Image credit: Michael Torres

Head On is excited to present an exhibition in collaboration with aMBUSH Gallery at Kambri, ANU in Canberra.

Where I Stand is a carefully curated selection of artworks from six iconic Australian photographers – Michael Cook, Dr. Judith Crispin, Sarah Ducker, Murray Fredericks, Barbara McGrady and Michael Jalaru Torres.

Curated by Head On director Moshe Rosenzveig OAM and Bill Dimas from aMBUSH Gallery, the works will be shown along Exhibition Avenue at the Kambri Centre at ANU, a new outdoor public art space.

Where I Stand is a stirring photographic exhibition that tells visual tales captured simply but powerfully in single frames. These 24 intensely personal works take viewers into realms of transformation, rebirth, identity, history, nature, connection and the Dreamtime.

Image credit: Martin Ollman

Participating artists

Michael Jalaru Torres (VIC) is an Indigenous photographer and media professional inspired by the unique landscapes and people of the Kimberley region. His photography draws on his personal history and explores contemporary social and political issues facing Indigenous people. Much of his work involves conceptual and innovative portraiture and abstract landscape photography.

Murray Fredericks (NSW) studied politics and economics at Sydney University before traveling in the Middle East and in the Himalayas. Spending large amounts of time in these powerful locations provided the basis for his essentially self-taught photography. Some years into his exhibiting career he completed a Masters of Art and then his MFA. His work is derived from a perspective that views culture as something that cannot be wholly accounted for through social construct.

Dr. Judith Crispin (ACT) is a Canberra-based poet and visual artist, with a background in music. Her work includes themes of displacement and identity loss, a reflection on her own lost Aboriginal ancestry, but primarily it is centred on the concept of connection with Country.

Sarah Ducker (NSW) has a creative life that’s evolved through a number of different media, from theatre direction to documentary filmmaking, before finding its most eloquent expression in photography. Regardless of the subject matter, Sarah’s work reflects the pure charisma of nature through a refined and sensitive eye. Every image is invested with the lyricism of the poetic in nature.

Barbara McGrady (QLD/NSW) is a Gamilaroi/Gomeroi Murri Yinah (Woman) and a passionate advocate for telling the true stories of contemporary Aboriginal life, documenting her mob’s achievements, humanity and beauty through a unique lens. As both an observer and protagonist in the ongoing conflict between Aboriginal culture, spiritual connection to country and Australian colonial sensibilities, McGrady clearly defines the implications of this disconnect in her work.

Michael Cook (QLD) is an award-winning photographer who worked commercially in Australia and overseas for twenty-five years. In 2009, he began to make art photography, driven by an increasingly urgent desire to explore issues of identity. His photographic series are unique in their approach, evocatively recreating incidents that emerge from Australian colonial history.

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Head On Photo Awards 2024

Entries to the Head On Photo Awards 2024 open in May/June.

Image detail: Gary Ramage