Justin Spiers: Pet Photo Booth
12 February-31 March, 2019
Photography Gallery, Pah Homestead
The opening night is on 11th February 6pm
Pet Photo Booth Event, Pah Homestead: 16-17 March.
The Pet Photo Booth was conceived in Perth, Western Australia as a tribute to Yvonne Doherty's hideously ugly and demented poodle Joe Louie. Yvonne desperately wanted a portrait with a likeness to Joe Louie in his younger and cuter days, unfortunately this was no longer possible. Yvonne made it her mission to photograph other people's pets before they too declined in to shadows of their former selves.
Yvonne collaborated with Dunedin based photographer Justin Spiers and the Pet Photo Booth project was developed as a travelling carnival of kitsch photography that has been to all corners of Australia and has now had a couple of New Zealand outings.
In the series besotted pet owners are photographed with their furry, finned and feathered friends in front of picturesque photo wall backdrops. The images offer a glimpse into the bonds we create with other animals. Sometimes humorous, often moving and always gently rubbed with a little of the bizarre. However, there is often a sense of absence, isolation and melancholy within the performative of the tableau.
The photographs exhibited in the Pah Homestead are from a recent series of portraits taken on the Otago Peninsula during a residency supported by the Caselberg Trust and Creative New Zealand.
Pet Photo Booth is an occasional project with only one or two outings per year. It has previously been exhibited in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, The National Portrait Gallery and the Australian Centre for Photography and enacted in numerous arts festivals and centres including Fringeworld (Perth), Melbourne International Arts Festival, Feast Festival (Adelaide) and the Brisbane Powerhouse.
Publicity image:
Justin Spiers, Julia and Larry, 2018, Pigment print