Photos seek to capture permanence

A LOCAL photographer is realising an artistic goal nearly a decade after picking up a camera.

Following his attendance of a Ballarat International Foto Biennale exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s Backspace venue in 2015, one of Ian Kemp’s creative endeavours has been to display in the space himself.

Now his Neverlasting exhibition, which will run until Friday 22 October, is the fulfillment of that goal, with a collection of 10 photographs capturing the mountainous regions of the Argentinian Andes.

Kemp said the works on display are the ultimate statement on his recurring theme on the transience of human life.

“In the past, I’ve taken elements of nature that have a short lifespan as a metaphor for human life, things that are ephemeral and temporary” he said.

“Here, it’s kind of reversed. The landscape feels like it’s the constant. We’d stop a vehicle out there and it’d just be the 12 of us with no sign of civilisation.”

“Civilisations come and go. You’ve got your own time but everything else is so immense.”

Kemp’s trip took place in March and April when he undertook a more-than-2000-kilometre circular tour beginning in Salta as part of a nine-photographer crew.

“We’re in an Alpine plateau in three four-wheel drives,” he said.

“We’re 3000 to 5000 metres above sea level and all getting work out of it to go in exhibitions. The sense of scale of the place is so hard to capture.”

Of the 10 photos, six are relatively unembellished while four were with developed into black-and-white through Kemp’s favoured photogravure technique.

He said the contrast brings an exciting difference to the collection.

“I love the dramatic qualities you get in photogravure and what it brings to people,” he said.

“Then I’ve got quite a softer spread I’ve done that are digital images where I haven’t really played with their colours at all.

“With photogravure, I etch a digital image into a photopolymer plate. I ink up the plate and you end up with certain tonal qualities of the work really standing out with black and white.

“With black and white, people know it’s not real, and I think that’s the artist’s creation.”

The photopolymer etching plate Kemp used to create the photogravure pieces is also featured in the show.

Neverlasting is part of the 2023 Ballarat International Foto Biennale, while another 10 of Kemp’s images from his trip to Argentina trip will go on display tomorrow at Mr Jones Dining as part of the event’s open program.