A Sense of Place

The new September-October exhibition at Jing Jo Gallery features the Southern Highlands photographer, Chris Sutton. Chris has a lovely feel for the abstract in his surroundings. It demonstrates his point: “The challenge for any photographer is not just to show what a place or subject looks like, it’s to convey how it feels. A sense of place can be purely derived from how it looks, but for most people it comes from experiencing the place, what the weather was like, the light, the sounds.

“In recent years I’ve worked with a widening range of photographic techniques to show how a place feels to me. As I’ve done so, my images have evolved and many now inhabit a space between realist and abstract, but no matter what technique I use for a particular image, the goal is to express what it felt like to be there. As a consequence, I’m less concerned about technical perfection and more focused on the story and emotion of the moment. The tools I use to realise that goal are whatever I have to hand, and both cameras and phone serve equally well.”

Chris’s works in the show are drawn from several photographic inspirations: people, flowers, wild light and architecture.