SOFT AROUND THE EDGES - Artist Talk FRIDAY 18th August 2006, 6pm @ HQ Gallery. 15 Kingston Ave Richmond. Please come along for free drinks, information, and inspiration! For groups of 5 or more, please email sam@silvertrace.com so that we can arrange enough glasses! See you then..
Update 8 August 2006:
NEW HEADQUARTERS FOR THE CHAMPIONS OF BLUR
HQ Gallery is a new gallery located at the exciting media arts collective at Headquarters in Richmond.
For its inaugural public exhibition, timed for SALA Festival 2006, HQ Gallery presents ‘Soft Around The Edges’, an exhibition of “low-fi” contemporary photography by leading South Australian photographers. The exhibition brings together recent work captured using ‘low-end’ film based equipment. These artists have turned their back on buzz-phrases such as ‘high resolution’, ‘mega pixels’ and ‘superb optics’ to produce work that speaks to the heart more than the mind. Their cameras are optically challenged- and proud of it! The artists describe working with these plastic lenses, dinky attachments, and home-made pinhole cameras as soulful and liberating. Subject matter ranges from striking landscapes to domestic interiors, and includes experimental portraits and the nude.
Soft Around the Edges presents work by Eric Algra, Don Brice, Simon Casson, Andrew Dunbar, Lachlan Millard, Sam Oster and Ronda Wallis. Also showing is Hardware, works by jeweler & sculptor Leonie Westbrook. The exhibition runs throughout SALA at HQ Gallery, upstairs @ Headquarters, 15 Kingston Ave Richmond Adelaide (open Tues to Sun 10am – 6pm)
SOFT AROUND THE EDGES has a wonderful catalogue designed by Andrew Smart, available as a PDF (1MB). You can download it here. The catalogue features artist statements and examples of each artist's work. Many thanks to Andrew for his fantastic design work. Here is a sample of one of the pages...
The Toy Camera Creed
Toy camera photographers eschew the modern developments of camera technology and the reliance on computerized exposure systems, motorized film transport, PPI, TTL, CCD, DOF, the drive for higher and higher resolution, for gizmos, gadgets and carbon fibre tripods.
They believe precise focus is over-rated and indeed a focusing ring to be a needless gimmick on your average camera.
They may however enjoy painting their Holga a pretty color.
Toy camera photographers are rebels who want to prove you can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
They may even make their own camera out of a biscuit tin.
They agree that depth of feeling is more important than depth of field. Toy camera photographers probably would probably get kicked out of the f64 club.
Toy cameras are for the artist within. It’s all about the photograph, not about the price of your gear.
Toy camera photographers would probably call themselves Neo Photo-Secessionists who believe in the intrinsic revelatory power of the snapshot, if they knew or cared what that means anyway.
They are also sick and tired of getting stiffed by ridiculous collector prices for old Dianas on e-bay.
Toy camera photographers believe:
"If it’s plastic, it’s fantastic”.
“I can never be bothered with dials and things anyway”.
“My camera is not a status symbol of my upwardly mobile social standing”.
“You may or may not use the viewfinder- it’s up to you”.
“It’s all just a bit of fun”