Art Need Not Be Confined to a Gallery Wall: Interview with Andrew Quilty, Curator of The Elizabeth Street Gallery in Sydney

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THE ELIZABETH STREET GALLERY

Philanthropy need not be the domain of the rich. Art need not be confined to a gallery wall. Permission need not be begged for nor granted. This is a gift.

This is an interview with Andrew Quilty, one of the curators of the Elizabeth Street Gallery in Sydney– a public and outdoor gallery. See how he helping build democracy in art and exposing new talent in the feature below!

Great having you Andrew and congratulations all of your success with the Elizabeth Street Gallery. Can you start off by telling us more about the outdoor gallery?

Elizabeth Street No.1

My pleasure mate. The gallery first became a gallery in September 2012. Dean Sewell had been doing unauthorised, guerrilla (mostly protest) art installations with a group of activists called the Lonely Station for years. It was in this spirit that the idea was first conceived. Dean and myself had had limited success with commercial galleries and we were both feeling a bit disillusioned by the way our chosen photography practice was being viewed in Australia, despite the fact that we were so passionate about it and it’s worth as a means of documenting place and time.

We’d often looked at public spaces that had inherent if rough shod ‘gallery’ characteristics and we both took note of this particular block on Elizabeth Street independently.

We got a bunch of friends together whose work we thought would suit the space and who were willing to help with production and installation (which would be unauthorised).

We printed on plastic paper, mounted on core flute for weather resistance and cropped the images so they would fit perfectly into each of the 42 individual brick recesses along the wall that made up the block.

We had a group of about ten on the installation which we did at 5am in high visibility workmen’s outfits so as to look ‘official’.

We installed 42 6ft long prints on one of Sydney’s busiest streets without raising an eyelid.

The council found out about it and loved it. We then applied for a grant which we won and decided to put the money towards creating an open submission for street and documentary photo essays from anywhere in Australia.

Wow congratulations on the support and grant from the council. I’m sure it will truly help you give back to the community! Can you tell us more about the submissions for the street and documentary essays? What exactly are you looking for, and what do you think makes a strong street or documentary essay?

WENTWORTH PARK (2009). By Nic Walker
WENTWORTH PARK (2009). By Nic Walker

We wanted to create an exhibition, an award that recognised REAL photography exclusively. By real, I mean photography that captures reality rather than creating it.

As we did in the original, we aim to exhibit a range of work that uncovers and delves into aspects of life in Australia that are overlooked. This could be because a subject is so familiar that it is perceived as banal or because it actually IS unknown of.

We want to see original perspectives and commitment to a subject beyond single images.

How would you currently describe the street and documentary landscape and community in Australia? Also what else do you feel differentiates the Elizabeth Street Gallery from other galleries or spaces?

NEWTOWN (2007-2009), Photo by Andrew Quilty
NEWTOWN (2007-2009), By Andrew Quilty / Oculi

If you visit Elizabeth Street you won’t have pretentious gallery staff lurking around so you don’t feel as if you need to be an ‘arts patron’ to visit, it’s open to the elements and to vandalism. It’s as much about the photos IN the environment as it is the photos themselves.

The community in Australia? I suppose we’ll get a good feel for that when we see the submissions but anecdotally there are a small number of professionals who are able to make a living from it via editorial work and commercial galleries but very few who have made an international mark. The reality is that the market for such work is far smaller than in the US or Europe for example.

There is however a healthy number of aspiring professionals whose commitment to photography will dictate their future success.

That is great how open the gallery is, and how you are providing a valuable resource to the photographic community in Australia. Which gets me to my next question : what are your thoughts about the printed image in a gallery versus seeing images online? Many photographers simply see images on the Internet. What is the value and difference of experiencing images in-person? And how might you see the future of photography in regards to in person galleries versus the internet?

MANLY (2007 – 2012). Photo by James Brickwood
MANLY (2007 – 2012). By James Brickwood / Oculi

I don’t think there’d be too many people that would say they prefer looking at photographs on the internet than in print form – apart from for the convenience factor anyway. Apart from anything these prints are going to be big – most are 6ft across. They’ll be printed directly on to aluminium and coated with a high-tech graffiti-proof layer. The quality is outstanding. Big prints have a presence that 1000 pixel images online can’t compete with.

Going to a gallery is also an experience. You make a decision to go to see it – one that involves more than tapping a button. There are no email alerts or people wanting to ‘chat’ in a gallery, it’s less of a disposable experience. Online there is always something else vying for your attention. There’s more room for contemplation in a gallery – it’s the last stop before a photograph hangs on a wall in your house – that photograph that gets appreciated and gives enjoyment every day. There is no “next” button.

You bring a really great point to the immediacy and intimacy of seeing the images in a gallery. As a curator yourself, you are constantly looking for new and original work. Being a photographer yourself, how would you define “unique” work? Or is being unique not as important as having strong images?

Also, how does being a photographer influence how you curate work? I know there are some photography curators out there who aren’t photographers.

WESTERN SYDNEY (2010-2012). By George Voulgaropoulos / Oculi
WESTERN SYDNEY (2010-2012). By George Voulgaropoulos / Oculi

When photography is unique it is surprising. You can be looking at well known subject matter but seeing it in a different way, from a different perspective. Having said that, if a set of images aren’t “strong” as you put it, little is gained by their uniqueness.

I’m always somewhat suspicious of curators who haven’t at one time or another been photographers themselves. I feel that to judge another’s work one must have proved themselves first.

So I think being a photographer first and foremost gives a curator a greater knowledge base from which to “judge” another’s work whereas an non-photographer curator might make assumptions about a photographer’s process and outcome.

So when you curate images, how much do you consider the process of how the photos were made, versus the final product.

WESTERN SYDNEY (2010-2012). By George Voulgaropoulos / Oculi
WESTERN SYDNEY (2010-2012). By George Voulgaropoulos / Oculi

Ultimately, all that matters is the final product, however, consideration needs to be paid to what was involved in getting to that product. Strong, evocative images made under difficult circumstances usually deserve greater respect than strong, evocative images made under less challenging conditions for example.

Thank you very much for your insights! Moving on, nowadays with social media and the Internet I think there is too much emphasis on single images versus projects. What are your personal thoughts on single images versus projects?

NEWTOWN (2007-2009). By Andrew Quilty / Oculi
NEWTOWN (2007-2009). By Andrew Quilty / Oculi

I presume you’re referring to Instagram and in a way I’d agree with you because the way one’s feed works you only see one person’s work intermittently amongst everyone else’s. However, the way many of the people I follow use Instagram is in such a way that although their images only appear intermittently, their work often flows within the realm of a single (if sometimes broad) subject.

While for most of the professionals that I follow still only use Instagram as a secondary means of presenting what they’re working on, many still present in such a way that could be viewed as a series over time. It’s an interesting way of seeing series come together in fact – rather than having 20 or 50 images carefully edited over time to look at all at once, the viewer gets to see a series (or behind the scenes of a series) develop almost in real time, as it happens.

I think one of the most difficult things photographers face is editing and sequencing their work. What are some techniques you personally use when editing and sequencing your own work? And what advice would you offer photographers who have a hard time editing and sequencing their own work?

NEWTOWN (2007-2009). By Andrew Quilty / Oculi
NEWTOWN (2007-2009). By Andrew Quilty / Oculi

Get help from someone else. Others will often see an unedited body of work of yours in an entirely different way to that which you’d seen it. Even if you don;t choose to follow their advice, it’s helpful to see that body of work from another perspective.

I think it’s amazing what you’re doing with the gallery for the community. I know a lot of people who dream of opening their own gallery. What practical advice would you give someone who wants to start their own photography gallery? Perhaps mention the “do’s” and “don’ts”?

HILLSDALE (2004-2009). By Dean Sewell / Oculi
HILLSDALE (2004-2009). By Dean Sewell / Oculi

Well this certainly isn’t a gallery in the traditional sense. For one, it’s not commercially driven – ie. our aim is first and foremost to promote unseen photography rather than to turn a profit.

Fortunately, because we were given funding to establish it as an official space, we don’t have to worry about it being financially viable (beyond working within our funding budget I mean).

So the only advice that I could give would be to put your heart and a bit of your own cash into it to begin with and if it’s worthy, someone might just come to you and say “hey, this is great, I want to see this happen again, what can I do to help”? Of course it’s never as easy as that but for many successful artists, authors, musicians and photographers, that’s how it begins – by doing what you’re passionate about without compromise until one day the right person pays attention…

Any last words or shout out you would like to give?

SYDNEY HIP HOP (2005-2006). By James 'Blondie' Alcock
SYDNEY HIP HOP (2005-2006). By James ‘Blondie’ Alcock

Thanks a lot for your interest in Elizabeth Street Gallery Eric, maybe one day we’ll have a gallery that we can throw open worldwide which you and your readers can enter.

Follow the Elizabeth Street Gallery

The curation of the Elizabeth street Gallery was an egalitarian process drawing on excerpts from more long-form documentary projects and was delivered as a gift to the public in honour of where the images were procured.

Follow Andrew

Andrew Quilty was born in 1981 in Sydney. He has won a World Press Photo Award and a Walkley Young Australian Photojournalist of The Year Award. Quilty began his career as a photographer at Fairfax Media in Sydney and began freelancing in 2010. He is regularly commissioned by The New York Times, TIME, and The Guardian and is a member of the Australian photographic collective, Oculi.

You can also see my past interview with Andrew about his book: “The Mexicans” on the blog: “The Mexicans”: A Colorful 4-Month Odyssey Across 22 Mexican States and 15,000 Kilometers by Andrew Quilty (Interview). 

Video

You can see a video of the Elizabeth Street Gallery. This is a contribution from six anonymous photographers depicting their home town of Sydney in its various guises: