Flatlands is a new exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales that features works by 23 Australian and international artists drawn from the Gallery’s collection of 20th-century and contemporary photography.
The display examines photography’s role in transforming the way we perceive, organise and imagine the everyday world, by looking at the changing ways photographers have depicted public and private environments. At its birth in the 19th century, photography seemed the perfect tool for representation and classification of even the most elusive phenomena. Yet by the turn of the 20th century photographic objectivity was under question ““ limited, as it was, to freezing single moments or viewpoints in time. Technological advancements, such as faster exposure times, have revealed the medium’s ability to show dimensions of our daily environments that have remained hidden from the eye.
This free exhibition explores perceptions of everyday space ““ realms of emotion, memory and desire ““ where real and imaginary boundaries become blurred. It opens today and runs until 3 February, 2013. A 30-minute talk about the exhibition by Vigen Galstyan, assistant curator, photographs, will be held on Wednesday 19 September 2012 at 5.30pm in the Photography Gallery. Admission is free. For details, phone (02) 9225 1744 or email artmail@ag.nsw.gov.au.
Footnote: Eugø¨ne Atget: Old Paris exhibition, which opened on 24 August, is scheduled to close on 4 November. This display of more than 200 rare and original prints from the founder of documentary photography is showcased in a major exhibition. Rarely permitted to travel due to their fragile nature, loans come primarily from the Musø©e Carnavalet, Paris, alongside the selection of prints compiled by Man Ray from George Eastman House, Rochester, USA. The Art Gallery of New South Wales is the only Australian venue.
