Photographic exhibition

Press, 24 November 1982, Page 34

Photographic exhibition

“Face To Face.” An exhibition of photographs at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery until December 14. Reviewed by John Hurrell. The title of this exhibition is a good catchphrase, but not really applicable in many of these photographic portraits. The suggestion of an almost confrontational tension between sitter and viewer is accurate only for a few works, for most do not bring direct eye contact, or loom large enough to suggest close facial proximity. Of the 27 exhibits, six contain no faces at all, and of those that do, many emphasise most, if not all, of the subject’s body. Glenn Busch’s offering of a man leaning against a wall, is unsettling due to the unrelenting intensity of the subject’s gaze, even though his head takes up a relatively small part of the picture. More menacing is Paul Johns’ portrait of a tousled-

haired youth glowering petulantly at the camera. It is distinctive because it is taken looking down over the subject’s head, and not from a frontal position. The low angle of the sitter’s eyes adds to the threatening tone of the photograph. Exuding poise and elegance, a young woman in Glenn Smith’s sepia-tinted photo sits confidently in a long-armed chair, as if it were a throne. Her aristocratic manner is disrupted by the presence of paint or ink on her hands, a sly twist which gives this work an edge over other more fashion-conscious exhibits present. Qualities of a soft golden light are superbly exploited in Christine Lloyd-Fitt’s photograph of her sister, “Jacky with Fem.” What is more interesting however, is the hint of playfulness in the positioning of the model’s arms. The left, bearing two prominent tattoos, is in a

slightly macho pose, forming a right angle at her elbow as her forearm crosses her waist. With her right hand holding a frond of dried up brown fem, she demurely covers her right breast. The contradictory sexual poses on each side of the photograph make this a particularly intriguing work. • How an adult contemplates his childhood anxieties is explored in Athol McCredie’s double self-por-trait. Two Polaroids, show an adult in a pensive pose, and also a boy, 10 or 12 years earlier, standing sullen in a lake with a toy boat. The physiological and psychological changes he has gone through make these compelling images. There is much of interest in this exhibition for the astute observer. The range of techniques and variety of subject matter, even if digressing from the stated theme, make this show worth a couple of visits.