Between Light and Shadow Portraits by Stuart Campbell
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 30 April – 17 July 2011
I’d been meaning to go see this exhibition and our assignment to visit a gallery was the perfect opportunity.
Considering our current work on self-portraits and portraits in general I’d consider this exhibition one that is a must see. Stuart Campbell (1951-2009) graduated from National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and was in stage plays as well as appearing in films and on TV. In the 1980s he took portraits of his friends and moved from theatre to photography.
Most of his work was done using Ilford black and white film and printed on Agfa multigrade RC paper. “His ‘studio’ in his lounge room was almost comically modest – a red bucket placed upside down in front of a white or grey background on which his subjects would sit, lit by a couple of tungsten umbrella lights.” The converted laundry was his darkroom and the Hill Hoist his drying rack. (Tulloch)
The exhibition contains 40 portraits taken by Campbell including a self-portrait. His subjects include directors, actors, comedian, singers, dancer/choreographer, writer, and violinist.
What I enjoyed the most about the exhibition is that although most of the photos were taken in his ‘studio’ for the most part they are extremely varied in sitters positioning, lighting, poses, inclusion or exclusion of hands, position of the subject within the frame and sometimes outside the frame; and cropping with parts of heads, arms and other things lost in the crop.
There were many images that I liked but the one I found the most striking was of the writer Peter Carey. None of these images are dated. Carey was born in 1943 and if Campbell started photography in the 1980s the image is of Carey in his 40s – he certainly does not appear to be that old in the photo. Regardless, he is standing upright against a horizontal wooden louvered door/wall; his neck is stretched making it look unrealistically long; his eyes are bludging; his face is cropped, missing part of his glasses and part of the right side of his face; and there are vertical shadows on his face. A very unusual but successful portrait in that it makes the viewer pause and take a second or third look.
(Screen capture from website cited in Bibliography)
There are several more images I’d like to mention which is beyond the scope of the assignment but one I cannot ignore is my namesake, Paul Livingston, better know to most of us as Flacko, the comedian. Well know for his bald pate with that curly wisp of hair on the front. On this occasion he is wearing a blond Marilyn Monroe wig but his bulging eyes and sharp features make him immediately identifiable.
The gallery card information about Campbell and all the exhibition images are available as thumbnails, mousing over them provides the name and occupation of the sitter and double clicking brings up a full screen version of the image. Viewing online is an alternative to visiting the National Portrait Gallery, for the time poor, but seeing the exhibition itself is far more satisfying.
For those that are not members of the Circle of Friends of the NPG it is worthwhile to purchase the Galleries Portrait Magazine of the Australian & International Portraiture, March/May 2011. It contains an article about Stuart Campbell providing background on the man and his techniques – the source of some of the above information. For photographers the magazine in addition to the Campbell article has other photography related items on the National Portrait Prize and an interview with photographer Scott Redford, not to mentions articles on other forms of portraiture.
Bibliography
Tulloch L 2011, The essence of you, Portrait: Magazine of Australian & International Portraiture, no. 39 March/May 2011, pp. 22-29.
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