QUEEN STREET RICHES AND TEXTURES 2013
Faces of St Marys
We invited Chris Peken, a Sydney based photographer who has extensive professional experience in portrait and street photography to be Queen Street Riches and Textures 2013 lead artist. Chris responded with a simple and straightforward proposal – to photograph people of St Marys.
Faces of St Marys was born and gradually developed during 10 intensive weeks in an improvised photographic studio at St Marys Corner. The studio was the place where people would visit, sit and share their stories. St Marys residents from all walks of life were asked the same questions: What does Queen Street mean to you? What is its importance and character? What are the personal and collective memories connected to the street? What is Queen Street going to look like in the future?
The studio also expanded to Queen Street itself where a simple white backdrop, 1967 Hasselblad 500C camera and a passion to meet people and have conversations resulted in additional Faces of St Marys images. An exciting part of Faces of St Marys was Chris’ mentoring of four TAFE Arts and Design students.
Barbara Glover, Kira Ogston, Sevket Ufuk Guden and Yvonne Larkins, currently enrolled in Photo Imaging courses, also captured the life and culture of the street, searching for what a street photographer would call a “decisive moment”. After taking several hundred photographs, 24 striking images have been selected for this exhibition.
The people of St Marys of different ages and diverse cultures have came together as part of this project by sharing common experiences and memories of Queen Street. Through their participation in the Faces of St Marys, Queen Street Riches and Textures 2013 has captivated a collage of photographs and stories of a distinctive suburb and its people.
Adnan Begic
Cultural Development Team Penrith City Council
Queen Street Riches and Textures 2013 - Faces of St Marys - catalogue download PDF 44MB
We invited Chris Peken, a Sydney based photographer who has extensive professional experience in portrait and street photography to be Queen Street Riches and Textures 2013 lead artist. Chris responded with a simple and straightforward proposal – to photograph people of St Marys.
Faces of St Marys was born and gradually developed during 10 intensive weeks in an improvised photographic studio at St Marys Corner. The studio was the place where people would visit, sit and share their stories. St Marys residents from all walks of life were asked the same questions: What does Queen Street mean to you? What is its importance and character? What are the personal and collective memories connected to the street? What is Queen Street going to look like in the future?
The studio also expanded to Queen Street itself where a simple white backdrop, 1967 Hasselblad 500C camera and a passion to meet people and have conversations resulted in additional Faces of St Marys images. An exciting part of Faces of St Marys was Chris’ mentoring of four TAFE Arts and Design students.
Barbara Glover, Kira Ogston, Sevket Ufuk Guden and Yvonne Larkins, currently enrolled in Photo Imaging courses, also captured the life and culture of the street, searching for what a street photographer would call a “decisive moment”. After taking several hundred photographs, 24 striking images have been selected for this exhibition.
The people of St Marys of different ages and diverse cultures have came together as part of this project by sharing common experiences and memories of Queen Street. Through their participation in the Faces of St Marys, Queen Street Riches and Textures 2013 has captivated a collage of photographs and stories of a distinctive suburb and its people.
Adnan Begic
Cultural Development Team Penrith City Council
Queen Street Riches and Textures 2013 - Faces of St Marys - catalogue download PDF 44MB
Faces of St Marys - Community Wall display. Photographs by Chris Peken. St Marys 2013.
Artist’s Statement: Faces of St Marys
When we started this project we had just two things - a concept of taking portrait photographs of locals in St Marys and a title - Faces of St Marys. We weren’t really sure how many people that would be, or exactly who they might be. We just knew that we wanted to try and capture the faces that represent the community that is St Marys.
At one point it was discussed that we would be able to do 25 images. But somehow that didn’t seem to represent a community to me. A community has so many faces, literally and figuratively; different faces that represent different ages, different backgrounds, and different roles, but all of them vital in making a community and a place what it is.
So we set about trying to capture this. As I set up my mobile portrait studio both on the street and inside Memorial Hall, my four able students – Barbara, Kira, Sevket Ufuk and Yvonne – went out onto the streets
themselves, to capture the daily life of St Marys and Queen Street.
At this juncture I need to point out something. As an artist and a photographer, and particularly as a portrait photographer, I have to work in collaboration with my subjects. I can’t photograph somebody unless the person consents to be photographed. And in St Marys I found so many wonderful people with amazing stories, who were so generous and open in sharing their stories with me that it was truly humbling.
I am honoured to have shared just these small moments with each person who came before my camera in this project, and these portraits here attempt to capture just a small but essential part of who each person is. As you can see some are happy and laughing, some are sad, some are caught lost in thought, others are playful, others show surprise... collectively they represent not only themselves as individuals but also the community as a whole - a community that at any one time will be both happy and sad, thoughtful and distracted, and so much more. I finished with some 70 images capturing over 100 faces of this community.
I must also highly commend Penrith City Council for their support of arts projects like this, projects that both reflect and give back to the community. And a very special thanks to Adnan Begic as without his support, understanding and hard work, this project could not have occurred.
So here we have a series of street shots by my students and a series of my portraits. I hope that what you see here is the many wonderful and varied faces of St Marys.
Chris Peken, Photographer and mentor of Queen Street Riches and Textures 2013
Chris Peken is a Sydney based photographer. His photos have been exhibited in the Head on Portrait Prize, Love Postcode 2012 and the Kings Cross Photography Prize and Nudes on Tap. He has had two solo exhibitions of his “Exposed” series. He works primarily with black & white medium format film.
Queen Street Riches and Textures - Faces of St Marys project crew. From left to right: Barbara Glover, Chris Peken, Sevket Ufuk Guden, Yvone Larkins and Kira Ogston.
Student Engagement in Art Industry Projects
Nepean Arts and Design Centre is delighted to have four of our Commercial Photo Imaging students, Barbara Glover, Kira Ogston, Sevket Ufuk Guden and Yvonne Larkins, as participants in the 2013 Queen Street Riches and Textures project.
The project has been a wonderful opportunity to put their studies into practice, and work under the guidance of an experienced mentor from outside of the TAFE environment. With the skilled guidance of photographer Chris Peken they have put into practice the art of liaising with a client, learnt how to build client relationships and trust, how to respond to a brief, and manage deadlines. This has been a wonderful experience, and we would like to thank Chris, and the Penrith City Council for giving our students this opportunity.
Western Sydney Institute prides itself on the strong relationships we have with industry and our local community. Penrith Council is a strong supporter of the creative industries, and an understanding of the social, cultural and economic capital they contribute to our region.
Congratulations to Barbara, Kira, Yvonne and Sevket Ufuk, who showed great commitment to this project, with impressive results. Students from the Nepean Arts and Design Centre are regularly engaged to work on industry projects that give valuable real world experience. Projects such as this one enrich their learning experience. We look forward to working again with Penrith City Council in the future.
Cath Barcan
Head Teacher, Photo Imaging, Fine Arts, Nepean Arts and Design Centre
Nepean Arts and Design Centre is delighted to have four of our Commercial Photo Imaging students, Barbara Glover, Kira Ogston, Sevket Ufuk Guden and Yvonne Larkins, as participants in the 2013 Queen Street Riches and Textures project.
The project has been a wonderful opportunity to put their studies into practice, and work under the guidance of an experienced mentor from outside of the TAFE environment. With the skilled guidance of photographer Chris Peken they have put into practice the art of liaising with a client, learnt how to build client relationships and trust, how to respond to a brief, and manage deadlines. This has been a wonderful experience, and we would like to thank Chris, and the Penrith City Council for giving our students this opportunity.
Western Sydney Institute prides itself on the strong relationships we have with industry and our local community. Penrith Council is a strong supporter of the creative industries, and an understanding of the social, cultural and economic capital they contribute to our region.
Congratulations to Barbara, Kira, Yvonne and Sevket Ufuk, who showed great commitment to this project, with impressive results. Students from the Nepean Arts and Design Centre are regularly engaged to work on industry projects that give valuable real world experience. Projects such as this one enrich their learning experience. We look forward to working again with Penrith City Council in the future.
Cath Barcan
Head Teacher, Photo Imaging, Fine Arts, Nepean Arts and Design Centre
