Anything at All ARTIST PROFILE Narelle Autio

anything at all ARTIST PROFILE Narelle Autio

Artist Statement

These photographs are from a collection of images I have made over many years wandering the streets with a camera in hand - not the one we all carry on our phone - an old one loaded with transparency film. Carrying a camera connects me to the surrounding environment. It makes me curious. Somehow a camera opens a door for me to the drama that is happening everyday around us all.

I always begin with no plan, then there is a lot of walking in no specific direction. It is not a fast process and not always successful. But somewhere along my walk I might make a serendipitous discovery of a particular space. It could be the composition of the natural or urban environment that draws me in - or the dramatic light and shadow created by the sun at that very moment. It is nearly always a combination. Then I wait to see what life will offer me. The energy of a person can charge the scene with something special I cannot predict. I have no control over this part. But I like it this way. The images are candid and un-directed and if I am lucky the addition of that stranger who has entered unknowingly onto my ‘stage’ will transform what I am seeing into something more enigmatic or imaginary.

These photographs could take the titles of fairy tales. These very real, small moments otherwise unseen are an invitation to look at life in another way - an introduction into an imaginary tale of your own making.

MEDIA CONTACT Beth Shimmin, Marketing and Development Executive, Adelaide Central School of Art E [email protected] | T 8299 7300 | M 0401 975 546 | W acsa.sa.edu.au IMAGE Narelle Autio, George Street (angel), 2001, pigment print, 37 x 55.5 cm, edition of 10. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide

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anything at all ARTIST PROFILE Narelle Autio

Biography

Narelle Autio was born and raised in Adelaide, completing her studies with a Degree in Visual Art from the University of South Australia in 1990. The same year she began her career as a photojournalist at the Adelaide Advertiser before leaving Australia in 1994. Autio travelled extensively throughout the USA and Europe, working in England for numerous UK national newspapers as well as being the principle photographer for Australia’s News Limited London bureau. She worked and travelled throughout the USA before returning home in 1998 where she worked as a staff photographer at the Sydney Morning Herald until 2003, photographing news, arts and sport including the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

In 2002, Autio was chosen as the winner of the international Leica Oskar Barnack Award for her series Coastal Dwellers. She is the only Australian to win this prestigious award. Autio has also won two World Press Photo Awards, an American Picture of the Year Award and two Walkley Awards or Australian Journalism.

In 2001 and again in 2005 Autio was selected in the Australian Art Collectors Magazine's "50 most collectable Australian artists". Her work has been published extensively and exhibited throughout the world and collected in various institutions across Australia and numerous private collections nationally and internationally, some of which are ABN Amro, Artbank, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Australia National Maritime Museum, BHP Billiton, Parliament House Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, RACV Collection and the Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Australia.

Autio currently resides in Adelaide with her husband, Trent Parke and two children.

Resources and additional Information

Represented Artist, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide https://www.hugomichellgallery.com/portfolio/narelle-autio/

Represented Artist, Stills Gallery, Sydney http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/autio/

Artist Listing http://www.australianphotographers.org/artists/narelle-autio

Fleurieu Art Prize at Samstag Museum of Art short-listed finalist http://www.unisa.edu.au/Business-community/Samstag-Museum/Exhibitions/EXHIBITIONS-1/

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