Men/Still/Shooting
Scott Davis/Travis De Jonk/Eureka O'Hanlon/Bentron Parry/Rod Spark/Ross Spirou

This exhibition brings together six practitioners whose involvement in the gay community stretch to last century and the days of analogue. They continue to make work and investigate cis male to male desire. This essay is about raising the issue of representation that is hidden from view. Australian photography has a problem that we don’t like to acknowledge. The gatekeepers, gallery directors, festival organisers and curators, the people that choose which photographs and which photographers get exposure, are overwhelmingly of European descent, including the writer of this text. We are proud of the gender bias towards the feminine in positions of power but we hide our cultural bias and pretend it does not exist. This cultural bias is the framework by which the art of photography is viewed in this country. One of the ways our biases manifest themselves is in who we choose and what we encourage and even allow photomedia practitioners to show. We like the artists we show to be from other cultures and make commentary through their experiential narratives. The framework of post colonialism is encouraged but as white western scholarship understands it. The curious thing is that it now confirms and enforces the power structures that are the problem, Edward Saad pointed out, in Orientalism, that is once an artist engages in presenting a critique of how the power structures play out, they have positioned themselves as ‘other’ and positioned the (white) gatekeepers as having power over them. The gatekeepers talk about giving the artist agency. They also discourage artists from the majority culture from engaging in this debate. This is done via an insistence that the only person allowed to tell a story is someone within that ethnicity and cultural background which is being represented. There is a comfort in that, yet a problem. If the issues don’t go mainstream, can they be altered in a democracy? Further the gatekeepers get to choose which stories get told and by whom. This unfolds a paradox at the heart of photo-media art in this country, gatekeepers practice (choosing whom to represent and how) is something they insist artists cannot do. This exhibition breaks with this orthodoxy. I the gatekeeper/curator/organiser of Men/Still/Shooting have selected photographers who have a lived experience back to the HIV crisis and our coming out of it. These men have names that are European. William Yang is the most important photographer of this period and genre. He is a national treasure and is represented in the director’s room. Each artist photographs his friends, acquaintances and other interesting men. I have given the artists the freedom to choose the prints displayed here and as curator, I decide how the artist’s work relates to each other on the wall. This exhibition allows the photographers to collaborate with whomever they wish. These collaborations open a dialogue between the artist, sitter and community values and understanding. Desire plays a role in each collaboration. In a discussion with Kim Võ, a Masters of Philosophy candidate and senior tutor at Melbourne University, we explored the results of affirmative action, post-colonial theory and how to change power structures. The only example of significant change we could point to was gay men. Feminism has made major gains for women but is still pushing back against patriarchy. Racism is still rampant in society. Gay men are assuming equality and insisting on equality. This was probably achieved, in large part, by having a majority of white males in the ranks. This group of artists and the curator were involved in the political push for equality. The strategy was insist that we are equal, to reject victim hood and deny othering. This exhibition builds on Looking for Adam, the gallery’s first Midsumma exhibition. The earlier exhibition gave space to young diverse voices. This exhibition looks at the current work of the photographers who started thinking about and/or making images at the end of last century and where their journey is up to. Each negotiates the trope, of the naked male, differently. Three of the artists cover the body. Rod Spark’s work hides the body under paint yet leaves nothing to the viewer’s imagination. The paint clothes the nakedness referencing Marvel, Pollock and even Warhol’s BMW. His work builds from his studies, is joyous as well as technically beautiful. Brenton Parry comes from a graphic design background and found the joy of image-making. He has played with the idea of clothed yet nude in many of his projects. In this project he uses powder, referencing the pigments that have been used for centuries to make paint and it is also used in the Indian Holi Festival. Travis De Jonk; Travis first came to note as apart of Bad Behavior - a queer photographic studio and publisher, producing well thought through and technically stunning images, attributes that are still the hallmark of his work. In this project he presents the naked form of himself and close friends under bubblewrap. In the project the nakedness is an expression of vulnerability. Two artists use techniques to progress the trope. Eureka O’Hanlon’s work is from the perspective of an age reached when shame and shyness no longer hold sway, that the beauty of youth should be captured as he (and we) get ever older. His use of overlay textures and replaced backgrounds remind us of the distance we have travelled and that the subjects of his photographs will travel. I became aware of Scott Davis’ work in the early days of the Internet. The mainstream and the gay community did not honour the men we desired so he went about changing that. The thin scholar type is the subject. He makes his prints with Palladium, a precious metal that makes gold look cheap. In doing so he is giving these men and their masculinity weight and importance that challenges the viewer to reconsider who and what attributes are desirable and why. One photographer uses abstraction. Ross Spirou’s work simplifies the male body. His images on location and in the studio are thoughtfully considered. He uses the male physique as form, rather than personality. Each sitter could be many men that we know or interact with each day. His interest is in form and line. In that is a beauty that is sublime. The gallery has chosen each artist, based on their history and passion for visual media and the male nude. Each artist has chosen which of their work you will see. The gallery has arranged the work on the wall.