Acclaimed South Australian director Scott Hicks will return to his analogue photography roots in a new exhibition to open in February 2015.
Acclaimed South Australian director Scott Hicks will return to his analogue photography roots in a new exhibition to open in February 2015. In Misspent Youth Hicks will revisit his early passion for photography, dusting off images that have spent nearly three decades tucked away in Hicks’ archive. The images, referred to by Hicks as his “personal visual diary of a bygone era”, were taken throughout the 1970s and 1980s in a time when the still camera was an important outlet for Hicks’ passion for visual storytelling. “Starting in the early ’70’s, in the days when nobody cared, I took my camera to rock concerts for the better part of a decade,” Hicks says. “Elbowing my way to the front I would seize what moments I could from the chaos, developing the black & white negatives later at home.” Through this insatiable drive to record the world around him Hicks honed his knack for visual storytelling and the fundamentals of image composition, skills he would later apply as the director of Oscar-winning Shine (1996) and his subsequent career as a respected Hollywood director. “Through my still camera I learned the elements of focus, exposure and image construction which were to become basic tools of my craft,” he says. Commencing in February next year, the exhibition will be the first cab off the rank for Hill Smith Gallery’s 2015 program, which will feature work from Dan Withey, Peter Serwan, Tom Borgas and South Australian treasure Robert Hannaford. The recipient of the Premier’s Award for Lifetime Achievement at last weeks 2014 Ruby Awards, Hannaford’s exhibition will include illustrations from My Gallipolli, a new book created with author Ruth Starke that examines that well-trodden period of Australian history through the perspectives of participants and those affected. Scott Hicks: Misspent Youth runs from Thursday February 26 to Saturday March 28.
