Being Australian Under a Southern Sun is available from Michigan bookstores, from the author (signed) and at Amazon.
From the Introduction by Gregg Hertzlieb: We at the Brauer Museum of Art are proud to present a major exhibition of photographs by David Robert Austen – his first of this new century. While the focus of the exhibition is the Australians themselves, the theme is the Australian way – where life is often marked by great distances and isolation, by challenging weather, by soil scoured by sun and wind. With Austen’s characteristic insight and obvious affection for his adopted land, Australians of all ages reveal their identities and relationship to a landscape that defines them, claims them, and serves as a setting for the experiences of their lives. More grit than glamour, these Australians shine brightly outdoors. Many of Austen’s subjects in pictures of this type are Australia’s Everyman, the blokes, the women, and their children – some, yes, descendants of convicts – who carry on their faces the character of their nation, with each distinctive or unique feature lending a shading of meaning or a touch of individual perspective. While Austen’s images reinforce the romance of this majestic place, they offer new insights into the demands of daily life in some of these truly remote settlements. Beyond the images of these men (photographed more often simply because they are so frequently encountered outdoors) one finds a range of Australians, young and old, navigating their worlds – sometimes familiar, sometimes changing – in ways that often still tend to reflect their heritage. These photographs evoke a sense of their confidence and optimism. Austen seeks with his camera and his journalist’s inquisitiveness not only to record the classic and familiar moments that seem to us to define Australian life, but also to highlight the quotidian opportunities for joy, for the surrender of guile and irony until people are truly and fully themselves. Price — including shipping to continental United States — $34.00 |
