Photographs busy -to a fault

Press, 6 December 1977, Page 15

Photographs busy -to a fault

Colour photography by Grant Sheehan, on display at the Photographer’s Gallery — Artists Quarter until December 20. Prices 822 - $27. Reviewer: Lioyd Park. ■ Viewers of this show are confronted with an unusual display of multiple images, printed on silk-textured paper, loosely attached to black mounts.

The subjects of the photographs are landscapes, female faces and bodies, sometimes combined with pen and ink drawings.

In the smaller gallery, the woman’s face and body is portrayed by a prismatic lens attachment, which breaks and merges and sometimes muddles into complex patterns. The photographer has tried to make something exciting with his split images, but because of too many, and disturbingly unrelated, shapes, the final result is something of an enigma. The one picture which benefits by the prismatic

effect is of the Wizard, in the Square. He has been captured in one of his flamboyant gestures, surrounded by a kaleidoscope of softly merging images of Cathedral and onlookers.

The larger gallery has a set of pen, ink and brush drawings combined with photographs of a young girl. Here she has been cut and pasted amidst the artwork. Her body, stretched and broken, is encompassed within sweeping shapes and circles, a little reminiscent of Art Nouveau illustration. Also, in this area are three snap shot type sunsets. These appear to have been taken at random, one with a very crooked horizon. A refreshing change from the other contrived photographs is a well observed and well composed print of twisted branches. 1 his sepia* like picture has the appearance of reflections in water, and can be viewed with enjoyment.