The camera is god by Trent Parke

Venue: Monash Gallery of Art (MGA)
Location: 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill, Victoria 3150
19 Jan - 21 Feb, 2016
Web: http://www.mga.org.au/exhibition/view/exhibition/190
Bathurst races, NSW 1999, from the series, Minutes to midnight, 1999-2004. Gelatin silver print: 30.0 x 45.0 cm Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery (Sydney). © Trent Parke.
Bathurst races, NSW 1999, from the series, Minutes to midnight, 1999-2004. Gelatin silver print: 30.0 x 45.0 cm Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery (Sydney). © Trent Parke.

Over the past two decades, Trent Parke has brought his highly poetic sensibility to traditional documentary photography. This street portrait series, The camera is god, is the first major exhibition of internationally renowned Australian photojournalist's work to be shown in Victoria. It features grainy black-and-white pictures of faces arranged in a grid pattern, and puts a metaphysical spin on street photography. The 2013 series will be exhibited alongside a range of Parke’s work recently purchased for the MGA collection.

No. 731 Candid portrait of a woman on a street corner, Adelaide 2013, from the series, The camera is god (street portrait series). Pigment print: 80.0 x 60.0 cm. © Trent Parke, courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery (Sydney).
No. 731 Candid portrait of a woman on a street corner, Adelaide 2013, from the series, The camera is god (street portrait series). Pigment print: 80.0 x 60.0 cm. © Trent Parke, courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery (Sydney).

I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical. –Trent Parke

No. 447, from the series, The camera is god. © Trente Parke.
No. 447, from the series, The camera is god. © Trente Parke.

About Trent Parke

Trent Parke never shoots digitally, preferring the surprise of developing a film and seeing what he has captured. Street photography was Parke’s first love from first picking a camera up aged 12. Parke is the first and only Australian photographer to be a full member of the acclaimed Magnum Photos. Other significant accolades and recognition include: the inaugural 2014 Prudential Eye Award for Photography in Singapore, Gold Lenses from the International Olympic Committee, World Press Photo Awards, and the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his series, Minutes to Midnight.

Catfish and turtles, Rope River, Northern Territory, 2011, from the series, The black rose. Pigment ink-jet print: 98.0 x 147.0 cm. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery (Sydney). © Trent Parke.
Catfish and turtles, Rope River, Northern Territory, 2011, from the series, The black rose. Pigment ink-jet print: 98.0 x 147.0 cm. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery (Sydney). © Trent Parke.

Parke self-published his first two books, Dream/Life in 1999, and The Seventh Wave (with Narelle Autio) in 2000. In 2013, Steidl released two hardback publications of Parke’s work, Minutes to Midnight and The Christmas Tree Bucket. His work is held in many public and private collections

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