CANBERRA photographer Dan O’Day took away one gold, two silver distinctions and one silver for entries in this year’s Australian Institute of Professional Photographers awards. As well, he was conferred with a Master of Photography award. 

All of which is good enough reason for art lovers to get along to his exhibition “I closed my eyes and saw this,” at PhotoAccess’s Huw Davies Gallery in Manuka Arts Centre.

It’s his second solo exhibition in the gallery. In 2006 when he still counted as an “emerging artist” his first show, “Still,” was made up of carefully choreographed and photographed images.

At the time PhotoAccess director David Chalker described O’Day’s images as “richly suggestive of the vast dimensions of stillness and being alone—and of the occasionally dark implications of both.”

Now the artist has an international reputation and in his newest artist statement writes, “To be here in this moment is easier than it used to be, and that ‘stillness’ I used to run from, I now find myself running toward … I closed my eyes and saw this.”

In the show, O’Day exhibits “large enigmatic prints which evoke a dreamlike world, with small human figures surrounded by vast and dominating landscapes.” As an add-on, O’Day is showing random scraps of his life, his travels, and his day to day doings in the Multimedia Room.

“I closed my eyes and saw this,” in the PhotoAccess Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre, until September 2, Tuesday to Friday 10 to 4 and weekends 12 to 4.