Polixeni Papapetrou (1960–2018) was an Australian photographic artist with an international reputation. She originally trained and worked as a lawyer before completing a Master of Arts at RMIT in 1997 and a PhD in Fine Arts at Monash University in 2002. Papapetrou started taking photographs in the 1980s, and began exhibiting in the mid-1990s. She exhibited her work widely, both in Australia and overseas, pursuing a practice that explored her long-term interest in social identity being elaborated through the processes of role-playing and performance. Her early works looked at drag queens, body builders and Elvis fans before the birth of her first child led her to focus on staged photographs of her children dressed in masks and costumes in front of real and painted backgrounds.

(2021)