RePRESENTING the REAL - Documentary Photography

Photography, video and film have always had an intimate relationship to reality. In recent times, however, the line distinguishing reality from fantasy has been blurred by artists and theorists alike who have emphasised that the idea of photographic 'truth' is a highly relative one. They stress that every 'truth' is subject to interpretation and that in this, the photographer, the subject of the photograph and the viewer and complicit in creating meaning.

The increasing influence of the digital in photography is another reason documentary photography has undergone changes in status. The veracity of the image is in question in that the possibilities for manipulation are boundless and conventions for the usage of manipulated images within the media must be set.

Documentary photographers have been forced to find new and larger forms of presentation to maintain attention against art photography which embraced scale from the 1980's on. In this exhibition you will see work on a diverse range of photographic styles and subjects ranging from the world stage; panoramas from the war in Afghanistan by Stephen Dupont, portraits of Wast Timorese people by Jon Lewis, to local events and politics; bushfires near Sydney last summer by Dean Sewell, Australian politicians by Roger Scott, Aboriginal portraits by Ricky Maynard, to images of the everyday; creative interpretations of people in public places by Trent Parke and Narelle Autio, impressions of suburbia by Gerrit Fokkema, Glenn Sloggett and Steven Lojewski. There are also slide shows by Wiliam Yang, Fiona Morris and Peter Milne.

This exhibition was first seen at Sir Hermann Black Gallery, University of Sydney Union in July 2002 as part two of a three part collaboration between Stills Gallery and The Sir Hermann Black Gallery showing themed photographic shows.

Photographers included in the exhibition are: Narelle Autio, Donna Bailey, Ella Dreyfus, Stephen Dupont, Michelle Eabry, Gerrit Fokkema, Lorrie Graham, Jon Lewis, Steven Lojewski, Ricky Maynard, Peter Milne, Fiona Morris, Trent Parke, Roger Scott, Jon Rhodes, Dean Sewell, Glenn Sloggett, William Yang.