5 Exhibitions

Overview

The thing about aerial archaeology - first pioneered with perilous balloons and now easily supplemented by idle glances at internet maps - is that you need to take photos from an angle. Angles give you shadows, bumps and other reliefs of landscape that help you understand the curves of the earth and what strange things might be buried beneath. Zoe Wetherall’s Aerial Albuquerque photos, by contrast, are taken mostly from directly above Albuquerque’s systems of freeways and fields. And the effect is stunning in its detail and expressiveness. Her lens takes in still countryside, quiet roads, an abundance of cracked asphalt and tracks eroded more by feet than by water. Suburbia is particularly stunning, taking in a flat-roofed city block replete with parked cars, autumn-dead trees and irregular spots of colour.

Simon O’Dwyer — an Age photojournalist — has put together a combination of reportage and collage for B Side of O'Dwyer. His digital collages seem to be strung stylistically between early Sandman-era Dave McKean and Blade Runner. It’s a tried approach, but remains mostly a true one here. Some of his straight reportage photos seem to lack social context, especially Egypt 2008, which shows a toothless man in front of the step pyramid at Saqqara. Though this isn't the case with the Story of Private Lachlan Grodo (and accompanying text by Garry Tippet), which focuses on Grodo’s twin loves of bench presses and international relations. O'Dwyer's stylised landscapes are moody, but, again, are at their best when context is dropped alongside.

As we're still in the throws of Head On this month, Gaffa is fill to the gills with shows, making for an unprecedented five concurrent photography exhibitions. As well as Wetherall and O'Dwyer, John Slaytor fakes silent sea photographs for the Silent Sea, using rubbish adrift in pale blue ocean tints to comment on marine contamination. Cordelia Beresford’s Prudence shows adults and children at play across Cockatoo Island, at their best when her strong cinematographer’s eye converts the odd double exposure into playful movement. And downstairs in the arcade, Tony Sernack's A World of People captures beautiful coastal and human vistas.

Image: Suburbia by Zoe Wetherall.