In celebration of the gallery’s 30th anniversary, MGA commissioned four leading Australian artists to explore the City of Monash by responding to key issues facing the community. Peta Clancy, Lee Grant, Ponch Hawkes and David Rosetzky were invited to respond to a topic of their choosing.
In response to this commission, Rosetzky created his series Being ourselves. This series responds to the experiences of members of the LGBTQIA+ community who live, work or study within the City of Monash. It comprises a two-channel video installation and six photographic portraits. The photographic portraits continue Rosetzky's exploration of double exposures; combining controlled analogue in-camera photographic processes with an active element of chance. This embedding of chance into the process of portrait-making reflects the nature of identity as multi-faced and shifting. It is a masterful play between photographic process, light and chance. The resulting images are intimate portraits that speak to the complexity of the sitters’ identities.
(2021)
Gelatin silver prints are black-and-white photographic prints that have been created using papers coated with an emulsion of gelatin and light-sensitive silver salts. After the papers are briefly exposed to light (usually through a negative), a chemical developer renders the latent image as reduced silver, which is then fixed and washed. This technique was first introduced in the 1870s and is still used today. Most twentieth-century black-and-white photographs are gelatin silver prints. They are known for being highly detailed and sharply defined prints with a distinguishable smooth, even image surface.
