Life-Time Book 1. Coming of age, by Greg Dickens Canberra Re-Seen, by multiple artists, curated by Wouter Van de Voorde, designed by Caitlin Seymour-King and published by PhotoAccess EDGE, by Kayla Adams
--- PhotoAccess is delighted to launch three independently published photo-books all examining the city of Canberra as a place of social, cultural and political significance. Each photographer explores their personal relationship to the city, as well as considering its wider, public meaning as a national capital.
Mr. Kyle Wilson, ex-diplomat with postings in Moscow, Warsaw, and China, will formally launch the books. Beyond his extensive career in Foreign Affairs and the Russian language, Wilson is also a theatre and cinema reviewer. His political understanding of Canberra is especially relevant at this time of conflict in Ukraine. Please join us for an evening of memory, musings and contemplation on the city we call home.
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Greg Dickens has spent his working life as a journalist and media consultant, but always had a passion for photography. Greg picked up a 35mm SLR camera as a teen in the late 1960s, at a time of great social, political and cultural change. Since then he has maintained a permanent darkroom, working mostly in black & white. Life-Time Book 1. Coming of age is the first in a series of photobooks by Greg Dickens, cataloguing his life and the world around him through the camera lens. A Canberran resident from 1952-73, Book 1. centres Greg's experiences of student revelry and family intimacy against the backdrop of anti-Vietnam war protests and rallies to establish an Aboriginal embassy. As a record of our city as it looked and felt 50 years ago, this volume shows us the extent to which Canberra has evolved and changed through time.
--- Canberra Re-Seen was an exhibition at PhotoAccess in 2021, that explored the idea of our city as a community of people, a built environment, and a physical landscape. Developed in collaboration with Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG), the project brought together sixteen artists to create new work responding to three of Canberra’s landmark photographers – Marzena Wasikowska, Edward (Ted) Richards and Ian North – all part of the CMAG collection.
Curated by Wouter Van de Voorde, Canberra Re-Seen has been translated in to a publication that selects and interweaves work from across this broader project, drawing together digital and darkroom works to generate a simultaneously affectionate and challenging look at our city and what it means to live here today. Canberra Re-Seen features the work of Andrea Bryant, Brian Rope, Caroline Lemerle, Eva Schroeder, Greg McAnulty, Louise Maurer, Susan Henderson, Abby Ching, Aditi Sargent, Annette Fisher, Peter Bailey, Sari Sutton, Tessa Ivison, Anna Rapp, Beata Tworek, Grant Winkler, Peter Lamour and Yvette Perine.
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Kayla Adams grew up in Canberra, and first took up film photography as an escape in school. She has now been photographing Canberra’s urban landscape for over ten years. Adams briefly attended the ANU School of Art, has exhibited with PhotoAccess and was published in PhotoAccess’ 2013 publication, 100 Views of Canberra. Over time, Adams has developed an impressive body of work examining the physical and cultural significance of Woden tower in South Canberra. This has culminated in her first self-published title, EDGE.
EDGE is a look at the urban and built environment of the Woden town centre through the idea of 'Edge City'. Edge City is an urban planning phenomenon where new, separate cities spring up around older, established ones. Be they planned extensions to existing places or organically born next to highways or shopping malls, these new cities bring with them new identities and notions of place.
Pictorially, people are absent from Adams’ work but the artist’s presence as author is nevertheless evident. Through her distinctive use of viewpoints, Adams draws the viewer irresistibly into the process of seeing, creating an intimate complicity between artist, image and audience.
All three books are available for purchase at the PhotoAccess gallery.