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CCP Melbourne

category

General Photography Photographic Technique

author

Graham Miller

Like many organisations CCP have felt the need to offer up a grand title as a way of drawing visitors.  Fair enough really and they had a number of exhibitions going on despite having only three rooms.  One of the projects I particularly liked was by Lyndal Walker and was entitled La Toilette d’une Femme which featured images of women dressing up in their home situations.  One other visitor to the gallery summed it up as she walked passed me and said out loud “I really like these’ and I had to agree and we both smiled.

Another project by David Griggs featured tatoo’d ex prisoners in Manila.  I wasn’t so sure about what he was trying to achieve as at first the subjects were facing the wall as if being frisked and then they had hoodies covering their heads so they couldn’t be identified and then when I thought there was a theme of anonymity emerging we had some portraits showing the subjects plain as day looking into the camera. All were exposing some amazing tatoos on their bodies.  He was in Manila for two months and there were twelve images.  I was wondering where you would you start to reduce such a project to twelve and while I was kind of neutral on the work maybe he had spoiled it for me by making the wrong choices.  Some of the images were striking, one in particular, and all that achieved for me was a distortion.  Maybe that image ,as good as it was, should have been left out.

My thoughts as I walked away from the gallery were again on how important access is and how then we must make the most of the precious situations we get ourselves into.  Thats not to ignore our obligations to our subjects who have allowed into their private space.

Lyndal Walker achieved that in spades and worth the visit alone

David Griggs sorry its a miss

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