© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 Finalist
The subject of this portrait is my husband. Because of the close, familial nature of our relationship, I have access to intimate moments, such as the daily ritual of showering. For me, the shower space is a private realm: an enclosed, solitary, physical and psychological space. The deep relaxation and trance state induced by water falling over the body opens the pathways to our deeper thoughts and feelings. In the shower, alone with our own thoughts, we reflect, project, relive and recapture. In this portrait, the camera enters the private physical space of the subject, but beyond that, attempts to capture a fleeting moment of the subject's psychological and emotional state of mind.
Photography is the most pervasive and popular medium for portraiture and makes a natural fit with the Gallery, being a natural extension of the Gallery's longstanding commitment to photography as a contemporary portrait medium.
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