Edmund Pearce gallery in Melbourne is set to present The White Sheet Series Number 01, a new solo exhibition by Australian photographer Stephen Dupont. Images in the series were taken during India’s most important Hindu Festival, Kumbh Mela, and includes portraits of pilgrims and visitors combined with hand printed Indian textile stamps.
Dupont says that by putting textile designs with portraits he was able to 'recontextualise' his journey. “Over many years of travel throughout India I have been collecting textile stamps and I decided to use them on my photographs. The research and experiments started in my field journal and then to the final hand printed images in this show. I wanted to create a relationship with Indian design and cloth, the Polaroid borders and the people in my pictures.”
The images themselves were inspired by one of Dupont’s earlier portrait series Axe Me Biggie, or Mr Take My Picture, and uses a white bedsheet as a backdrop, chosen for its “purity and simplicity” to convey a sense of time and place to the viewer.
“Had I used the backdrop in a conventional way, to solely isolate a person, you’d have the impression that they were taken anywhere — New York, Sydney, or in a studio.” explains Dupont.
“This process is a creative choice and allows me some control over my sitter but brings with it the spontaneity and surprise of what may take place around the zone I am working in – the gaze of someone holding the sheet that has no idea they are in the frame, or a hand holding the sheet or something else that crops up in front or behind. In the end my portraits are environmental or even landscapes.”
The prints were handcrafted by Chris Reid at Blanco Negro using warmtone paper and processed in a specialised developer for the images’ unique tonality.
Stephen Dupont is an internationally acclaimed photographer who has garnered some of the industry’s most prestigious prizes for his images of global cultures and communities.
Venue: Edmund Pearce, Level 2, Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria.
Date: April 2- May 3, 2014
Opening: April 3, 2014, 6-8pm
From The White Sheet Series Number 01, photo by Stephen Dupont.
From The White Sheet Series Number 01, photo by Stephen Dupont.
From The White Sheet Series Number 01, photo by Stephen Dupont.
From The White Sheet Series Number 01, photo by Stephen Dupont.