Inside/Outside (U.S.A)

Head On Photo Festival 2024

James Bryans

event-detail-person-vertical — James Bryans

This event has concluded

Dates: 22 Nov 2024 - 24 Nov 2024

Location: Green Floor Gallery, 80 Johnston St, Fitzroy, Victoria

Hours: Fri 4:00pm-8:00pm, Sat 12:00-5:00pm, Sun 12:00-4:00pm, Monday by appt

Entry Fee: Free

Exhibition Event:

Official Opening 22/11/2024 6:00 pm

Like many, my preconceptions of The United States of America mainly came from film and television. But landscapes and monuments that are so vast and breathtaking can’t be compressed effectively into either of those mediums. Somehow the scale always gets lost. It seems the most appropriate reaction to these things in real life is to stand and stare (or pose for pictures in front of them).

The West has the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, the buttes and mesas recognisable from classic western movies and Roadrunner cartoons. Further north there’s a chance of running into a Wizard-of-Oz-like tornado which, as it
turns out, can be house levelling.

The east coast also has its monuments, the most iconic of which is probably the Statue of Liberty, beautiful in spite of the patina of blue-green corrosion that is the inevitable fate of all copper, especially when its final resting place leaves it exposed to salty harbour air.

As an outsider experiencing the difference of a land and culture which I mistakenly thought would be familiar, I was surprised by how much and how quickly I developed a strong affection for this overwhelming, complex and strangely beautiful place. This body of work is an attempt to represent some of the things mentioned above as they look and how they felt.

James Bryans

James Bryans has been exhibiting since the mid-nineties, presenting work in national and international institutions such as Stills Gallery, NSW, the National
Portrait Gallery, UK, Centre for Contemporary Photography and Linden Gallery, VIC, and the Melbourne Immigration Museum.

At Tweed River Regional Gallery, he has been selected as a finalist for the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture (2006) and the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award (2003, 2002 Judges Commendation, 2000, 1999).

In 2008, ArtWorld Magazine featured him in their Photography Supplement edition. His work is held in private collections within Australia and overseas.