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Untiled 2009/10 2009–2010, Inkjet print
Credit: © Bill Henson
Opening today as part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s inaugural Festival of Photography, a new body of work from Australia’s eminent photographer Bill Henson invites audiences to contemplate quotidian scenes in a mesmeric new light – or lack thereof.
Bill Henson is a major new solo exhibition of the photographer’s recent work, comprised of 23 works selected by the artist and traversing key themes within his lauded (and in the past, divisive and controversial) oeuvre, including crepuscular landscapes, intimate portraiture and voyeuristic museum scenes.
For the unfamiliar, Henson is known for creating introspective works that are cloaked in an inky darkness achieved through the masterful use of chiaroscuro, which in turn hides and reveals its subject in equal measure.
In Henson’s lens, landscape scenes captured in the liminal moments either side of twilight become both alluring and foreboding dreamscapes – at once otherworldly and yet entirely familiar; his portrait subjects invite a similar level of inquisition, while appearing to shy away from the viewer. It’s a fascination dichotomy, one you’d do well to investigate up close before the exhibition travels to the Art Gallery of Western Australia in September.
Bill Henson opens today and will remain on display at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of the Festival of Photography until August 27. You can find out more information here. Preview select works from the exhibition below.
Untitled 2009/10 2009-2010, Inkjet print
Credit: © Bill Henson
Untitled 2008/09, Inkjet print
Credit: © Bill Henson
Untitled 2008/09 2008–2009, Inkjet print
Credit: © Bill Henson
Tile and cover image: Untitled 2008/09, Inkjet print/© Bill Henson
