Lens Love: six photographers present their work in Canberra

Six photographers from the Canberra region are exhibiting their work at the Canberra Museum + Gallery until 23 February 2014.

The six photographers include:

Denise Ferris with The colour of snow 2013 and The long hot summer 2010 – inkjet prints

John Reid with Walking the Solar System 2011, Fishman Documentation 1988-1989, Fishman Domain 1988, and Self Portrait 1989 and 1994 – prints, inkjet prints, and videos

Marzena Wasikowska with 6 inkjet prints including from the series Kai at … 2004-2013 (photographed in this blog)

Lee Grant with Belco pride 2006-2013, Oriental dinner 2007, and The Korea project 2011-2015

Cathy Laudenbach with The beauty and the terror 2013 and inkjet prints from the series The familiars 2009-2011

Martyn Jolly with ACT Bushfire Memorial images and Faces of the living dead 2001

Each photographer presents an intimate portrayal of family, home, domestic life, cultural similarities and differences, local landscapes, history, shadows, and themselves. The sub-title of Lens Love is “The Tender Gaze of Six Canberra Region Photographers” – and this is particularly true of the images of people: a close-up, a colour, a stance, the growth from a boy to a man, or a subject intently concentrating on an activity - unaware of the photographer. The notes provided indicate that “the gaze” is “a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.” In this exhibit “the tender gaze” is almost the opposite of power and superiority – it is more about understanding, empathy, curiosity, and an exploration of feelings and emotions.