Alex Wisser

Two fascinating exhibitions at Dubbo’s The Western Plains Cultural Centre

Alex — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 22:18:52 +0000

I had the great pleasure to document these two exhibitions at the WPCC in Dubbo last week. Here is a sample from “Another Green Earth” and “Shaded”, the first exploring 21st century approaches to Australian Landscape and the second to 20th century Australian landscape from the collection of the AGNSW

artist portraits

Alex — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 13:36:27 +0000

Being both an artist and a professional photographer is a conflicted mix. Art, for the last 30 years at least, has been very busy problematising the self assumed legitimacy of most forms of conventional photography. In my experience, this is especially true for the portrait. So making a series of artist portraits for Parramatta Artist Studios was for me an ambivalent and challenging experience. What side of the argument should I take? How to make a straight photograph of a contemporary artist without feeling foolish? Surprisingly though, the process was liberating and being placed in a position from which I couldn’t win meant that I might as well play a bit.

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Working for Other Artists

Alex — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 05:07:17 +0000

The two professional photographic jobs of which I am most proud were both done for other artists. These jobs were exciting and I learned so much during them. Professionally I have never experienced the level of respect for my craft that these artists have paid me during the making of the work. If only I could do this all the time, I’d be a happy little photographer. These are not my works, they belong to the artists who conceived and executed them.

Deborah Kelly’s ‘The Miracles’ is a series of family portraits based on Renaissance paintings of the holy family, the legitimacy of which has come into question. The models used were all families that had conceived of their children via means other than heterosexual sex, thus by Christian definition, miraculously. This was a fantastic job in which I flew around the country making these amazing images with a very good friend who wined me and dined me and showed me the town. Deborah said that she just wanted to be the best boss I ever had. Yes, Deborah, you were the best.

http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/4302-the-miracles-deborah-kelly

My work with Tony Albert was equally rewarding, photographing a series of portraits of young Aboriginal men with targets painted on their chests for his series “Brothers”. I knew we were getting some good photographs during the shoot and through the editing process, but it wasn’t until I saw the photographs printed large in his exhibition at Sullivan and Strumpf that I understood how successful a work Tony had made.

http://sullivanstrumpf.com/exhibitions/148/

SHHH Haunted House

Alex — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:29:37 +0000

This was a great haunted house. A little like Dr. frankenstein took the head of a performance artist and sutured it onto the body of a schlock horror film and then married it with a car accident.

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The Last Night of Bill and George

Alex — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:53:55 +0000

Our old friends at Bill and George threw one last fantabulastic night blast of music and performance to farewell the space as it succumbed to the universal forces of entropy, gentrification and landlord narcissism. They were five glorious years, some amazing performance, dance, music, drinking and thinking in one of the last independent ari spaces holding the line east of Redfern station. You know we’re all waiting on the sequel…

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Parramatta Lanes

Alex — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:57:49 +0000

This was a really impressive low key festival in the small lanes of Parramatta. The atmosphere was relaxed with people just hanging out, listening to music, eating incredible food and drinking some pretty fantastic cocktails. I wish I wasn’t working, because I would have loved to have just hung out and taken in the vibe. Oh well, I got some great shots which is a pretty good night for me.

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protest

Alex — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:37:48 +0000