TRENT PARKE

In 2009 Trent Parke was commissioned by Sydney Opera House, as an artist in residence, to shoot behind the scenes. With his characteristic originality and imagination Please step quietly everyone can hear you takes us with him backstage. Working amidst the darkness, with strictly choreographed logistics, bizarre props and long hours, he captures, with frankness and affection a side of Sydney Opera House few of us have ever seen. The images that resulted from this exciting collaboration were exhibited in complementary exhibitions at Sydney Opera House and at Stills Gallery.

Trent Parke’s dark and humorous series, The Christmas Tree Bucket, described by Alasdair Foster (Director, ACP) as “a gritty gothic tale of a nightmare lurking in the suburban shadows”, was launched at the Australian Centre for Photography and was also premiered at ParisPhoto by Stills Gallery in 2008. “I started to think how strange families, suburbia, life…and in particular Christmas, really was,” says Parke of his decision to focus on the joys and pitfalls of family life.

Welcome to Nowhere, which was included in Magnum’s 60th Anniversary show New Blood, and exhibited at Stills Gallery in 2007, firmly establishes his ability to work with spectacular results in colour as well as his signature powerful black and white. Following the series Coming Soon, an exploration of urban spaces in colour, Welcome to Nowhere focuses on Australian backwaters, shot on medium format film to maintain fine detail even when printed large-scale. With Welcome To Nowhere Parke continues to create arresting tableaus that are magical in the stories they tell. Often absent of human presence the strong colours and formal composition, convey a stillness with surreal affect. Conversely, the humorous Man Vomiting testifies to Parke’s ability to capture unforeseen moments of human behaviour, or in the case of the iconic Sharkbay WA, it is a bizarre gang of emus who seem to think they own the town.