20th January, 2011
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| L.M.Hemsworth - from the Daybreak series |
Last Tuesday morning, Nowhere Man caught up with acclaimed street photographer Lucas Hemsworth for a quick chat and a pineapple donut down at the Pennant Hills shopping mall. The young photographer’s star is very much on the rise having wowed all comers at the Revesby Biennale last June and has been described in Australian art dispatches most favourably as, “the literal street photographer” – this seemed an appropriate place to start…
N.M …
So Lucas, what do you make of the ‘literal street photographer’ tag ?
LMH …
Mate I quite like it. I’m a true street photographer and feel a distinction needs be made between the purity of straight forwardly photographing the streets as opposed to all these photographers flying under the street photography banner who aren’t actually shooting the streets at all, they’re shooting the sidewalks, the parks, the beaches, and more often than not – they’re shooting the people.
N.M…
So tell us just how a humble road digger suddenly becomes a celebrated street photographer?
LMH…
There was nothing sudden about it mate. I’d left school at 14 and was lucky enough to receive a traineeship with the DMR (Dept of Main Roads) – and for a young kid who knew nothing about anything, hell all that blue stone, bitumen and double yellow lines … I tell you, it was bloody intoxicating. Anyway after a few years working solely on the shovel I earned the extra responsibility of taking the project photo’s for the gang. And on one particularly wet and windy Wednesday up the
Bobbin Head Road from Asquith, Tran Veganbauer driving a Nissan Bluebird ran right into me. It was my own fault as I’d set the tripod up in the centre of a hairpin bend and Tran actually did brilliantly not to kill me. Anyway, after that we became mates and Tran liked some of my images and suggested I should show them.
N.M…
Yes, for anyone not au fait – Tran Veganbauer’s contribution to Australian photography has been immense. A huge early supporter of the likes of Bill Henson, Tracy Moffatt, Barry Pascoe and now LM Hemsworth, just to name a few. Tran’s Padstow Gallery is pivotal in the twitching fulcrum of Aussie image making.
LMH…
Yeah, that’s one way of putting it.
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| L.M.Hemsworth - from the Daybreak series |
N.M …Just think, you might have been run over by Russell Crowe and today your thing could be thespianism.
LMH …
Russell Crowe doesn’t drive a Nissan Bluebird.
N.M…
Fair point.
Now Lucas, would it be overstating the truth if I were to suggest that you had a genuine passion for the streets?
LMH…
The streets don’t lie man: they don’t cheat, they don’t run off with your best mates brother – Nah, the streets stand up. They are totally solid; I respect the streets immensely.
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| L.M.Hemsworth - from the Daybreak series |
N.M…I read recently where “Review” described you as one of the great non artists of contemporary art. And let me quote, “Hemsworth’s street photographs strip bare the previously held dictum that art need be arty”.
LMH…
Geez this donuts good: texture, stickiness, full flavour – perfect. Did we invent the pineapple donut? Seems like a really Aussie concept to me. I’m sure we invented it.
N.M…
LMH …
As well as mate… we’re allowed to have invented two things yeah ?
N.M …
I suppose. But tell me what you think of art, and why your photographs aren’t … art I mean.
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| L.M.Hemsworth - from the Daybreak series |
LMH…
I’m a realist. I photograph the streets for the streets alone. I’m not out there to be some flowery bloody smart assed aesthetic junky …
If I see even the barest hint of artiness through my view finder I pull back, you know recoil – I just won’t release that shutter.
N.M…
That’s interesting, and I imagine very difficult to achieve – a little like calling misere during a hand of whist. It cuts against the natural instinct.
LMH…
Mmm. Not mine.
N.M…
You were embroiled in some light hearted controversy back in 2009 when it was pointed out that a number of your “literal street photographs” may not have actually been shots of streets, but instead roads. What is your position on all this ?
LMH…
Nothing f**king light hearted about it mate, I got very upset about all that nonsense. All, and I repeat ALL my photographs are street photographs … no roads, avenues, places, ways or any of the other minor thoroughfare descriptors. This whole beat up came about because of far off cross roads. I mean shit, there is a pigeon in the background of one of Atget’s Paris pictures does that suddenly make him a wildlife photographer?
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| L.M.Hemsworth - from the Daybreak series |
N.M…No, of course not. I totally agree. Pedantry is a curse and tragically, light hearted tom foolery can sometimes take an eye out …
OK, well, my bus to Hornsby is due shortly so can I just finish up by asking why you’re Web presence is so scant, almost non existent – I mean what’s the big secret why can’t people find your photographs?
LMH…
Ha Ha! - No secret mate. I’m just a bit of a luddite when it comes to that stuff and I wouldn’t be truthful if I didn’t mention that I don’t really trust it that much either. I just feel once an image has been stuck up to float around in them computers memory’s it’s lost much of its soul. And funnily enough that’s exactly why I’ve only given you some of my totally average photo’s to use with this interview.
N.M…
LM Hemsworth – thanks for your time.
Nowhere Man - thanks for the pineapple donut.
