If only we could take the time: contemporary Australian photography

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

If only we could take the time: contemporary Australian photography

Ying Ang, Katrin Koenning and Anu Kumar

National Portrait Gallery I 30 November 2024 – 1 June 2025 

This show is being staged alongside the major exhibition Carol Jerrems: Portraits. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG)’s website says that it spotlights the work of three contemporary Australian artists whose work sits in dialogue with Jerrems’ legacy.

The exhibition title is taken from Jerrems’ preface to her 1974 publication, A book about Australian women. ‘There is so much beauty around us if only we could take the time to open our eyes and perceive it. And then share it.’ The NPG correctly suggests that contemporary Australian photography considers how the impulse to observe, to record and to share continues to propel photographic practice in Australia.

The images by each artist have been arranged in groups and each arrangement is an artwork in itself contributing to the narrative. There is also a display case containing three books – one by each artist – adding further to the overall experience.

Ying Ang is an acclaimed photographer and author with an extensive exhibition history. Like Jerrems she also produces photobooks. Her 2021 self-published illustrated book The Quickening: a memoir on matrescence is being exhibited here – both on the walls and in the display case.

Installation view featuring The Quickening, 2022 by Ying Ang

The term matrescence refers to the life-changing experiences of new mothers. These artworks chronicle pregnancy and the first months of motherhood which follow. In order to portray the transition into motherhood, eerie images taken on baby monitors are contrasted with gentle photographic studies that capture emotions of joy and tenderness as well as anxiety, depression, and claustrophobia. On the reverse side of the large panel where the works are installed is a considerable volume of excellent text which should not be missed.

Sample of the text on reverse side of Ying Ang’s installation The Quickening, 2022

The Quickening, 2022 (detail) Ying Ang. Courtesy of the artist. © Ying Ang

The Quickening, 2022 (detail) Ying Ang. Courtesy of the artist. © Ying Ang

Katren Koenning is an artist who carefully considers colours, textures, and tones. She also produces photobooks as well as exhibiting. She groups images, using works possibly created decades apart to reveal a portrait of family, friends and kinship. In her exhibit titled where will the story take us, 2002-24, we see a tattered book and its shadow on a dusty surface, a cat at a window, people, and more. A trawl through her Instagram account reveals the diversity of her imagery and her passionate approach. The individual pieces in this installation do not disappoint. Her illustrated 2024 book between the skin and the sea is in the previously mentioned display case.

Installation view featuring where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) by Katren Koenning

where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) (detail) Katrin Koenning. Courtesy of the artist. © Katrin Koenning

where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) (detail) Katrin Koenning. Courtesy of the artist. © Katrin Koenning 

I met the third artist, Anu Kumar, at the exhibition launch party whilst exploring her Untitled images. I had asked another viewer of the artworks if he knew where a named place, Ghaziabad, was in India. He said it could be described as an outer suburb of New Delhi. Then he introduced me to his cousin – the artist. She told me Ghaziabad definitely wasn’t a place that tourists would want to visit.

And yes, like Jerrems, Ang and Koenning, Kumar also produces photobooks as well as exhibiting. Some of the works here are from two of her books – Ghar (meaning home in Hindi) which is displayed features images from her birthplace - Ghaziabad, and After the Havan (a prayer ritual). We see an excellent visual articulation of her exploration of family and place that she had left when just one year old. There are images of everyday objects and people - including an aged, framed photo in an unused sink and the worn feet of (probably) a family member. The totality of the displayed work is very much a portrait.

 

Installation view featuring Untitled, 2024 (detail) by Anu Kumar

Untitled, 2024 (detail) Anu Kumar. Courtesy of the artist. © Anu Kumar

Untitled, 2024 (detail) Anu Kumar. Courtesy of the artist. © Anu Kumar 

So have these three photographers taken the time to see the beauty around them? I certainly saw beauty in their varied imagery. Have they chronicled intimate relationships and used their cameras to connect us emotionally with the things they experienced? I believe they have, but emotional responses must be your own.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.