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as part of the evacuation.
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His mother shot this on an iPhone,
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which is, I think really lovely.
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And it does speak to how
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photography has evolved as technology
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has become more and more accessible
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I think to so many
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people, almost everybody,
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if not everybody has an iPhone or I'm sorry, an Android.
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And
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while
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the quality might not be exactly the same
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as using an SLR camera
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if the timing's right
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and the shot's right,
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it's amazing what a photographer can achieve
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that really gets to the heart of a moment.
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But look at that red glow,
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it's not just in the sky,
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it takes over the whole scene.
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I can't even imagine what that New Year's Eve
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would have been like for people really.
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Okay.
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Every time we moved back into the gallery,
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I'm going to move into another theme, a little hint.
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Right, now post bushfire
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for the Canberrans in the room,
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we then had to deal with a hail storm.
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I don't know that
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there are any portraits of dented roofs of cars
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in this exhibition,
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but post our hail storm here in Canberra,
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we then all had to face what everybody else had to face.
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And that was the unleashing of a pandemic on the world.
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The photographic responses to this
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have been absolutely extraordinary.
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And we have what I think is a quintessential kind of summary
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of how we're continuing to cope as we're getting used to it.
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00:14:41.690 --> 00:14:45.960
Laura Reid shot this photograph of
278
00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:47.480
a beautiful beach scene
279
00:14:48.900 --> 00:14:51.270
and bench that you can't sit on
280
00:14:51.270 --> 00:14:52.120
because
281
00:14:53.460 --> 00:14:58.460
COVID won't let us sit on things anymore. (laughs)
282
00:14:58.550 --> 00:14:59.980
Isn't that extraordinary
283
00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:03.380
putting caution tape around a piece of public furniture?
284
00:15:03.380 --> 00:15:05.770
But you know, we're used to it now.
285
00:15:05.770 --> 00:15:10.760
This is, this is our current normal, I suppose,
286
00:15:10.760 --> 00:15:11.850
and
287
00:15:11.850 --> 00:15:13.370
this portrait
288
00:15:15.300 --> 00:15:19.300
it's absolutely a view
289
00:15:19.300 --> 00:15:22.210
of a young, healthy looking woman.
290
00:15:22.210 --> 00:15:25.130
But it's also a view of, I think
291
00:15:25.130 --> 00:15:27.463
of the Australian experience.
292
00:15:29.650 --> 00:15:32.360
We're still trying to find ways to live our lives
293
00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:36.453
in spite of everything that we're going through.
294
00:15:38.570 --> 00:15:40.320
I don't think that's her bike.
295
00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:43.093
It looks a little bit too small. (laughs)
296
00:15:45.650 --> 00:15:48.960
From memory Laura, the photographer.
297
00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:49.823
Oh yes.
298
00:15:50.770 --> 00:15:52.333
Here's a quote from Laura.
299
00:15:53.277 --> 00:15:55.127
"I imagine she is looking out,
300
00:15:55.127 --> 00:15:56.767
"looking for a brighter future,
301
00:15:56.767 --> 00:16:00.007
"but grey clouds hang on the horizon."
302
00:16:01.250 --> 00:16:03.523
This is my living memory of this year.
303
00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:11.540
Oh, okay.
304
00:16:11.540 --> 00:16:12.980
Now
305
00:16:12.980 --> 00:16:16.840
what do artists get up to during lockdown?
306
00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:20.300
Particularly artists who want to capture people,
307
00:16:20.300 --> 00:16:23.433
capture other people, create portraits.
308
00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:28.233
They could do a curated Zoom project.
309
00:16:41.400 --> 00:16:43.410
So Suzanne Phoenix
310
00:16:46.110 --> 00:16:48.570
created this fantastic series
311
00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:53.360
where she engaged with communities over Zoom
312
00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:57.430
and took portraits of them via Zoom.
313
00:16:57.430 --> 00:16:59.190
If that isn't a sign of the times,
314
00:16:59.190 --> 00:17:00.933
I really don't know what is.
315
00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:04.550
I think this,
316
00:17:04.550 --> 00:17:05.763
there's something quiet,
317
00:17:07.180 --> 00:17:08.170
almost
318
00:17:09.340 --> 00:17:11.520
village-esque Bohemian
319
00:17:11.520 --> 00:17:14.840
about how do you spend your time
320
00:17:14.840 --> 00:17:17.600
when you can't leave your house, do you know what?
321
00:17:17.600 --> 00:17:20.700
Let's get flocked up, sit in a bathtub,
322
00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:23.510
have a couple of drinks and chat.
323
00:17:23.510 --> 00:17:24.343
And
324
00:17:25.660 --> 00:17:28.970
this speaks, I think, to people just choosing
325
00:17:28.970 --> 00:17:32.240
to live their life regardless of the circumstance
326
00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:37.240
they going through yet again, and still find ways to connect
327
00:17:38.690 --> 00:17:39.653
regardless.
328
00:17:45.170 --> 00:17:46.003
So
329
00:17:47.570 --> 00:17:48.450
the
330
00:17:50.710 --> 00:17:53.773
Lazy Susan is the name of the person in the bathtub.
331
00:17:56.610 --> 00:17:58.570
And Lazy Susan
332
00:17:58.570 --> 00:17:59.403
said
333
00:18:00.650 --> 00:18:02.940
that they would probably describe this
334
00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:05.170
as one of the hardest days
335
00:18:05.170 --> 00:18:07.560
that they experienced in lockdown,
336
00:18:07.560 --> 00:18:10.860
but they were always there for each other with a smile
337
00:18:10.860 --> 00:18:13.170
just like every other day.
338
00:18:13.170 --> 00:18:17.660
And in terms of Lazy Susan's art being drag,
339
00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:18.823
you may have noticed,
340
00:18:20.070 --> 00:18:24.480
she does say that drag is an art that is about survival.
341
00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:25.783
So there's that as well.
342
00:18:30.530 --> 00:18:33.700
Oh, the artist, the photographer is on Zoom.
343
00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:34.540
Hi, Suzanne.
344
00:18:34.540 --> 00:18:36.963
Lovely to see you and thank you so much.
345
00:18:38.060 --> 00:18:40.690
This is certainly getting a lot of
346
00:18:42.320 --> 00:18:44.070
smiles in the exhibition.
347
00:18:44.070 --> 00:18:45.810
It's a great piece to have.
348
00:18:45.810 --> 00:18:48.513
So thank you for entering.
349
00:18:51.370 --> 00:18:52.470
Now.
350
00:18:52.470 --> 00:18:53.763
Oh yes, here we go.
351
00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:57.833
And,
352
00:19:01.670 --> 00:19:03.183
COVID has been interesting.
353
00:19:06.328 --> 00:19:09.110
It's interesting to see that
354
00:19:09.110 --> 00:19:11.930
some of the portraits that we have,
355
00:19:11.930 --> 00:19:15.780
that have been created as a result of lockdown,
356
00:19:15.780 --> 00:19:17.850
haven't necessarily been one
357
00:19:17.850 --> 00:19:20.260
that you would necessarily associate
358
00:19:20.260 --> 00:19:22.220
with the lockdown experience.
359
00:19:22.220 --> 00:19:25.030
And to be fair, the previous portrait
360
00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:30.520
by Suzanne could be considered in much the same way.
361
00:19:30.520 --> 00:19:32.910
If it didn't have that underlying theme
362
00:19:32.910 --> 00:19:35.880
of lockdown experience,
363
00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:38.410
Lazy Susan could have been in that bathtub
364
00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:40.280
on any day of the week.
365
00:19:40.280 --> 00:19:42.090
So this one
366
00:19:42.090 --> 00:19:42.923
called
367
00:19:43.927 --> 00:19:46.023
"Sunbath Under the Lockdown"
368
00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:48.160
by Franky Tsang
369
00:19:52.070 --> 00:19:56.023
to me that looks like a glorious summer or spring afternoon,
370
00:19:57.220 --> 00:19:58.973
enjoying the sunshine.
371
00:20:00.840 --> 00:20:03.653
The composition of this one I really like.
372
00:20:05.990 --> 00:20:07.920
For me, it's a very domestic,
373
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:11.620
very, very domestic scene. (laughs)
374
00:20:11.620 --> 00:20:13.150
Water, no water?
375
00:20:13.150 --> 00:20:14.350
Okay.
376
00:20:14.350 --> 00:20:16.110
Yeah, it's a very domestic scene.
377
00:20:16.110 --> 00:20:17.570
There's no two ways about it,
378
00:20:17.570 --> 00:20:20.020
but it's divided into the classic thirds
379
00:20:20.020 --> 00:20:22.730
of a really beautiful composition.
380
00:20:22.730 --> 00:20:23.610
And
381
00:20:23.610 --> 00:20:24.443
it's got
382
00:20:25.836 --> 00:20:28.740
a quietness about it that I think
383
00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:33.650
reminds us all of the comforts that you can get
384
00:20:33.650 --> 00:20:36.983
of living at home and having a quiet life.
385
00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:44.700
I think from memory Franky said they were in lockdown
386
00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:46.023
on the Northern Beaches.
387
00:20:52.330 --> 00:20:53.363
Another view,
388
00:20:56.950 --> 00:20:59.890
I'm not going to zoom in on either of these two works.
389
00:20:59.890 --> 00:21:01.833
I did just want to,
390
00:21:03.455 --> 00:21:06.820
I like the choice our exhibition designer made around
391
00:21:06.820 --> 00:21:11.160
a lot of the arrangements of which works
392
00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:14.980
are placed beside which as you move through the exhibition.
393
00:21:14.980 --> 00:21:19.518
These two, they speak to the polarities, I guess,
394
00:21:19.518 --> 00:21:21.670
of the COVID life,
395
00:21:21.670 --> 00:21:24.670
where you find ways to entertain yourself,
396
00:21:24.670 --> 00:21:29.300
whether it's going out for a swim with your best friend
397
00:21:29.300 --> 00:21:30.870
or
398
00:21:30.870 --> 00:21:34.660
engaging with the world through your laptop.
399
00:21:34.660 --> 00:21:36.110
And really, I think
400
00:21:37.350 --> 00:21:39.370
we should probably, well, okay.
401
00:21:39.370 --> 00:21:41.040
I, I'll speak for myself.
402
00:21:41.040 --> 00:21:42.280
I won't preach to others.
403
00:21:42.280 --> 00:21:45.200
I should do more of the swimming with the mate
404
00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:47.340
and probably less of the laptop action.
405
00:21:47.340 --> 00:21:48.173
But.
406
00:21:51.809 --> 00:21:54.400
(chuckles)
407
00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:56.030
This one,
408
00:21:56.030 --> 00:21:59.830
we talked about this work a little bit in last week's panel,
409
00:21:59.830 --> 00:22:04.280
but we didn't get the opportunity to bring it up on screen.
410
00:22:04.280 --> 00:22:05.113
This is
411
00:22:07.337 --> 00:22:10.853
"In a World of Her Own" by Mark Mortensen.
412
00:22:16.690 --> 00:22:18.020
I'm a huge fan of this,
413
00:22:18.020 --> 00:22:19.823
I'm inveterate reader.
414
00:22:20.690 --> 00:22:24.090
And I love the idea of kids reading books
415
00:22:24.090 --> 00:22:25.993
with pages, paper,
416
00:22:28.170 --> 00:22:30.320
getting to crease the corner to keep their space,
417
00:22:30.320 --> 00:22:31.940
maybe using a bookmark,
418
00:22:31.940 --> 00:22:34.940
hopefully not turning it upside down and creasing the spine.
419
00:22:38.450 --> 00:22:40.373
Now what would her classics be?
420
00:22:41.510 --> 00:22:42.343
It could be
421
00:22:43.400 --> 00:22:44.310
Nancy Drew.
422
00:22:44.310 --> 00:22:45.960
Now that'd be one of my classics.
423
00:22:49.230 --> 00:22:51.380
Could be,
424
00:22:51.380 --> 00:22:53.520
oh, it'd be nice if it was Jane Austen,
425
00:22:53.520 --> 00:22:54.353
maybe
426
00:22:55.240 --> 00:22:56.773
J. R. R. Tolkien.
427
00:23:01.380 --> 00:23:05.430
I love the idea that this young girl could be exploring
428
00:23:05.430 --> 00:23:08.240
a whole world just through the pages of a book,
429
00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:11.820
which is something that is probably not
430
00:23:11.820 --> 00:23:15.790
what we necessarily expect kids to do today.
431
00:23:15.790 --> 00:23:17.910
The sunlight streaming through
432
00:23:17.910 --> 00:23:21.670
creating those beautiful shadows around her.
433
00:23:21.670 --> 00:23:25.610
And she's relying on that beam of sunlight to read her book.
434
00:23:25.610 --> 00:23:28.763
I just think it's an exquisite portrait.
435
00:23:41.860 --> 00:23:43.240
It's dark,
436
00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:44.073
it's dark.
437
00:23:44.073 --> 00:23:45.743
It's a little tough to see.
438
00:23:47.250 --> 00:23:49.370
Michael Pham
439
00:23:51.010 --> 00:23:53.470
was going for a walk
440
00:23:53.470 --> 00:23:56.210
and he saw this couple
441
00:23:56.210 --> 00:23:58.773
having their dinner date in their car,
442
00:24:00.380 --> 00:24:01.940
and he started
443
00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:06.363
miming to ask if he could take the photograph.
444
00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:09.040
So he sort of waved at them
445
00:24:09.970 --> 00:24:11.970
and then pointed at his camera
446
00:24:11.970 --> 00:24:14.270
and then asked if he could take a photo,
447
00:24:14.270 --> 00:24:16.900
and I think they did a thumbs up
448
00:24:16.900 --> 00:24:18.680
and then went back to eating
449
00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:21.450
and he took the photo and he kept going.
450
00:24:21.450 --> 00:24:22.400
But
451
00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:24.300
this is
452
00:24:24.300 --> 00:24:26.943
interesting. (laughs)
453
00:24:28.950 --> 00:24:30.580
You wanna go and get takeaway.
454
00:24:30.580 --> 00:24:31.880
You want to go out for dinner.
455
00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:32.930
You're not allowed to sit in
456
00:24:32.930 --> 00:24:34.940
because all of the restaurants are closed.
457
00:24:34.940 --> 00:24:36.900
You don't wanna go back to your lounge room,
458
00:24:36.900 --> 00:24:39.800
so you have dinner in your car.
459
00:24:39.800 --> 00:24:42.800
It kind of reminds me of drive-in theatres a little bit.
460
00:24:42.800 --> 00:24:46.150
I don't know if, are there any drive-in theatres left?
461
00:24:46.150 --> 00:24:47.430
I don't know.
462
00:24:47.430 --> 00:24:48.660
I think there's one down in Dromana
463
00:24:48.660 --> 00:24:50.163
on the Mornington Peninsula.
464
00:24:51.470 --> 00:24:54.463
That's a bit of a drive-through, isn't it? (laughs)
465
00:24:58.480 --> 00:24:59.630
Okay.
466
00:24:59.630 --> 00:25:01.210
Now we saw with
467
00:25:02.180 --> 00:25:05.430
Suzanne Phoenix's work,
468
00:25:05.430 --> 00:25:09.410
that some artists are reaching out and creating
469
00:25:09.410 --> 00:25:11.470
new work during this time
470
00:25:11.470 --> 00:25:14.220
and they're using
471
00:25:14.220 --> 00:25:19.103
COVID, using the pandemic as an impetus to create new work.
472
00:25:19.970 --> 00:25:24.320
Benny Capp is a photographer who works in the film
473
00:25:24.320 --> 00:25:25.523
and TV industry.
474
00:25:26.790 --> 00:25:28.960
And interestingly enough,
475
00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:30.580
this subject Marty
476
00:25:31.810 --> 00:25:35.360
was in one of Benny's portraits that made it
477
00:25:35.360 --> 00:25:37.470
into last year's NPPP.
478
00:25:37.470 --> 00:25:40.360
So this duo have been fortunate enough
479
00:25:40.360 --> 00:25:41.813
to be in two years in a row.
480
00:25:42.990 --> 00:25:45.270
So what Benny did
481
00:25:45.270 --> 00:25:48.860
was he reached out to his friends within the industry,
482
00:25:48.860 --> 00:25:52.810
set designers into fashionistas
483
00:25:52.810 --> 00:25:54.780
and invited them
484
00:25:54.780 --> 00:25:55.970
to
485
00:25:55.970 --> 00:25:57.540
use props
486
00:25:57.540 --> 00:25:58.373
and
487
00:26:00.180 --> 00:26:05.180
furniture to create their own favourite environment
488
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:07.560
that they felt would reflect
489
00:26:07.560 --> 00:26:09.640
a space that they would want to be in.
490
00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:12.600
And so this is Marty's
491
00:26:13.490 --> 00:26:16.650
constructed, stylized living room
492
00:26:16.650 --> 00:26:18.403
that he's placed himself in.
493
00:26:19.550 --> 00:26:22.110
I like it because it's essentially
494
00:26:22.110 --> 00:26:25.770
a three-dimensional self portrait by Marty
495
00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:29.560
captured as a portrait by Benny.
496
00:26:29.560 --> 00:26:33.950
And I think it's a really lovely project that Benny created.
497
00:26:33.950 --> 00:26:38.603
And I think the name of the series is called Unseen Sets.
498
00:26:40.810 --> 00:26:43.540
It is quite reminiscent of a particular
499
00:26:43.540 --> 00:26:45.800
style of cinematography too,
500
00:26:45.800 --> 00:26:50.153
with those really graphic colours and strong,
501
00:26:51.010 --> 00:26:53.570
almost stylized forms with the
502
00:26:56.540 --> 00:26:57.860
pot plants
503
00:26:57.860 --> 00:27:00.683
and the types of things that are hanging on the wall.
504
00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:05.360
And I feel like it's a little bit tongue in cheek as well.
505
00:27:05.360 --> 00:27:07.260
And I think I liked that about it too.
506
00:27:12.730 --> 00:27:13.993
Okay.
507
00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:17.033
Now
508
00:27:20.120 --> 00:27:21.960
with the entries this year,
509
00:27:21.960 --> 00:27:23.690
and I should mention,
510
00:27:23.690 --> 00:27:27.110
the judges had over 3000 entries to go through.
511
00:27:27.110 --> 00:27:27.993
It was,
512
00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:31.200
there's only been one other year
513
00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:33.270
that we've had more than 3000 entries.
514
00:27:33.270 --> 00:27:34.800
So
515
00:27:34.800 --> 00:27:39.490
our photographers of Australia was so keen to really
516
00:27:39.490 --> 00:27:42.800
put their hand up and talk about and offer
517
00:27:42.800 --> 00:27:45.573
what their experiences have been this year.
518
00:27:47.160 --> 00:27:49.520
It hasn't all been COVID,
519
00:27:49.520 --> 00:27:51.580
it hasn't all been bushfire.
520
00:27:51.580 --> 00:27:52.940
There have been,
521
00:27:52.940 --> 00:27:56.510
and there were some beautifully successful works
522
00:27:56.510 --> 00:28:00.860
that really speak to what that photographers
523
00:28:04.700 --> 00:28:07.819
particular plans were for their work.
524
00:28:07.819 --> 00:28:10.850
And they were going to go on with that.
525
00:28:10.850 --> 00:28:15.180
And they weren't necessarily looking to refer to
526
00:28:15.180 --> 00:28:18.863
pandemic as such or lockdown or the bushfires.
527
00:28:27.080 --> 00:28:29.940
This work, the more I look at it, the more I like it,
528
00:28:29.940 --> 00:28:32.890
it seems quite unusual,
529
00:28:32.890 --> 00:28:34.490
but it is,
530
00:28:34.490 --> 00:28:37.393
it's a wedding photograph that isn't a wedding photograph.
531
00:28:41.387 --> 00:28:44.373
John's series of works are about,
532
00:28:48.600 --> 00:28:50.253
as he says, in that quote,
533
00:28:51.287 --> 00:28:54.327
"Capturing guests and couples in a style
534
00:28:54.327 --> 00:28:57.800
"that's not associated with wedding photography."
535
00:28:57.800 --> 00:29:00.290
So they almost feel a little bit,
536
00:29:00.290 --> 00:29:02.810
and I hope I'm not going to insult John or the lovely couple
537
00:29:02.810 --> 00:29:04.580
because they look beautiful,
538
00:29:04.580 --> 00:29:06.380
but they kind of look like wedding toppers
539
00:29:06.380 --> 00:29:08.553
the way they're kind of just there.
540
00:29:10.030 --> 00:29:13.750
But that sort of straight up and down,
541
00:29:13.750 --> 00:29:15.900
very kind of constructed posture,
542
00:29:15.900 --> 00:29:17.530
looking straight at camera,
543
00:29:17.530 --> 00:29:18.530
they're not touching,
544
00:29:18.530 --> 00:29:21.750
they're standing side by side
545
00:29:21.750 --> 00:29:25.953
and they've got their beautiful wedding costumes on.
546
00:29:27.270 --> 00:29:31.803
They're standing in an Australian bush setting.
547
00:29:35.588 --> 00:29:37.820
For me, it's almost reminding us
548
00:29:37.820 --> 00:29:41.080
that those are two very individual people.
549
00:29:41.080 --> 00:29:43.630
They've chosen to live their lives together.
550
00:29:43.630 --> 00:29:47.490
And I'm sure they're extraordinarily happy about it
551
00:29:47.490 --> 00:29:49.680
as you should be on your wedding day.
552
00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:52.060
But for me, this is about
553
00:29:52.060 --> 00:29:54.440
them as individuals coming together.
554
00:29:54.440 --> 00:29:57.563
And it's a curious photograph.
555
00:29:58.560 --> 00:30:01.850
It's almost surreal in that it does
556
00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:05.120
create this
557
00:30:05.980 --> 00:30:07.440
sense of them
558
00:30:10.450 --> 00:30:13.190
stepping out of the excitement of their wedding
559
00:30:13.190 --> 00:30:15.013
and just being themselves again.
560
00:30:23.010 --> 00:30:23.843
Oh,
561
00:30:25.060 --> 00:30:28.663
sometimes we get asked, is it truly a portrait,
562
00:30:28.663 --> 00:30:30.483
i you can't see their face?
563
00:30:32.610 --> 00:30:33.443
This one
564
00:30:35.037 --> 00:30:36.657
"A Girl and Her Boy,"
565
00:30:43.390 --> 00:30:44.940
it's beautifully dramatic,
566
00:30:44.940 --> 00:30:49.180
very romantic with all of those dark heavy clouds.
567
00:30:49.180 --> 00:30:52.910
It's got a bit of a Victorian kind of Gothic
568
00:30:52.910 --> 00:30:54.533
romance thing going on.
569
00:30:55.460 --> 00:30:56.900
But
570
00:30:56.900 --> 00:30:58.610
we know
571
00:30:58.610 --> 00:30:59.623
that Larissa,
572
00:31:00.860 --> 00:31:03.600
one of the big things about Larissa as a person
573
00:31:03.600 --> 00:31:05.330
is she loves her horse.
574
00:31:05.330 --> 00:31:09.020
And we get that regardless of whether we can see her face.
575
00:31:09.020 --> 00:31:11.080
We know just by looking at
576
00:31:12.840 --> 00:31:13.980
her body language,
577
00:31:13.980 --> 00:31:16.483
as she's leading her horse down the lane,
578
00:31:19.244 --> 00:31:22.757
that that's an intrinsic part of who Larissa is and so,
579
00:31:24.740 --> 00:31:27.600
while the landscape is a very important and quite
580
00:31:27.600 --> 00:31:29.660
overwhelming aspect of this portrait,
581
00:31:29.660 --> 00:31:31.630
I think we do still very much
582
00:31:31.630 --> 00:31:33.860
get a sense of this young woman,
583
00:31:33.860 --> 00:31:34.693
and
584
00:31:35.670 --> 00:31:37.183
who she chooses to be.
585
00:31:42.900 --> 00:31:44.180
Obi
586
00:31:44.180 --> 00:31:45.350
cute name for a horse.
587
00:31:45.350 --> 00:31:46.500
Don't know if it's got anything to do
588
00:31:46.500 --> 00:31:47.860
with the "Star Wars" series.
589
00:31:47.860 --> 00:31:52.533
But I like to think that those things transcend generations.
590
00:32:01.430 --> 00:32:04.860
Going back to what I said earlier about
591
00:32:04.860 --> 00:32:06.830
the time period
592
00:32:06.830 --> 00:32:11.200
that photographers were allowed to submit their works from.
593
00:32:26.140 --> 00:32:28.060
Photographs taken
594
00:32:29.760 --> 00:32:34.390
on or after the 23rd of October, 2019.
595
00:32:34.390 --> 00:32:37.083
So this photograph was taken two days later,
596
00:32:38.370 --> 00:32:42.530
and it is such an important time in
597
00:32:42.530 --> 00:32:45.600
Australian living history
598
00:32:45.600 --> 00:32:50.600
around First Nations people reclaiming true custodianship
599
00:32:51.050 --> 00:32:55.273
over very important sites for them.
600
00:32:57.200 --> 00:32:59.000
When that happened,
601
00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:01.170
there was a lot going on in the press.
602
00:33:01.170 --> 00:33:03.570
There were many, many different voices
603
00:33:04.430 --> 00:33:07.090
with many, many different opinions about
604
00:33:07.090 --> 00:33:12.090
the decision to close Uluru to climbing tourists.
605
00:33:15.040 --> 00:33:16.710
And to be perfectly honest,
606
00:33:16.710 --> 00:33:19.080
I think we all thought that that was going to be
607
00:33:19.080 --> 00:33:23.320
a marked moment and it will stand the test of time.
608
00:33:23.320 --> 00:33:26.070
It will be a marked moment in our history,
609
00:33:26.070 --> 00:33:28.950
but just think that that only happened, you know,
610
00:33:28.950 --> 00:33:30.460
18 months ago.
611
00:33:30.460 --> 00:33:34.500
And that experience has been completely
612
00:33:34.500 --> 00:33:37.610
subsumed in our memories because of everything
613
00:33:37.610 --> 00:33:39.373
that's come after it.
614
00:33:42.080 --> 00:33:44.383
It's a beautiful portrait, I think.
615
00:33:44.383 --> 00:33:46.933
There's something quite classic about it.
616
00:33:50.330 --> 00:33:52.520
But it shows,
617
00:33:52.520 --> 00:33:54.520
I think it does
618
00:33:54.520 --> 00:33:56.780
do that beautiful job of
619
00:33:57.810 --> 00:33:58.643
showing
620
00:34:01.530 --> 00:34:04.120
Ruby James and her
621
00:34:05.140 --> 00:34:08.470
fellow women in their own country
622
00:34:08.470 --> 00:34:09.303
and
623
00:34:11.040 --> 00:34:13.140
the light that's filtering across
624
00:34:14.340 --> 00:34:16.530
from the left of the frame
625
00:34:16.530 --> 00:34:21.230
and creating that glow almost that halo effect really does
626
00:34:22.550 --> 00:34:23.640
beautifully
627
00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:27.803
celebrate, commemorate that moment.
628
00:34:29.120 --> 00:34:31.810
The artist Adele Wilkes was invited
629
00:34:31.810 --> 00:34:34.790
to capture this portrait, which is also,
630
00:34:34.790 --> 00:34:37.763
I think another lovely thing to point out.
631
00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:46.280
I wanted to
632
00:34:48.610 --> 00:34:49.443
touch on
633
00:34:50.580 --> 00:34:52.030
the outcome of the prize.
634
00:34:52.030 --> 00:34:54.377
Now it is the National Photographic Portrait Prize,
635
00:34:54.377 --> 00:34:58.743
that means that we do give a few awards every year.
636
00:34:59.750 --> 00:35:04.250
And the two biggest awards are the highly commended
637
00:35:04.250 --> 00:35:06.323
and the winning work.
638
00:35:07.610 --> 00:35:09.410
Our judges this year were
639
00:35:10.570 --> 00:35:13.393
Karen Quinlan, the director of the Portrait Gallery,
640
00:35:14.390 --> 00:35:17.040
Nick Mitzevich
641
00:35:20.040 --> 00:35:22.960
the director of the National Gallery of Australia,
642
00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:26.863
and the esteemed Australian photographer, Bill Henson.
643
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:30.823
When it came down to it,
644
00:35:31.880 --> 00:35:34.300
it's a sure bet that the highly commended
645
00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:37.193
and the winning work are the two top works.
646
00:35:38.300 --> 00:35:40.410
This one highly commended this year
647
00:35:41.530 --> 00:35:43.230
it's by Julian kingma
648
00:35:46.870 --> 00:35:49.057
and it's "Tom at the Drain."
649
00:35:53.520 --> 00:35:56.080
Tom is Julian son,
650
00:35:56.080 --> 00:35:58.323
and he has ADHD.
651
00:36:00.380 --> 00:36:02.350
And one of the big challenges
652
00:36:02.350 --> 00:36:06.560
for their little family was keeping Tom
653
00:36:06.560 --> 00:36:08.413
occupied and happy,
654
00:36:10.080 --> 00:36:14.700
and giving him opportunities to not get too stressed,
655
00:36:14.700 --> 00:36:17.010
not feel too hemmed in.
656
00:36:17.010 --> 00:36:19.030
And so this is one of their outings
657
00:36:20.020 --> 00:36:22.360
where they got out and Tom was able to go
658
00:36:22.360 --> 00:36:23.513
for a bit of a swim.
659
00:36:24.870 --> 00:36:26.780
It's an interesting composition.
660
00:36:26.780 --> 00:36:27.634
It's quite,
661
00:36:27.634 --> 00:36:29.100
(Mandy coughs)
662
00:36:29.100 --> 00:36:30.140
that's all right.
663
00:36:30.140 --> 00:36:31.830
It's an interesting composition.
664
00:36:31.830 --> 00:36:33.133
It is quite moody.
665
00:36:34.020 --> 00:36:36.400
Having the horizon line so far up at the top
666
00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:39.830
of the composition really does add to that sense of
667
00:36:42.280 --> 00:36:44.713
sort of dark anticipation, if you like.
668
00:36:45.830 --> 00:36:48.370
But I don't think that that necessarily means
669
00:36:48.370 --> 00:36:50.310
it's a sinister
670
00:36:52.530 --> 00:36:53.380
work.
671
00:36:53.380 --> 00:36:57.720
I think it just means that there is a lot of drama in it,
672
00:36:57.720 --> 00:36:59.830
which is almost balanced out by
673
00:37:00.890 --> 00:37:03.023
the fact that there's,
674
00:37:03.900 --> 00:37:06.580
you do feel like it's a moment of rest for Tom.
675
00:37:06.580 --> 00:37:07.530
He is pausing.
676
00:37:07.530 --> 00:37:09.560
He's not splashing around.
677
00:37:09.560 --> 00:37:11.660
There's a little ripple in the background.
678
00:37:13.530 --> 00:37:16.290
Interestingly enough, I don't know if Julian knows this,
679
00:37:16.290 --> 00:37:20.890
but two of the three judges thought that the form
680
00:37:20.890 --> 00:37:23.923
that Tom's leaning on, (laughs)
681
00:37:25.620 --> 00:37:28.680
the form that Tom's leaning on is a rock,
682
00:37:28.680 --> 00:37:30.353
but it's actually a drain.
683
00:37:32.350 --> 00:37:33.913
And so,
684
00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:39.150
I like the idea that
685
00:37:39.150 --> 00:37:41.490
these things were still able to happen,
686
00:37:41.490 --> 00:37:44.140
that kids were still able to be kids
687
00:37:44.140 --> 00:37:47.930
and go for a bit of a dip, get a bit grotty,
688
00:37:47.930 --> 00:37:49.470
do what they wanted,
689
00:37:49.470 --> 00:37:51.920
and that all of that was recognised.
690
00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:54.650
And maybe starting to
691
00:37:54.650 --> 00:37:57.660
free up some kids to maybe pull them away
692
00:37:57.660 --> 00:37:59.260
from their screens a little bit.
693
00:38:01.530 --> 00:38:03.700
Now the winning work,
694
00:38:03.700 --> 00:38:06.273
I think most people would have seen this already.
695
00:38:14.330 --> 00:38:17.010
This is Joel Pratley,
696
00:38:17.010 --> 00:38:18.313
is the photographer,
697
00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:21.770
Sydney based photographer.
698
00:38:21.770 --> 00:38:24.800
The work is called "Drought Story."
699
00:38:24.800 --> 00:38:27.860
Now here's an example of not being able to see
700
00:38:27.860 --> 00:38:29.103
the subject's face.
701
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:34.570
This is a farmer his name is David.
702
00:38:34.570 --> 00:38:36.573
His is farm out near Forbes.
703
00:38:38.450 --> 00:38:40.030
And this was a
704
00:38:40.930 --> 00:38:45.793
dust storm that came through his property last year.
705
00:38:48.100 --> 00:38:50.393
It truly is a monumental scene, isn't it?
706
00:38:58.010 --> 00:39:02.660
Primary industry farming, such a huge part of Australia.
707
00:39:02.660 --> 00:39:04.840
It's really critical to our way of life
708
00:39:04.840 --> 00:39:08.490
even if we never get to experience it ourselves,
709
00:39:08.490 --> 00:39:12.200
it is something that I think that we can all connect with
710
00:39:12.200 --> 00:39:15.640
as Australians and recognise as part of,
711
00:39:15.640 --> 00:39:18.010
part of, I guess, what it is or an aspect
712
00:39:18.010 --> 00:39:19.673
of what it is to be Australian.
713
00:39:20.690 --> 00:39:24.193
If you look really closely, you can see the horizon line,
714
00:39:25.510 --> 00:39:28.320
but it's almost completely subsumed
715
00:39:29.520 --> 00:39:30.653
by the dust storm.
716
00:39:32.760 --> 00:39:37.690
And I think this is one of the shortest artists' statements
717
00:39:37.690 --> 00:39:38.593
that I've seen.
718
00:39:39.500 --> 00:39:41.550
And that's it right there.
719
00:39:41.550 --> 00:39:44.167
Sometimes you think, "Why am I here?"
720
00:39:47.140 --> 00:39:48.980
I've got to say,
721
00:39:48.980 --> 00:39:50.510
just as with
722
00:39:51.720 --> 00:39:54.710
some of the struggles with the pandemic,
723
00:39:54.710 --> 00:39:56.820
with frontline health workers,
724
00:39:56.820 --> 00:39:59.570
with people impacted by bushfires,
725
00:39:59.570 --> 00:40:01.800
whether it was first responders or people
726
00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:04.160
who were trying to save their homes,
727
00:40:04.160 --> 00:40:07.740
who lost their homes, lost loved ones.
728
00:40:07.740 --> 00:40:08.710
Just as with them,
729
00:40:08.710 --> 00:40:11.020
I think that there are circumstances
730
00:40:11.020 --> 00:40:14.440
like the one that David's had to live with with drought
731
00:40:14.440 --> 00:40:15.490
on his property.
732
00:40:15.490 --> 00:40:17.620
One can only imagine what it would be like
733
00:40:17.620 --> 00:40:21.020
to live in that unless you've lived through it yourself.
734
00:40:21.020 --> 00:40:23.180
But this does
735
00:40:23.180 --> 00:40:27.320
absolutely, I think, give us a sense of David as a man,
736
00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:31.730
as a farmer and as someone who is dedicated to,
737
00:40:31.730 --> 00:40:33.773
to just getting on with,
738
00:40:35.140 --> 00:40:36.460
again, pushing through
739
00:40:37.470 --> 00:40:39.973
in spite of what he's having to deal with.
740
00:40:43.100 --> 00:40:46.820
I think that might be my last slide.
741
00:40:46.820 --> 00:40:48.480
Oh, look, it's my last slide.
742
00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:49.480
Let's go back to it.
743
00:40:51.290 --> 00:40:53.100
I wonder if we have any questions,
744
00:40:53.100 --> 00:40:54.720
if we've got time for them.
745
00:40:54.720 --> 00:40:55.553
Robert?
746
00:40:55.553 --> 00:40:57.110
Yeah. Sandra, we,
747
00:40:57.110 --> 00:40:59.660
well Jill's has been posing some questions in there,
748
00:40:59.660 --> 00:41:01.770
in the chat and getting a bit of conversation going.
749
00:41:01.770 --> 00:41:03.940
There's been general observations about
750
00:41:04.870 --> 00:41:08.730
the construction of the portraits as you've gone through,
751
00:41:08.730 --> 00:41:12.490
but we do know that we've got a number of the finalists
752
00:41:12.490 --> 00:41:13.560
here with us today.
753
00:41:13.560 --> 00:41:15.423
We've got Jennifer Blau,
754
00:41:17.070 --> 00:41:19.290
Suzanne Phoenix,
755
00:41:19.290 --> 00:41:20.750
who we mentioned before,
756
00:41:20.750 --> 00:41:21.883
Laura Reid,
757
00:41:23.220 --> 00:41:25.640
Marzena Wasikowska.
758
00:41:25.640 --> 00:41:27.830
I love that one of Marzena's
759
00:41:27.830 --> 00:41:31.723
with the child doing the somersault on the beach,
760
00:41:32.800 --> 00:41:34.580
such beautiful colours.
761
00:41:34.580 --> 00:41:36.513
And Tracy Ponich,
762
00:41:37.490 --> 00:41:39.868
the Elena in the bookshop.
763
00:41:39.868 --> 00:41:40.770
Oh yes.
764
00:41:40.770 --> 00:41:41.603
Yep, Suzanne.
765
00:41:42.810 --> 00:41:45.590
There's been a bit of a discussion about whether a portrait
766
00:41:45.590 --> 00:41:47.823
is a portrait if you can't see the face-
767
00:41:47.823 --> 00:41:49.640
Yes.
As exemplified by
768
00:41:49.640 --> 00:41:51.160
the winner here.
769
00:41:51.160 --> 00:41:54.900
But I think just to paraphrase that there's a general
770
00:41:54.900 --> 00:41:58.050
feeling that it is,
771
00:41:58.050 --> 00:42:00.030
and that people don't need to see the face.
772
00:42:00.030 --> 00:42:02.640
And in fact that can tell its own story.
773
00:42:02.640 --> 00:42:05.740
Jennifer Blau actually said her image purposefully
774
00:42:05.740 --> 00:42:07.870
hid the subject's face.
775
00:42:07.870 --> 00:42:10.090
And actually Marzena noted that
776
00:42:10.090 --> 00:42:12.840
she'd counted nine backs of people in this show.
777
00:42:12.840 --> 00:42:16.230
So she must've scrolled through all 79 finalists
778
00:42:16.230 --> 00:42:17.267
counting backs.
779
00:42:17.267 --> 00:42:18.860
(laughing)
780
00:42:18.860 --> 00:42:22.360
And that must be some sort of a record for a portrait show.
781
00:42:22.360 --> 00:42:25.093
Yes, I think, and then we had the
782
00:42:29.180 --> 00:42:31.320
renowned press photographer Mike Bowers
783
00:42:31.320 --> 00:42:36.320
here last week and he noted a decent number of dogs as well.
784
00:42:36.500 --> 00:42:38.550
So possibly next time I have a chat,
785
00:42:38.550 --> 00:42:43.270
it'll have to be those two themes backs of heads and pets,
786
00:42:43.270 --> 00:42:45.960
I think, oh, there's some cats in there too.
787
00:42:45.960 --> 00:42:46.793
Aha!
788
00:42:46.793 --> 00:42:47.626
Yes.
789
00:42:47.626 --> 00:42:48.820
Always good to have a cat in a portrait.
790
00:42:48.820 --> 00:42:49.653
(Sandra laughs)
791
00:42:49.653 --> 00:42:52.090
We do have some other questions
792
00:42:53.080 --> 00:42:55.160
from Amy she'd like to know more about
793
00:42:55.160 --> 00:42:58.160
how the judges aesthetic tastes influenced
794
00:42:58.160 --> 00:43:03.023
the decision and how you keep the price diverse.
795
00:43:03.890 --> 00:43:06.090
Yes, it's an interesting proposition.
796
00:43:06.090 --> 00:43:06.923
Isn't it?
797
00:43:08.210 --> 00:43:10.810
What goes on in the minds of the judges?
798
00:43:10.810 --> 00:43:14.500
We have different judges every year
799
00:43:14.500 --> 00:43:17.810
and we always have three judges.
800
00:43:17.810 --> 00:43:19.450
One represents the gallery
801
00:43:19.450 --> 00:43:22.410
is always a member of the curatorial staff.
802
00:43:22.410 --> 00:43:26.380
And then we will have two externals people that come in,
803
00:43:26.380 --> 00:43:28.440
ideally, a photographer
804
00:43:28.440 --> 00:43:33.440
and then often the third person would be another curator
805
00:43:33.610 --> 00:43:35.520
from another institution
806
00:43:35.520 --> 00:43:39.380
or another part of our gallery and museum sector.
807
00:43:39.380 --> 00:43:43.383
And so this year with Karen, Nick, and Bill,
808
00:43:44.530 --> 00:43:47.760
we did wonder particularly, I think with Bill,
809
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:50.220
how much his own
810
00:43:50.220 --> 00:43:51.053
aesthetic
811
00:43:52.920 --> 00:43:55.900
style would maybe influence the works
812
00:43:55.900 --> 00:43:58.880
that he was particularly drawn to.
813
00:43:58.880 --> 00:43:59.800
And I think
814
00:44:00.910 --> 00:44:03.760
there is a case for a little bit of that.
815
00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:06.390
For those of you who have seen the exhibition
816
00:44:06.390 --> 00:44:07.960
or had a look at some of,
817
00:44:07.960 --> 00:44:10.190
or had a look at the finalist works,
818
00:44:10.190 --> 00:44:14.570
you probably will see that there are some
819
00:44:14.570 --> 00:44:19.130
works that do resonate probably with Henson's own practise
820
00:44:19.130 --> 00:44:20.390
to a certain extent
821
00:44:21.482 --> 00:44:22.315
or have
822
00:44:25.270 --> 00:44:27.863
sort of links to them, if you like.
823
00:44:29.080 --> 00:44:33.220
But the important thing about having more than one judge
824
00:44:33.220 --> 00:44:34.440
is that it does
825
00:44:35.800 --> 00:44:38.280
by its very nature diversify
826
00:44:39.590 --> 00:44:43.840
what we end up with as a result,
827
00:44:43.840 --> 00:44:46.950
because every individual person comes to art
828
00:44:46.950 --> 00:44:49.160
from a different perspective.
829
00:44:49.160 --> 00:44:50.800
You would know that yourself,
830
00:44:50.800 --> 00:44:53.090
you're not necessarily going to like the same thing
831
00:44:53.090 --> 00:44:55.540
or appreciate is probably a better word.
832
00:44:55.540 --> 00:44:58.730
You're not necessarily going to appreciate the same thing
833
00:44:58.730 --> 00:44:59.890
as the person next to you.
834
00:44:59.890 --> 00:45:00.723
And
835
00:45:01.890 --> 00:45:03.060
so when we have
836
00:45:04.370 --> 00:45:06.850
two directors of galleries
837
00:45:06.850 --> 00:45:09.550
who have been in the industry for a long time and have
838
00:45:10.620 --> 00:45:15.570
a very, very good understanding of contemporary art practise
839
00:45:15.570 --> 00:45:18.420
and then have a contemporary photographer
840
00:45:18.420 --> 00:45:20.350
at the peak of his career,
841
00:45:20.350 --> 00:45:24.260
I think that we find that we end up with
842
00:45:24.260 --> 00:45:25.810
a spread of work that
843
00:45:27.460 --> 00:45:28.350
you can
844
00:45:31.370 --> 00:45:33.750
hope and ideally trust.
845
00:45:33.750 --> 00:45:37.677
It starts from a position of very strong, rigorous,
846
00:45:37.677 --> 00:45:41.000
robust works in and of themselves as artworks first,
847
00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:42.320
I would tend to think.
848
00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:47.320
Artworks first and then I guess biography second
849
00:45:47.780 --> 00:45:49.900
or even story second.
850
00:45:49.900 --> 00:45:54.900
When your being asked to consider more than 3000 images,
851
00:45:55.620 --> 00:45:58.690
it has to be image first that you look at it as a judge
852
00:45:58.690 --> 00:46:02.130
because you don't necessarily have the time to
853
00:46:03.300 --> 00:46:05.720
even necessarily read the artist's statements,
854
00:46:05.720 --> 00:46:07.150
let alone look at the name
855
00:46:07.150 --> 00:46:10.190
of the photographer, the artist.
856
00:46:10.190 --> 00:46:11.510
You've got so much to go through.
857
00:46:11.510 --> 00:46:13.820
It's got to be those compositions,
858
00:46:13.820 --> 00:46:15.690
the visuals that grab you
859
00:46:15.690 --> 00:46:18.700
that make you want to learn more about it,
860
00:46:18.700 --> 00:46:20.380
find out what's going on,
861
00:46:20.380 --> 00:46:24.653
potentially know who took the photograph in the first place.
862
00:46:27.330 --> 00:46:29.090
Sandra we've probably only got time
863
00:46:29.090 --> 00:46:31.360
for one more question and then we'll need to wrap up.
864
00:46:31.360 --> 00:46:33.970
But there was a question from our audience here
865
00:46:33.970 --> 00:46:36.250
in the Liangis Theatre,
866
00:46:36.250 --> 00:46:40.470
just noting that some of the previous winners recently
867
00:46:40.470 --> 00:46:41.893
have been,
868
00:46:41.893 --> 00:46:44.420
the portraits have been part of commercial shoots
869
00:46:44.420 --> 00:46:47.410
and some of the portraits
870
00:46:47.410 --> 00:46:50.200
in the finalist selection
871
00:46:50.200 --> 00:46:53.050
had maybe stylists or artistic directors
872
00:46:53.050 --> 00:46:53.883
or that sort of thing.
873
00:46:53.883 --> 00:46:57.470
And how much does that impact on
874
00:46:57.470 --> 00:47:01.630
their ability to get through to the final stages
875
00:47:04.706 --> 00:47:06.340
of the prize.
876
00:47:06.340 --> 00:47:08.930
So to potentially winning the ultimate
877
00:47:10.287 --> 00:47:11.530
$50,000 worth of-
878
00:47:11.530 --> 00:47:13.680
As compared to the person walking down the street
879
00:47:13.680 --> 00:47:16.360
taking a photo of two people eating
880
00:47:16.360 --> 00:47:17.548
takeaway in a car.
881
00:47:17.548 --> 00:47:18.381
(Robert and Sandra laughs)
882
00:47:18.381 --> 00:47:19.214
Yes.
883
00:47:20.104 --> 00:47:25.104
Well, I think,
884
00:47:25.183 --> 00:47:27.423
I think when it comes down to it,
885
00:47:28.350 --> 00:47:30.290
it is often pretty clear what is,
886
00:47:30.290 --> 00:47:33.030
what could be considered documentary portrait,
887
00:47:33.030 --> 00:47:34.460
say for example,
888
00:47:34.460 --> 00:47:38.120
Young Finn steering the dinghy away from Mallacoota
889
00:47:38.120 --> 00:47:40.310
that is absolutely a documentary portrait
890
00:47:41.300 --> 00:47:42.973
versus something like,
891
00:47:44.010 --> 00:47:47.260
Benny Capp's photograph of Marty
892
00:47:47.260 --> 00:47:49.090
in his constructed living room.
893
00:47:49.090 --> 00:47:51.630
I mean, it's very clear that one has high production values
894
00:47:51.630 --> 00:47:54.480
and one is of the moment.
895
00:47:54.480 --> 00:47:58.090
But when it comes down to it,
896
00:47:58.090 --> 00:48:01.400
this year's winning work shows that
897
00:48:01.400 --> 00:48:05.683
regardless of whether something is shot on a set or not,
898
00:48:07.990 --> 00:48:10.410
sometimes it's just being in the right place
899
00:48:10.410 --> 00:48:11.840
at the right time.
900
00:48:11.840 --> 00:48:15.766
Joel was working when he was out at Forbes,
901
00:48:15.766 --> 00:48:19.860
but he did not stage this photograph.
902
00:48:19.860 --> 00:48:23.293
David was walking away from him and he took the shot.
903
00:48:24.580 --> 00:48:25.730
And so I think-
904
00:48:25.730 --> 00:48:29.320
It did sound yeah, quite in the moment.
905
00:48:29.320 --> 00:48:30.360
Yes.
When he was talking.
906
00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:33.600
Yes, and I think the other thing to remember,
907
00:48:33.600 --> 00:48:35.370
just like any other medium,
908
00:48:35.370 --> 00:48:40.370
whether someone's a painter, a sculptor, a photographer,
909
00:48:42.360 --> 00:48:45.010
different talents as an artist,
910
00:48:45.010 --> 00:48:46.670
different creative skills
911
00:48:47.800 --> 00:48:49.740
show themselves in different ways.
912
00:48:49.740 --> 00:48:53.650
And so some photographers are at their best
913
00:48:53.650 --> 00:48:56.330
when they can put a lot of work
914
00:48:56.330 --> 00:49:00.010
into constructing what it is they want to capture,
915
00:49:00.010 --> 00:49:02.080
and some photographers work better
916
00:49:04.696 --> 00:49:08.630
when they use a more instinctual approach to their craft.
917
00:49:08.630 --> 00:49:10.000
And that is the same
918
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:12.320
as I say with other mediums,
919
00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:15.090
it's kind of, I guess like comparing
920
00:49:17.990 --> 00:49:19.400
Leonardo da Vinci with
921
00:49:21.320 --> 00:49:23.480
Jackson Pollock, you know what I mean?
922
00:49:23.480 --> 00:49:25.330
There are so many different ways
923
00:49:25.330 --> 00:49:27.240
for an artist to use their medium
924
00:49:27.240 --> 00:49:31.120
and the thing that I love the most about
925
00:49:31.120 --> 00:49:34.270
our National Photographic Portrait Prize is,
926
00:49:34.270 --> 00:49:36.640
we get the gamut these days.
927
00:49:36.640 --> 00:49:39.070
If we didn't and if we weren't willing to accept it,
928
00:49:39.070 --> 00:49:40.750
we wouldn't have a Zoom portrait
929
00:49:40.750 --> 00:49:43.640
and we would not have a mobile phone portrait.
930
00:49:43.640 --> 00:49:47.060
And I'm very happy that they're now part of this dialogue
931
00:49:47.060 --> 00:49:47.910
and this story.
932
00:49:47.910 --> 00:49:49.850
There's a huge amount of diversity
933
00:49:49.850 --> 00:49:51.380
on those walls.
Yes.
934
00:49:55.870 --> 00:49:57.730
I think that's all we've got time for.
935
00:49:57.730 --> 00:50:00.590
Thank you so much, Sandra, for all of those insights,
936
00:50:00.590 --> 00:50:03.620
I feel, I know a lot more about the portraits
937
00:50:03.620 --> 00:50:04.820
in Living Memory:
938
00:50:04.820 --> 00:50:07.303
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2021.
939
00:50:08.666 --> 00:50:11.290
And actually I suspect many of us will go and do
940
00:50:11.290 --> 00:50:12.240
a bit more research,
941
00:50:12.240 --> 00:50:15.280
because all of those finalists in the exhibition
942
00:50:15.280 --> 00:50:18.740
are able to be accessed on our website,
943
00:50:18.740 --> 00:50:20.130
portrait.gov.au
944
00:50:21.550 --> 00:50:25.730
with a bit of extra information about the portrait.
945
00:50:25.730 --> 00:50:27.830
So do go and check that out.
946
00:50:27.830 --> 00:50:32.300
Keep in touch with us through our social media @portraitau
947
00:50:32.300 --> 00:50:33.700
or on our Facebook.
948
00:50:33.700 --> 00:50:37.190
It was great to hear all of your chat messages
949
00:50:37.190 --> 00:50:40.220
and observations today from our Zoom audience
950
00:50:40.220 --> 00:50:42.500
and from our Facebook audience.
951
00:50:42.500 --> 00:50:46.310
We will actually be going back and reading those
952
00:50:47.440 --> 00:50:50.710
and just in a bit more detail.
953
00:50:50.710 --> 00:50:52.690
Look, I know everyone around Australia
954
00:50:52.690 --> 00:50:56.000
is in different stages at the moment of lockdown
955
00:50:56.000 --> 00:50:59.970
or stay at home orders and those sorts of things,
956
00:50:59.970 --> 00:51:03.380
we send our best wishes and our thoughts out to everyone.
957
00:51:03.380 --> 00:51:05.780
We hope our virtual programs coming out
958
00:51:05.780 --> 00:51:07.640
from the National Portrait Gallery
959
00:51:07.640 --> 00:51:11.903
give you some sort of outlet in these interesting times.
960
00:51:15.100 --> 00:51:17.110
If you're close do come down,
961
00:51:17.110 --> 00:51:18.540
if you're in the Canberra region,
962
00:51:18.540 --> 00:51:19.930
come down and see Living Memory,
963
00:51:19.930 --> 00:51:22.850
otherwise access it through our website.
964
00:51:22.850 --> 00:51:24.920
I did just wanna do a shout out that
965
00:51:24.920 --> 00:51:26.810
we do have the People's Choice Awards,
966
00:51:26.810 --> 00:51:30.290
so if you go to the website, you can vote for your choice.
967
00:51:30.290 --> 00:51:33.580
And that may be quite different from the judge's choice.
968
00:51:33.580 --> 00:51:37.620
And the photographer who receives the most votes
969
00:51:37.620 --> 00:51:41.840
will receive $5,000 from the David Roche Foundation.
970
00:51:41.840 --> 00:51:46.360
So you've got until October 17 to vote for
971
00:51:46.360 --> 00:51:47.950
the People's Choice Award
972
00:51:47.950 --> 00:51:52.010
and you can reward the lucky photographer.
973
00:51:52.010 --> 00:51:53.300
Thanks very much for joining us.
974
00:51:53.300 --> 00:51:55.770
Thank you to everyone here in the theatre
975
00:51:55.770 --> 00:51:58.470
and stay safe Australia.
976
00:51:58.470 --> 00:52:01.170
We'll see you in our next virtual program,
977
00:52:01.170 --> 00:52:03.680
or if possible, if you can get down here
978
00:52:03.680 --> 00:52:05.730
to the National Portrait Gallery.
979
00:52:05.730 --> 00:52:07.273
Goodbye.
980
00:52:07.273 --> 00:52:10.273
(audience clapping)