Photography

“You Looking at Me Looking at You” Ongoing Series

A selection of silver gelatin photographs from the series “You Looking at Me, Looking at You”, exhibiting in 2024.

“Memories of intimate shared experiences shot on holidays, road trips, in moments of life and love and loss. This series shows connected moments devoid of others. 

These unrefined portraits are technically inconsistent. They were taken at a decisive moment, guided by emotion, not photographic convention.

The photos capture moments that lean towards the vernacular, but hold a striking private emotion within the returned gaze. Moments seen through mirrors and glass and immortalised in silver.”

“Ghost Trash” Series

“Ghost Trash” is stories of suburban ephemera. I try to interpret an object’s narrative by collecting visual evidence, usually by observing it’s location or decay. I am intrinsically interested in tales of irony and tragedy, and through my imagined histories these discarded and neglected objects become my protagonists.

Many of the photos depict the consequences of consumerism upon society, from the innocent tales of children to the serious stories of living in a country where the cost of living is skyrocketing.

This ongoing series has been shot on my walks around my neighbourhood and around the world on a point and shoot camera, used to take quick captures because of the temporary nature of the objects.

Images from this series have been printed using chemistry based process in the darkroom. Some have been digitally printed on a larger scale on velvet fabric, taking small forgotten objects and enlarging them to elaborate their significance.

Humorous yet ernest, this series also hints at the impact of consumerism on the environment and how a disposable society exacerbates the degradation of our planet. 

“Bin” Series

This is a melted bin.
How did it get melted?
I do this thing called object personification, the attribution of human characteristics to non-human agents.
I have real emotions for this bin. I don’t quite know what they are, so i’ve been back to this bin every day this week trying to figure it out.
In the sun, in the rain, in the morning, in the late afternoon. Overcast and full sun, I’ve been trying to capture how this object makes me feel.
I’m going to keep going back until I figure it out. Or until the council unsticks it from the footpath.
I printed one of the photos out the other day. Then I set it on fire and put it in a bin.
Just to see how it felt.

This series of 126 photos won the 2023 Noel Counihan Art Award.

Chair

We’ve all had a drunken deep and meaningful on a plastic injection moulded lawn chair. These future microplastics are fantastic temporary seating. A socioeconomic marker by which people judge your house value. “Stackable”, but hard to stack. I saw robots making them on you tube and now I feel broken too 😦
The chair started off like this…
I visited it twice a week til it ended up like this…

Photography Workshops

Emma has co-facilitated a number of analogue photography workshops for children and adults, including at Monash Gallery of Art, Shepperton Art Museum, Platform Arts Geelong, Wall to Wall Festival at Benalla Art Gallery and NOIR darkroom.