Beyond Recognition

Notions of disclosure and authentication are persistently associated with photography. As a consequence the photographic portrait is paramount in the validation of identity, and is commonly used for that purpose.

Contemporary artists use photography to expand accepted concepts of identity — both in describing individual characteristics and in the representation of social or political classifications. In this exhibition, portraits encompass more than recognisable likenesses of people: identity is defined also in descriptions of their surroundings, allusions to memories and dreams or in the portrayal of public personae.

The majority of works represented consist of series or sequences of photographs, installations built up from numerous images, or single photographs that have layers of identities. Inviting comparisons between these elements, the artists confirm that identity exists as much in the differences and similarities of parallel things as in the intrinsic qualities of the objects themselves.

The presentation of works also challenges the viewer. Photographs are not always hung at eye level on gallery walls, and scale is exploited — we must stand well back to read an image, or perhaps peer right into it to decipher minute details.

Many of the following artists have trained in areas other than photography and the camera is iust another tool. They are not constrained by conventions of photography, and are influenced by various traditions such as conceptual art. The dominant motivation, however, arises from mass media. Acknowledging the impossibility of any interrogation of contemporary culture without referring to this force, these artists have embraced photography as the most immediate and relevant medium for their current concerns.