An insightful collection of black and white photographs illustrating the connection to the land of three generations of Ngarrindjeri women is showing at Goolwa’s Signal Point Gallery.
Adelaide filmmaker and photographer Christopher Houghton’s exhibition, Time & Place, comprises three portraits and a series of expressive landscape shots honouring the importance of Hindmarsh Island (Kumarangk) in Ngarrindjeri culture.
“I feel extremely privileged to have been given the permission to create this exhibition and, along with celebrating Ngarrindjeri culture and the inherent beauty of the Australian landscape, hopefully it goes some way towards further healing the pain still experienced by many,” Houghton said in a statement.
Several of the landscape photographs, all taken on Ngarrindjeri lands on the Fleurieu Peninsula, investigate elements of the creation story. The centrepiece is a three-metre-long photograph of Kumarangk.
Houghton said he was inspired to create the works when he met the subjects of his portraits (Rita Lindsay Snr, her daughter Audrey and grand-daughter Rita Jnr) after witnessing a reconciliation ceremony initiated by the Ngarrindjeri about 10 years after the Hindmarsh Island bridge had been built.
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“It was the first time I’d been personally exposed to the Hindmarsh Bridge affair, and after being introduced to the Lindsays I was incredibly moved by the stories they shared with me.”
He took the photos in Time & Place on a wooden 5×4 field camera, saying the image-capture process was much slower than with digital photography.
“After a while that practice becomes meditative – you have to become immersed in the landscape and be truly present in the moment, which is when the best art tends to happen.”
Time & Place is at Signal Point Gallery, The Wharf, Goolwa, until July 21.
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