reviews
Portraits from the Edge of Society
8 October 2008 Robert McFarlane, critic, Sydney Morning Herald
In an era awash with celebrity portraiture and counterfeit fame, I found it reassuring to find a photographer honestly drawn to documenting the less fortunate - for the best reasons.
Kate Baker has documented the regular visitors to Oasis Youth Support Network at Surry Hills and this exhibition includes intimate, closely observed portraits, mostly taken on a Friday, of the homeless young men and women who gravitate to Oasis' supportive environment. On any given night, more than 50 are accommodated by the Salvation Army refuge.
Baker, 44, clearly doesn't plunder this social issue in order to make a striking picture. Instead her portraits, taken over 2 1/2 years, reflect a subtle dialogue she establishes with each of her young sitters. "It involves trust," Baker says. "I need to be 'present' and then get out of the way".
The photographs on show reveal subjects who are clearly vulnerable but not without a certain strength to survive life on the street.
Baker's black-and-white portraits are technically simple to the point of austerity. Subjects vary their gazes only slightly in each picture. However, Baker establishes a remarkable mood in each portrait, funding moments of genuine candour between photographer and subject. I found the honesty with which her subjects face the camera genuinely moving - from an 18-year-old girl struggling to regain her trust in humanity to a shy, handsome teenager who had never seen himself in a photograph before.
I was pleasantly surprised by the intimacy reflected in the extended moments in which Baker captures her subjects. Owen, 18, Nowra reminded me briefly of Melbourne photojournalist Jesse Marlow's Wounded observations. This picture also evoked briefly the vulnerability captured in Matthew Brady's timeless portrait of a Lincoln assassination conspirator, Lewis Pine.
Looking at the body of Baker's work, it is clear she prefers things simple, photographically speaking. However, when she has applied more subtle, luminous lighting to portraits such as Dignity, Dean, Age 18, Radio John and Emma, Age 20, her artistry moves to another level.
Baker has also produced a book of her portraits, Fridays at Oasis, with all profits going to the centre.
Also see Robert's blog October 2008
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Elle McCarthy, Propelle Agency - October 2008
http://propelleagency.com/blog/?p=61
When the details came through about this exhibition featuring portraits of Sydney’s homeless youth, I immediately thought this would be an interesting exhibition. I really didn’t expect to be quite as moved and inspired as I was upon viewing the images.
Kate Baker spent two years hanging out with the young and disadvantaged inhabitants of the Oasis Center in Surry Hills and has captured them on film in a series of powerful black and white portraits. I think it was the combination of seeing the intensity and “realness” of their gaze staring back at me and reading the brief snippets of the events of their lives that had led them to that point, that really moved me - even to tears.
I guess in so much fine art photography you see the subject or composition expressing something - the idea of an emotion, or a moment or experience - but with these portraits everything was so real and the tragedy of just how young these people were really brought it all home. It was also the fact that they have all been kids I have easily stumbled past after leaving drinks with friends at the Dolphin or on the way to another delicious breakfast at Bills - it’s all a part of my reality too but had I really been taking any notice? Nope.
Pretty much the most sobering exhibition I’ve experienced in a long while.
Definitely worth checking out and picking up the book if the portraits are out of your price range - all proceeds go to Oasis either way.
Showing at the Meyer Gallery until October 26th.
x Elle.
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livenews.com.au - October 2008
http://www.livenews.com.au/news/fridays-at-oasis-a-different-angle-on-a-familiar-scene/2008/10/10/123414
'Fridays at Oasis': A different angle on a familiar scene
He was afraid of viewing it. He'd never had a photo of himself before.
Kate Baker
Imagine never having seen a photograph of yourself.
In this overexposed age of digital cameras it is almost impossible to believe, but this is what Kate Baker found when she began photographing disadvantaged youth at Sydney refuge, Oasis.
"It took Brendon three weeks before he saw the photo I took of him." says Baker. "He was afraid of viewing it. He'd never had a photo of himself before."
And each of the 41 of Kate's subjects have their own stories.
Emma, 20, came to Oasis when she was 16. "My mum was a binge drinker and turned violent and was really strict. She threw bricks at our feet, flogged us with branches."
She says she was surprised when Kate asked to take her photo. "I didn't smile (for the picture). I was thinking about my past."
Ella, 22, is planning a European escape but 2 years ago was at Oasis, "in between houses".
Of her photograph she says: "I'm glad I made my mark. It was part of me becoming a real person. Back then my life just revolved around drugs, I never realised what could be."
The photographs are taken on a large format film camera from the 60s.
Baker wanted to create a photographic space between her and her subject that was personal, almost ceremonial. By using film, none of the images can be erased, each is permanent. "They've been told all their life that they're not important," says Baker. "Now they have huge framed photographs of themselves hanging on a wall. They are significant."
The photographs have been collected into a hard cover book "Fridays at Oasis", with all proceeds from sales going to the refuge, Oasis. The exhibition runs at the Meyer Gallery, Darlinghurst until October 26.
