The Breathing Author

Todd McMillan’s photographs and films often place solitary figures within expansive landscapes, using portraiture to explore memory, endurance and the passage of time. His contemplative works convey narrative and emotional nuance through metaphor and suggestion. The Breathing Author is McMillan’s portrait of Gerald Murnane AO (b. 1939), regarded as one of Australia’s pre-eminent novelists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The idiosyncratic, image-driven prose of Murnane’s writing has had a profound impact on McMillan’s practice, and this portrait pays homage to his enduring influence. The title of the work comes from Murnane’s 2002 essay of the same name, in which he reflected on writing fiction and ‘the real, flesh-and-blood human behind the text’. The silent 16mm film, shot at the artist’s home in Goroke, Victoria, depicts a writer known for his words entirely without them, a choice that respects the intentionality of Murnane’s prose, allowing his published work to stand on its own without dilution. McMillan turns instead to the minutiae of everyday life: the camera quietly observes him moving through his shed among his filing cabinets, his backyard, the local golf course and the town cemetery. In the final sequence, Murnane places yellow blossoms on his wife’s grave. Her plot sits next to the author’s own, and as he stares down the barrel of McMillan’s camera, we can sense the significance this place carries for him, both in the present but also in the future.

Purchased 2025
© Todd McMillan