Journeys North

Artists statement Glen O'Malley A primary concern in my photography has been everyday situations and the environments in which these situations occur. In an earlier project (FCYUr and aHalf Months in theNorth 1978), I photographed a variety of activities in three Queensland communities. This time, I have narrowed the topic - to 'Domesticity' - and looked at it across a wider area of the state. I have tackled the theme by 'living' in people's homes for a short period of time and photographing them in relation to their environments. In Queensland, an outdoor aspect - backyards, and so on - is very much involved in this method. I've always worked with banal subjects, although, in this project, the pictures are less banal than some others I've taken. The theme - Domesticity- is banal: the subjects probably aren't. Actually, I've always seen the world as a fairly surreal place. I think that photographers can walk around and record all sorts of things, which, if a painter did them, would be surrealism. But, photographers have noticed that the world really is silly, odd, dichotomised. I had a discussion once with someone about whether Queensland is a more surreal place than most or whether I just find it so. The point wasn't resolved, but we do have a European culture living in a climate which doesn't suit it.