A new exhibition opening on Friday, May 11 at NERAM features stunning colour photographs of rural and remote Australia by Martin Mischkulnig, together with text written by award-winning author Tim Winton.
Inspired by growing up in a series of roadside motels run by his parents, photographer Martin Mischkulnig travelled to out-of-the-way places around the country shooting images of the Australia we politely ignore.
From Fitzroy Crossing and Wittenoom in WA, across to Iron Knob and the Oodnadatta Track in SA, down to Queenstown and Exeter in Tasmania, Mischkulnig captures with raw honesty the monotony, stoic spirit, and transience of life in small towns.
From the cinder-block motels, crooked signs and unnamed graves beside endless freeways to the towering silos, empty gravel sportsgrounds and derelict abandoned cars, the photographs offer both the beauty and ugliness of our far-flung towns.
Winton, who lives in a small rural town in Western Australia, speaks from the heart on this subject. “I love small towns — the sense of sanctuary they offer, the possibility of intimacy they retain, the way you can keep an entire community in mind as a distinct group of faces and traits and characters rather than as an abstraction, for such are the virtues of smallness.”
Inspired by towns that made an impression on him in his formative years, Martin set out to revisit these places, exploring the idea that these were never destinations in themselves, but places on the way to somewhere else.
“I feel that a lot of photography shown to other countries about Australia has been polished and is idealistic,” said Martin.
“My photos are a rebellion of that, probably because of the towns I grew up in and the realities of those towns.
“I always wondered what it must be like for tourists who have been shown beautiful documentaries and books about Australia to then come and drive around outback locations.”
