UWS lecturer explores the seeds of photographic possibility
Juliana Swatko, a photographer and lecturer from the University of Western Sydney, says the best way to find a place of comfort within the world is to surround oneself with nature.
In creating her latest exhibition, Hybrids – now on display at the UWS Art Gallery – she must have become very comfortable indeed. The images were made during visits to Sydney’s Botanical gardens.
“What you see in this exhibition, is a visual trace of my attention as I walked through the Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Mount Annan and Mount Tomah,” says Ms Swatko.
“The images are like a visual immersion in the gardens where the viewer is allowed an experiential sense of moving through the environment, just as they would see the scene themselves, without a camera.”
Ms Swatko achieved this desired effect using a primitive plastic camera that was not mechanized in any way. In some cases up to 30 exposures were layered over the top of each other, splicing slivers of time to produce images based in a photographic reality.
“The illusion presented by the optics of photography is that the world is sharp and precise all over, but vision does not actually work that way,” says Ms Swatko.
“The objects in the photos are positioned in multiple angles of view, and some are unclear and out of focus. What I sought to capture in the images was the feel of real vision – the way our eyes would naturally scan across an environment, with some objects in sharp focus and others blurred in our peripheral vision.”
Ms Swatko says the experimentation with old technologies is important part of her working process.
“I have always been interested in pushing and pulling around the edges of photography, and finding new ways of doing things that no one else is doing,” says Ms Swatko.
“The old camera was unpredictable, but that was the very quality I liked about it. This method of working produces a sprit of adventure in me, which keeps me going, and there hasn't been one roll of film that came back from processing without pleasantly surprising me.”
UWS Curator, Monica McMahon, says the Hybrids Exhibition has been very positively received by visitors to the UWS Art Gallery.
“People are really responding to Juliana’s use of full, rich colours, and the unique way that she has presented Sydney’s natural environments and landscapes,” says Ms McMahon.
“Some people describe the works as a dream-like depiction; a coral reef of flowers. For others, the fascinating way that the images overlap offered a spooky reminder of how our natural world is dissolvable and impermanent.”
Juliana Swatko, a lecturer in photo-media within the UWS School of Humanities and Communication Arts, has worked with the photographic medium for the past 35 years.
Hybrids forms part of the Head On photo festival.
WHAT: ‘Hybrids’ A photographic exhibition by Juliana Swatko
WHEN: Open until 29th June 2012
WHERE: UWS Art Gallery, Building AD, UWS Werrington North Campus, Great Western Highway, Werrington
Ends
16 April 2012
Photo: John Gonzaga
Mobile options:
