What is Community?11.03.2025 Sabastian Fardell
Community is a cradle.
A nursery, a playground.
Community is a school yard.
A best friend, a hideout.
Community is a gallery.
A meeting place, a “spot”.
Community is a recital.
A two step, a chorus.
Community is ceaseless sowing.
Community is a body on which all our shirts are worn.
Community is together, knowing.
Exhibition on March 22 at Nowe Studio, Bangalow from 4pm. Featuring works from Jamie Green, Portia Sarris, Daniel Stevenson, Abbi Hart, Tom Schulte and yours truly.
The Northern Rivers boasts some incredibly apt and potent image makers that are known worldwide for their craft. Globally, this is a great celebration of the region and represents that the place we call home is in a good paddock. There is however the question of how connected we image makers are with each other and what space is available for the potential of our connection to occupy. Due to the nature of the beast, work or otherwise living takes us elsewhere to document and to learn, gathering moments of experience in the mental napsack as we go. But where do we unpack that bag? Who do we unpack it with?
It is a common understanding, perhaps one even taken for granted, that almost everything we know is shared. Whether that be from a mother to her babe on the topic of what not to touch or from an ivy league lectern on genetic engineering. The common understanding is that this knowledge, when shared, brings us up as a whole, raising the average of reason, artistry and humanity. Due to “what we know”, in a lot of creative instances being what gives us “the edge” or defines our “style”, there is a sort of passive hostility that lingers when it comes to sharing workflows or refining techniques and it is to our communal detriment.
These conversations are often the ones that lead us from connecting on peer level to relating within a personal capacity and it is here that the definition of community fertilises what was once a collection of people with common interests within a common geography to what is now a network of inspired individuals with a collective urge to tend the space we share physically, creatively and intellectually. It is this kind of community that births genius, beauty and harmony and it is this kind of community we are aiming to foster at the Northern Rivers Community Photo Club.
Our exhibition “Pilot” is taking place on March 22 at Nowe Studio, on Station St, Bangalow, featuring works from Jamie Green, Portia Sarris, Daniel Stevenson, Abbi Hart, Tom Schulte and yours truly. The show is based on the aforementioned places the craft takes us and the way in which we see them. The format is such that the club will invite photographers within the region to take on the incentive and host their own exhibitions under the banner; further building on the idea of connectedness.
See similar events in what’s coming?
MARLEY ALVAREZ 11.03.2025
A collection of works inspired by the past year— moments spent surfing, swimming, and watching sunsets with good company.
EMMA HARDY 11.03.2025
Mixed media exhibition featuring resin photography, paint, and poetry.
DANIEL STEVENSON 29.09.2024
To lay it all out, to simply be.
In collaboration with WOI Journal.
In collaboration with WOI Journal.