Snapshot of celebrations past

THOUGH ChillOut came and went last week, more than a decade of festival activities are on display at Hepburn Springs until next month.

In a new solo exhibition at Radius Art Gallery, local photographer Peter Sparkman is displaying 15 years’ worth of the event’s history.

“A lot of it is from the carnival day on the Sunday which is the most fun I’ve ever had in a place in Victoria outside Melbourne,” he said.

“About 16,500 people go most carnival days and it’s really fun, really friendly and family, and very, very colourful.

“It’s called ChillOut festival so people will just be relaxed. With carnival day, I’ll take candid photos of people laughing and dancing. It’s nice to capture the positive like that.”

The exhibition features nearly 30 black and white photos in A0 sizing as well as a slideshow of 343 works.

Many of the slideshow photos featured in Sparkman’s first solo exhibition, Humans of Ballaarat show as part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale last year.

He said the show’s black and white composition lent a different aesthetic than expected for the subject matter presented.

“There’s a degree of power that colour detracts from,” he said. “With ChillOut being such a colourful festival, you could easily overdose on rainbows.

“When you remove the colour, it takes the image into a different realm and I enjoy the way it changes that. It suggests a lot more to something than how it appears.”

The gallery is open Thursdays to Saturdays from 10am to 4pm, and the exhibition will run until Saturday, April 13.