Chimera – examining beauty ideas and digital manipulation

Chimera is a photographic investigation into the shifting landscape of beauty in the age of artificial intelligence and social media.

Using the Tarot’s Major Arcana as a symbolic framework, the series reimagines portraiture as a mirror of modern selfhood, where individuality is eroded, faces are homogenised, and perfection is endlessly replicated. At a time when beauty filters, cosmetic procedures, and AI-generated imagery dominate our feeds, Chimera asks: what do we lose when our differences disappear?

The project doesn’t aim to critique but to seduce, drawing viewers into surreal, hyper-stylised portraits that feel both familiar and unsettlingly perfect. This exhibition lands in the middle of one of the most urgent cultural conversations of our time: the intersection of beauty, technology, and identity.

By staging it on Chapel Street, itself once an epicentre of fashion, beauty, and reinvention, Chimera positions itself as both art and commentary, challenging audiences to reflect on the future of beauty, and the cost of chasing perfection.

  • Organised by: CJS Photography
  • Contact name: Carly Soderstrom
  • Phone: 0418188843
  • Email: hi@carlzjsoda.com

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May

Sydney: Until 16 August 2026. PIX, Australia’s first pictorial news weekly, is brought to life in this exhibition, showcasing its archived images and stories for the very first time.

Melbourne: Until March 2027. Rehearsing the City presents archival photographs from Victoria’s government collections, alongside new work by contemporary street photographers.

June

Melbourne: 5 March – 7 August 2026. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, artist and social documentary photographer Viva Gibb (1945-2017) documented the suburbs of North and West Melbourne, where she lived.

Sydney: Until 7 Feb 2027. From his archive of more than 200,000 images, Close Up celebrates the historic moments and pivotal people he famously captured.

Canberra: Until 6 Sept 2026. Trent Parke’s photographic series The Christmas tree bucket 2006–09 is a tender and darkly humorous portrayal of his extended family coming together to celebrate Christmas.

Sydney: until 4 July 2026. A Breath Before Dawn is a meditation on memory, inheritance and the unresolved presence of history within the body.

Sydney: June 6 – 19 July 2026. The World Press Photo Exhibition 2026 is returning to the State Library of New South Wales from 6 June to 19 July, offering Sydney audiences an uncompromising view of of the unending challenges that humans, and our planet face.

Melbourne: 6 June – 20 August 2026. Brook Andrew is an artist whose conceptual practice shifts across photography, performance, moving image, installation, public space and research, often through deep collaboration with artists, communities and friends.

Brisbane: until 18 October 2026. Known affectionately as the ‘Cool Cat of journalism’ Wayne moved effortlessly among the greats, between the media and community, treating every encounter as part of his day’s work behind the lens.

Melbourne: 26 June – 2 August. Through analogue photographic processes, Dylan Negri aims to immortalised fragments of life that would otherwise disintegrate.