For over three decades Rod McNicol’s photographic practice has concentrated on portraiture. His approach to the genre is structured and consistent, with his subjects almost always photographed staring back at the camera against neutral backgrounds. McNicol asks his subjects to pause and stare into the camera, with the intention of capturing portraits that function as witnesses to the inescapable passing of time.
McNicol studied photography at Prahran College in 1974, where he was part of a now-highly significant generation of young photographers who were taught by Athol Shmith, Paul Cox and John Cato. He was actively involved in the photography scene that emerged in Melbourne at this time, and established the Photographers Gallery in South Yarra with John Williams and Ingeborg Tyssen. McNicol began taking portraits at this time and, like many portrait photographers of his generation (Carol Jerrems, Ponch Hawkes, Sue Ford), focused on his friends and acquaintances as a means of celebrating personal connections with his everyday milieu. He continues this approach to this day.
McNicol has at times turned his attention away from the human face, to document changing cloud patterns, weathered gravestones and layers of graffiti. However, these bodies of work only serve to illuminate is primary interest in exploring mortality and the transience of life.
(2024)