22 May — 29 June 2013
The exhibition has been extended to 31 July 2013.
Please note: some portraits have been collected since 1 July.
Exhibition Space
Level 2, Fisher Library F03
Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus
Open daily during Fisher Library opening times
Closed Sunday
Time Exposures: 60 Life Portraits now presents 42 composite grid photographs in black & white, in the style of traditional analogue photography akin to a contact sheet. Each portrait is made up of 25 images spanning the person’s life.
Each photograph celebrates from babyhood to the present life, people whose achievements Zwi admires and respects. Not all are high profile people, but many are: Eva Cox, Margaret Whitlam, Michael Kirby, John Coetzee, Bob Debus, Bruce Petty and David Stratton, to name only seven out of the 42 complete portraits. The collection of 42 portraits is represented by about half featuring women, and half of men. There are politicians, feminists, teachers, scientists, activists, environmentalists, refugees, filmmakers, writers, social commentators – the list goes on. The photographs supplied to Zwi have been sourced from personal photo albums and archives. Each composite portrait was a personal collaboration with the subject and the artist. The last portrait in each grid has been taken by Zwi herself.
Photographs address the photographer’s interest in memory, place, identity and history: each photo was taken in a time and place of different historical events. Zwi also finds it fascinating to see the changes as people grow up, mature and age; at what stage you see the ‘essence’ of the person, when their personalities are formed and their faces take on their identity. Zwi has chosen the people in these portraits as she feels they are making a difference in society in various ways – some intentionally and others simply in the way they contribute in their community.
Sharon Zwi was a finalist in the 2013 National Photographic Portrait Prize, at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, with portrait of David Stratton. Zwi studied Art and Photography at Reading University in the U.K. and Printmaking at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Zwi has taught art and photography and has exhibited at the Sydney’s Kodak Gallery. Her work is about the world we live in, the environment and people. Growing up in apartheid South Africa, social issues have always been of primary importance, and these are reflected in her art practice. Zwi moved from Johannesburg to the UK in her 20s and moved to Sydney in 1982, where she undertook more arts studies in Photography at TAFE and Museum Studies at the University of Sydney.
Contact
Rhonda Myers, Coordinator, Library Communications
T 9351 7266
E rhonda.myers@sydney.edu.au