"we need to be somewhere safe, somewhere that's secure, somewhere that's... big." - shaun

i just got home from federation square, melbourne, where the national gallery of victoria is holding an awesome photography exhibit organised by the art gallery of new south wales.

a huge thanks to chris maher for inviting me along to melbourne-based photographer bill henson's "three decades of photography" exhibit.

the exhibit takes up 8 gallery rooms of fed sequare with photographs from top to bottom of all the walls. half of his work is done in a photojournalistic kind of way, all in black and white and are just plain awesome. the other half features colour photography, photomanipulation, and abstract collages.

i found myself drawn particularly to the black and whites; they're mainly of masses of people in the streets, busy with thier own things.. and while they fill the the entire frame of the photo, it's looks as though each figure is in their own world. alone.

henson adds to this kind of mysterious aura by using a soft focus on most of his work, giving it a hazy, dream-like atmosphere. furthermore, his colour work adopts a subtle blue/green hue, giving an effect of both abstraction and (i can't think of a word to describe it). simply brilliant.

it makes me want to drop everything i'm doing atm and pick up my camera again.

the exhibit runs until JULY 7th, $10 entry, and worth every cent.

-LOki