photographic seats - image inspiration and development

Creating two significant pieces of art reflecting three years of an arts based community project and the history of a community was a challenging task. Since I had been involved with the Parks Helix Project from the beginning, I was aware of all of the wonderful outcomes and art developed over time. The final photographs needed to tell a story, yet be open enough to allow viewers to create their own story. Yet, the intention wasn't for the work to be just a collection of images, but two new exciting works of photographic art.



There was the history of the Parks area to consider - memories of locals of when there were dairy farms and every backyard had chickens. The image of knitting acts as a visual reminder of the knitting project with Port Adelaide Enfield council, and also stands as a metaphor for a tightly knit community. The drawings by children are a portrayal of being a child in the Parks, and photographs of stobie poles painted by the local children act as a reminder of Ridley Grove School's ongoing project. A toy dog acts a symbol of family pets written about in the Port Adelaide Enfield's council letter writing project between school children and senior residents of the RSL villas. New and old houses illustrate the changes in housing over time. The word 'story' was written in the Parks Health Servicebig book during the digital stories film project and stands for the personal story every resident has about the area. The final photographic images are a form of memory map of the area, symbolized by the underlying layer, a piece of my work about the transience of memory.



Various elements were combined in different configurations - some appearing then disappearing -until the final art pieces each worked singly, and together, to tell a story about the Parks Helix Project and the local community.