Journeys North

10 Graham Burstow Cheer squad, Carrara 1986-87 Gelatin silver print 33.8 x 47.6cm Glenn O'Malley 21 January, 1987, Gordonvale - The Wyatts sat in the shade of their house on a hot afternoon in the school holidays 1987 Gelatin silver print 42.1 x 56.3cm The general approach taken by the six photographers involved in J(YUrneys Narth is a documentary one in that the overall aim is to reflect aspects of Queensland life and society. This approach, however, is not necessarily one of detached observation. As Graham Burstow says, when photographing people 'What you do more and more is test your own sensitivity and the depth of yourself...You've got to try and understand them (your subjects) and what they're thinking and what it means to you... You can't actually hide behind a camera because it's not really the most important part of the process - your mind is'. 11 Robert Mercer would like to see more photographers adopt a documentary approach to record the many important aspects of contemporary life. Max Pam's work has been described as a combination of nineteenth century monumental travel photography and twentieth century photo-journalism. Charles Page states, 'I see the documentary style as one of photography's great strong points. The other mediums can't match photography, I don't think, in terms of the documentary; 12 Composition is an important device used by the six photographers to create images which are visually satisfying as well as informative and which reinforce their interpretations of life in Queensland. There is a predominance of foreground dominated photographs in Max Pam's work, for example, because he wished to emphasise his experience of Queensland as a state which made sudden and strong impressions. Some of his images are diptychs, which either add to the feeling of space or act as two contrasting views, as in Campers - Moreton Island. Glen O'Malley's photographs tend to reveal a certain order amidst chaos. For example, in 2 February, 1987, Seisia - Suneema's children played in their backyard, at a small settlement near the tip ofCape York Peninsula, O'Malley waited until elements such as the placement of the children's legs and the curve of the dog naturally appeared ordered within the overall scene. As he says, 'I like my pictures to look "snapshotty" but there's a lot of painter training underneath it all and I think they're actually quite tight compositions'. 13 He sometimes uses compositional devices such as the placement of the horizon directly across the middle of an