Photography / “Life-Time Book 1 Coming of Age” by Greg Dickens, “Edge” by Kayla Adams and “Canberra Re-Seen” designed by Caitlin Seymour-King, three books about Canberra. Reviewed by CON BOEKEL.

CANBERRANS are fond of telling each other that Canberra is Australia’s best-kept secret. Yet there may be as many Canberras as there are Canberrans.

How the living and built surfaces are visualised by individual photographers depends on how each conceptualises “reality”. In turn, conceptualisation informs visualisation. A photograph integrates and freezes this dynamic in a moment in time.

“Life-Time Book 1. Coming of Age” by Greg Dickens

This is the first book in a planned set comprising a photographic autobiography. The photos are supplemented by minimal text. The book weaves together the personal and the public. The photos are documentary in style. They are readily accessible to the viewer.

Boomers who experienced growing up in Canberra and who have memories of school, university, breaking traditional mores in the ’60s, the draft, the Vietnam War protests and the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, will see themselves reflected in this book. They might also wonder what happened to Canberra’s once-abundant open spaces.

We have moved on from some of the frozen moments such as the photos of public “charity stripping” events. These remind us that some versions of Canberra are, happily, gone forever.

The poignant public images are of the indigenous faces at the establishment of the tent embassy which recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary. What struck me was the deep anger and determination of the indigenous participants. Canberra continues to host the nation’s protests – some having greater intrinsic value than others.

Some of the private moments in Dickens’ early life are portrayed in beautiful and moving photos.

“Edge” by Kayla Adams

Adams is intrigued by Canberra’s “edge cities” – major urban concentrations beyond the city centre. Lovett Tower is the epicentre of one such edge city – Woden.

For me, Woden’s Lovett Tower sticks out like an urban sore thumb; not so for Adams.

Adams circled Lovett Tower for three years taking photos of it as she went. The foregrounds – mainly bungalow-style Woden houses – provide context. Over several years Adams’ shooting viewpoints along the circumference mostly remained the same, but a depth of time was added to the set of the images. Repeat shots show changes to houses, their gardens and garden furniture. The result is a spiral space/time record along ley lines that connect the viewer directly to the Tower.

Holding “Edge” is like holding a newly experienced Tower.

The sequencing of the photos is both subtle and decided. There are clever technical choices of bleeds and of crossing the gutter. The mix of black and white and of coloured images is well-considered. This photobook can be “read” at face value. But it repays effort. The photos are individually very good, with strong compositions being a feature. They are strung together like a necklace of gems.

“Canberra Re-Seen” designed by Caitlin Seymour-King

“Canberra Re-Seen” is both a pause for contemplation and a catalogue. It builds on the work of an earlier wave of Canberra photographers: Marzena Wasikowska, Ian North and Ted Richards.

A PhotoAccess workshop, led by Wouter Van de Voorde, enabled a bevy of 16 current photographers to bounce off the earlier work and thence to “re-see” Canberra.

Each of the workshop participants provides a brief text explaining their conceptual, technical and visual approaches. Each text is paired with one or more images. No two approaches are the same. This book cannot be picked up and absorbed in a rapid rifle of the pages. It repays intent study because it scratches the surface of so many different Canberras. Caitlin Seymour-King’s book design is excellent.

Time and our city hurtle on. Each artist has contributed their valuable frozen moments. Paradoxically, these may generate opportunities for other Canberrans to unfreeze the ways in which they see and understand Canberra.

All available at the Huw Davies Gallery, PhotoAccess