Gary Heery: X Collaborative Portraits
Gary Heery
Gary Heery explores the dichotomy of portraiture through the process of collaboration and negotiation between an artist and his subject, allowing the latter to take control of their own photographs; ‘to express themselves through me.’
His sitters are drawn from various fields of Australian contemporary culture. In recognition of their status, each photograph and explanatory quote is featured across two full pages of the publication. The reader’s attention is fixed on each reworked composition – interrogated, soaked in water, saturated with graffiti, or smeared in human blood – reflecting personal obsessions and interests of these co-auteurs. This oversized, limited edition book, which includes text by Anna Johnson, reshapes the idea of the social image, presenting it as both historical object and active conversation.
