Everyday life photo exhibition opens

By Rebecca Courtney July 9, 2010
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A photography exhibition about daily life in Australia and overseas opens this week in Sydney.

HUSBAND AND WIFE PHOTOGRAPHERS, who travelled around the globe, have gathered together a selection of images that represent daily life.

Australians Jo and John Wallace will launch their first joint photography exhibition this week at Sydney’s Chrissie Cotter Gallery.

With more than 30 years experience in photography between them, the exhibition is a culmination of their “blood, sweat and tears”.

“The exhibition captures a wide variety of images showcasing Australian life, people and our environment as well as presenting cultural aspects from around the world,” says Jo.

Working together was no problem for the pair, with Jo saying that John knows what sort of image she’s after – just one benefit of working with someone who knows you so well, she says.

Their images of Australia were taken on various family holidays with their three children. The photos represent unplanned and opportunistic moments – capturing a mother bird on Lord Howe Island mid-flight, for example, or a child splashing in the shallows off the coast of Seal Rocks, NSW.

Many are snapshots into how everyday Australians spend their day.  The busy Bowling Green at North Haven (four hours north of Sydney) features prominently in many of John’s black and white photos, as do the animated windswept beaches of Lord Howe Island.  

Meanwhile, Jo’s colour images from Europe capture people “in their own moment”.  She is inspired by people in their own environment who all have a story to tell, she says.

Bicycles also feature heavily in her images and they often take centre stage. Jo describes the bicycle as conveying a “freedom of being” and is used by people in many different ways – as a mode of transport or for sport.  She has fond memories of riding around Newtown, Sydney with her kids on the back of her bike.

The exhibition is free and open from Wednesday 14 July to Sunday 25 July.