Journeys North

8 MaxPam Waste liquid pouring into theN.Q. Coast 1986 Gelatin silver print 28.3 x 28.3cm Robert Mercer Winston Paul, Kowanyama- Cape York 1987 Gelatin silver print 40.5 x 26.9cm also the love and respect which her trainees have for her. Many of Lin Martin's subjects have had little contact with photographers or artists, and their fascination with the project emerges through their portraits. Glen O'Malley also found it important to spend time developing a relaxed atmosphere in which to photograph people involved in daily activities. People who appear in his photographs range from old friends to people he had met during earlier projects or who he chanced upon in his travels north. O'Malley says of the sense of friendship which emerges through his photographs, 'If I move into someone's house, to take over their lives for a short while, I can't do it without feeling some respect for them and I suppose that respect, in most cases, turns to an affection of one sort or another, and that's part of it to0: 4 In addition to the interaction which occurs between the photographers and their subjects, there is often a sense of communication between people in individual images. Charles Page's photographs, for example, convey the camaraderie which exists between the miners and their trust in each other. In Graham Burstow's images, observers are often as important as the participants in particular events. In The winners, an image of the annual 'beer-belly' competition, Burstow is more interested in the friendship and support of the competitors and in the mass of press photographers than he is in the event itself. The six portfolios present an overall picture of life in Queensland through the experiences of 'ordinary' Queenslanders. Burstow describes his subjects as'. ..just everyday people, not people who are champions, but just people enjoying themselves'. 5 However, there is also a common thread running throughout which hints at the bizarre and sometimes surreal aspects of life in this State. For example, in 10 January 1987, Feluga- the Salleras were living in a converted cane cutter's barracks, Glen O'Malley presents us with an image of a farming family living in unusual surroundings. Amongst the children's toys, the dogs, bananas, horns and other accumulations, one sees a television set against a mural depicting an outdoor scene of storks in a landscape. O'Malley says of this image, 'I think that photographers can walk around and record all sorts of things, which, if a painter did them, would be