From This One Moment
2 - 14 June 2019
Normal Hours: 10am - 7pm Tuesday to Sunday
Opening Tuesday 4 June 5:30pm
Part of the Auckland Festival of Photography
Disruption as photographers Celebrate 25 years
New ‘disruptive’ work by two photographers who have a history of collaboration of over two decades will be on show in Auckland in June, as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.
Stu Sontier and Jon Carapiet have worked separately and together since 1995 but in their latest exhibitions at Hum Salon they approach the photographic ‘moment’ from different and challenging angles.
Though they are veterans of the black and white print and darkroom processes, their latest photographs both disrupt and show reverence for photographic history and documentary photography. Both work in colour and both regard the photograph as an uncertain holder of truth, perhaps in sympathy with the age of fake news and ambiguity.
Image by Stu Sontier.
Carapiet scans broadcast television for ‘found moments’ that symbolise the threat of climate instability, while Sontier extends insignificant and repetitive moments to create a subtle level of intensity and questioning.
The notion of the ‘moment’ in photography has a pedigree tracing back to Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Decisive Moment’ which Carapiet references in his show title. This – the significant moment that defines an incident – and the idea that the camera never lies, are brought into question in these two exhibitions running concurrently in the Hum Salon, on Grafton Rd, Auckland.
Carapiet is driven by a concern for global politics but without a hectoring voice. Sontier looks for a more internal dialogue where multiple images in varying forms beguile, and echo around the walls. The moment is fractured and opened for investigation.
Sontier: “Although the work in both shows fits securely in the contemporary art realm (and will likely infuriate some photographic purists), we have a reverence for photography and the work is part of a long dialogue with its history. We’ve both chosen to go outside of some photographic conventions inorder to explore our interests in wider form.”
View press release here.
