William Yang’s My Generation

Overview

Living room slide shows have become an endangered species since the advent of social photo dumps like Facebook. For me, the act of sitting in a small room, eating some snacks and watching a friend fiddle with their post-travel carousel of anecdotes is so far removed from my current reality that I am almost certain I've never even seen a slide projector in the proverbial flesh. Thankfully there are folks like photographer William Yang out there, bringing a taste of nostalgia back into a jpeg-saturated reality.

Impeccably suited and concisely spoken, Yang gives his audience a warm, humourous and very honest tour through his rich portfolio of social photography. There is something so wholesome about having a real human describe the story behind each image, rather than a couple of tags to anchor identities, and unlike the often rambling, soporific punishments of stereotypical amateur slide nights, Yang has curated his presentation so as to provide a fascinating, naturally-evolving piece of storytelling. Characters, from Brett Whitely through to Robin Nevin, drift in and out of Yang's narrative like lanterns on midnight waters, breathing life into this collection of stills from the artistic, literary, theatrical and queer circles of Sydney in the 80s and early 90s.

Daniel Holdsworth of the Maple Trail punctuates Yang's tales with occasional bursts of music — including tunes from Bob Dylan, Tiny Tim, and the Village People. These moments are used sparingly and to great effect, especially at key points of the story where it would be better to let the images speak for themselves (or sing karaoke for themselves, given the presence of the music).

As a historical document, My Generation is a wonderful, moving work and a must for anyone who dared to assume that our generation invented the notions of debauchery, love and angst.

Image by William Yang.