Cairns to the Cape: A Photographic Journey

Cairns to the Cape: A Photographic Journey is the first exhibition of new work by photographer and SCA graduate Nathan David Kelly since 2003. Kelly’s work will be on display at the Cairns Regional Gallery from 26 July to 31 August 2008.

Kelly has worked consistently as a photographer for the past ten years and his work has been published and exhibited both nationally and internationally. Portraiture has always been one of Kelly’s favourite themes, his work has been collected by prominent institutions such as the National Library and the National Portrait Gallery. When the National Portrait Gallery acquired Kelly’s portrait of former Prime Minister Sir John Gorton in 2001, he was the youngest artist to have work in their permanent collection.

Cairns to the Cape tries to explore the diverse people and landscape of far North Queensland. Kelly says, “This exhibition should be seen as a work in progress of a much larger body of work that I am continuing to create.” This show is interesting as it is surprising. The portraits are intense, some measuring more than two metres in height and printed on a luscious metallic paper. The images seem timeless and it is Kelly’s use of a makeshift canvas backdrop to create the studio look he desired in the open air that makes these images so successful. The landscapes are dark and brooding, they seem to be anti-postcards in a way, doing more than identifying a place. Kelly says “these landscapes may look hostile; much of Cape York Peninsula is... as a photographer I don’t just try to show people and places..How they look...I am trying to show how I felt on a particular day or time about a place or a person...I find much of Cape York haunting.”