General News
17 March, 2022
Terang exhibition set to open
AN art exhibition which highlights Terang as captured through the lens of photographer Christina de Water is set to open next month.
AN art exhibition which highlights Terang as captured through the lens of photographer Christina de Water is set to open next month.
The compilation of images in display during the exhibition, titled “Postcards from Terang,” will feature people, landscapes and all in between, in what the artist hopes will capture the spirit of Terang.
The exhibition will open from April 1 at the old Terang Courthouse.
Ms de Water originally developed a curiosity for Terang after hearing Commercial Hotel proprietor Les Cameron on ABC radio inviting artists impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to join the community as an artist in residence.
“At this stage in my career I was interested in teaching, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit I systematically lost all my photographic work,” she said.
“When I heard Les Cameron saying artists had gone through a hard time and those who had lost work were welcome, I called him and came to Terang the next weekend.
“For two weeks it was pouring rain, and I just got up every day and went and took photos.”
Ms de Water said the hard working, blue-collar aesthetic of Terang had captured her eye in a way metropolitan areas could not.
She made the decision to stay in town for an additional 12 months, seeing an opportunity to both grow as an artist and capture uniqueimages.
“I have been photographing almost every day since, day and night,”she said.
“I decided to shoot Terang with no plan, no idea, just shooting every day.”
Capturing Terang in photography just as it is saw a story begin to formulate naturally, according to Ms de Water.
She wanted to capture the raw spirit of the town, using only the available natural lighting, through both its people and its landscape.
With the assistance of Terang’s Jo Kenna, Ms de Water set about familiarising herself with the people of Terang. The characters, their personalities, and how their essence could be captured through the lens.
“I sort of wanted people who were in the background,” she said.
“I wanted the characters, the faces which looked the most spontaneous, and for me that was about making them real.
“The rawness was the truck drivers, the harvesting man and the kelpie breeder. The delivery driver at Greavesy’s who leaves for the Melbourne markets in the early hours of Sunday morning. The milkman, the postie, the newspaper guy.
“These activities don’t happen in bigger towns anymore and the immediate, personalised touch is gone. In Terang, everyone knows everyone else.”
Ms de Water jointed the Terang community with decades of experience in photography after studying photography and visual arts in Melbourne, and was the first woman to graduate with First Class Honours in 1973.
She had studied under prominent mentors Bruno Benini, Paul Cox and Athol Smith as well as being involved in the operation of a number of galleries both nationally and internationally.
Despite establishing a lengthy career in photography, the 70-year-old said she feels her photographic aptitude has been further established in Terang.
“I came as an artist in residence, which I have never done before, where all you focus on is your art,” Ms de Water said.
“I’d never worked seven days before. Every day I was just so focused.”
Postcards from Terang will premiere at the old Terang Courthouse, 22 High Street, opposite the Commercial Hotel, on April 1 from 6pm.
From the opening through to April 29, Ms de Water plans to open the exhibition from 10am-3pm.
Ms de Water said the exhibition, much like the photography, will be entirely a Terang affair with Corangamite Shire mayor Ruth Gstrein to open the exhibition and all food and wine locally sourced.
“The opening is a Terang affair, entirely put together with the support of locals,” she said.