The subjects of Emma Phillips’ new photographic series, Greetings, speak quietly to their surrounds. Like the outer Melbourne beachside suburb of Frankston – whose backdrops, guises and oddly mediated landscapes bracket and envelop these images – the young women and girls that appear in Phillips’ photographs seem to float in an indeterminate space. These figures carry sensibilities unique to the young and the feminine.
Likewise, Frankston itself – the end of the train line and the lower socioeconomic gateway to the more affluent Mornington Peninsula – emerges here as a place of both subtle tension and beauty. That the area is Phillips’ own former stomping ground brings Greetings closer to home. These works are as personal as they are heuristic. In forging a dialogue with these young women, Phillips gestures towards a rendering of self.
Dan Rule
Education: 2017, Master of Fine Arts, University of Hartford, Hartford, USA; 2010, Bachelor of Arts (Photography), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Exhibitions: 2017, Greetings, CAVES, Melbourne, Australia ; 2016, A light on the wall, neospace, Melbourne, Australia ; 2013, Salt, Xishuangbanna Foto Festival, Yunnan, China; 2013, Salt, Edmund Pearce gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Selected Group Exhibitions: 2021, Surreal Landscapes, curated by Danny Lacy, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, Australia (forthcoming); 2020, What’s outside the window?, curated by Olivia Radonich, ReadingRoom, Melbourne, Australia (online); 2020, In praise of care, curated by Isobel Parker Philip, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (online); 2020, Shadow catchers, curated by Isobel Parker Philip, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ; 2020, National Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury, Australia ; 2019, Bodies of Work, curated by Benison Kilby, Bus Projects, Melbourne, Australia; 2019, Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize, Moran Arts Foundation, Sydney, Australia; 2019, Stories we tell ourselves, curated by Ashlyn Davis, Earl & Virginia Green Gallery, La Mirada, USA ; 2018, Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award, HOTA, Gold Coast, Australia; 2018, Stories we tell ourselves, curated by Ashlyn Davis, Wrong gallery, Marfa, USA; 2018, The Art of Collecting, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia; 2018, National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia ; 2017, CAVES Fundraiser, CAVES, Melbourne, Australia; 2017, An unorthodox flow of images, curated by Naomi Cass & Pippa Milne, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia; 2017, CAVES offsite @ Spring 1883, art fair, The Establishment Hotel, Sydney, Australia; 2017, 13, curated by Robert Lyons, Joseloff Gallery, Hartford, USA; 2017, Specimen, curated by Giles Fielke, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia ; 2013, lose/you, curated by Jordan Sullivan, The Jane Hotel, New York City, USA; 2013, The Wild & The Innocent, curated by Jordan Sullivan, Clic bookstore & gallery, New York City, USA.
Awards: 2020, C/O Berlin Talent Award_nominee; 2020, National Photography Prize_finalist; 2019, Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize_finalist; 2018, Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award_finalist; 2018, National Photographic Portrait Prize_finalist; 2018, MACK First Book Award_nominee ; 2017, Stanley Fellman Award, University of Hartford_winner ; 2015, Australian Photobook of the Year_finalist ; 2014, Golden Peacock nomination for excellent photography works, Xishuangbanna Foto Festival_winner ; 2010, Irwin & McLaren landscape award, RMIT University_finalist
Public Collections: Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Lectures and Teaching: University of Technology, Sydney; Photography Studies College, Melbourne
Penumbra Foundation, New York City.
Selected Bibliography: Boetker-Smith, Daniel, Emma Phillips, British Journal of Photography, in print, 2020; Cattach, Ella, Emma Phillips: Too Much to Dream, Memo Review, online, 2019; Rule, Dan, Emma Phillips: A light on the wall, Perimeter Editions, in print, 2016.