WOMEN UNITED
Abby Wake - Dancer
©Charmaine Lyons photography. All rights reserved.
Women United A Photographic Essay
22 – 02 – 2020
Kathleen M Hunt
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this country, the Wakka Wakka, the Butchulla and the Kabi Kabi peoples, and their leaders, past present and emerging.
Photographer and activist Zoe Leonard spoke of channelling our talents as artists through our anger - to unite art with our need to create change in the world. This was in response to the USA 1992 “Gag Order” forbidding clinicians to even SAY the word abortion. Leonard’s concern was that we were loosing control of our bodies - loosing control of our speech - of the right to self-determination and personal choice.
Twenty-five years later, here we are again.
The historic 2017 International Women's Day marches in Australia - with hundreds of thousands collectively protesting about the need to recognise and value the voice of women - motivated photographer Charmaine Lyons to respond with this body of work, Women United.
Witnessing the power, strength and determination of the many women united throughout this event, Lyons was moved to stand in solidarity and respond to the continuing exclusion of whole social groups - here women - from the conversations of our times - from opportunities for speaking - by giving voice, by creating her own, enduring photographic march.
While the exhibition is based on personal motivations - Charmaine Lyons is providing a window for the women involved to tell their stories - creating their own images for the audience - with as little interference as possible from the photographer. This creative process - based on teasing out, investigating and creating conversation - becomes one of allowing things to happen.
Engaging with this series of visual poems, the photographer captures a moment, a fragment - ambiguous, revealing - a moment just before we slip into another projection of ourselves, outside these frames. Before, perhaps, feeling the regret that seeps in after we have - unwittingly - revealed too much of ourselves. But then - with a shrug of our shoulders - overtaken by the next call on our time, we move on.
While there are narratives here, we see only fragments - responding from our own points of difference or familiarity - connection or alienation. But is this where the power of these images lies, in the potential for reflection on our own lived experience?
You are now invited to discover yourself in this powerful and poignant exhibition. Thank you for listening.
Zoe Leonard Interviewed by Anna Blume. www.anthonymeierfinearts.com
Nick Couldry Why Voice Matters, 2010, Sage Publications, London
Iris Marion Young, Inclusion and Democracy, 2000, Oxford University Press, Oxford
Queensland photographer Charmaine Lyons presents
intimate portraits of 200 women embedded in their individual
lifescapes.
After witnessing the historic 2017 International Women's Day
marches with hundreds of thousands collectively protesting for women's rights - the need to recognise and value the voice of women, Lyons was moved to create this body of work.
Witnessing the power, strength and determination of the many women
united throughout this event, Lyons was moved to stand in solidarity with her own medium by creating an enduring photographic march.
Travelling throughout rural, regional, and urban Australia for 3
years, Lyons captured a diverse selection of women, women of all ages and walks of life, women who had answered the call to participate.
In capturing the essence, the voice of each woman in her own
space, Lyons challenges us to reflect on and respond to the imbedded story of each photographic portrait.
WOMEN UNITED
A Photographic Project by Portrait Photographer
Charmaine Lyons
Expression of Interest
Seeking
ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN
Charmaine Lyons Photography is embarking on her most adventurous photographic endeavor to date and is inviting women to join her as she sets out to achieve her goal.
Lyons is now seeking a diverse range of female subjects, women from all fields and walks of life to partake in the project ‘WOMEN UNITED.’
This massive undertaking may span several years with Lyons setting the goal and aiming to photograph 200 women with a vision to create an extensive body of work in which to represent the solidarity, commonality, strength and determination of ordinary, extraordinary women living in the 21st century.
‘WOMEN UNITED’ is a personal project and because of that in exchange for the sitter’s time I would like to gift all participants of the ‘WOMEN UNITED’ project with a 5x7 print taken from the ‘WOMEN UNITED’ photo shoots. this print however will not be the image that will be used for the WU project.
If the project generates enough interest these images may result in an exhibition or possible book, the details of which will take shape as the project evolves, in this case Charmaine Lyons Photography will require all sitters sign a model release acknowledging that Charmaine Lyons Photography retain full copyright of all images taken.
To accompany the images I would like to ask that each women write a very brief description of themselves outlining who they are, what they do and what it means for them to be a women living in the 21st century, what your aspirations are for women moving into the future.
All portraits for the project will be captured in the sitter’s own home/office portraying the sitters setting/profession.
If you feel that you would like to be involved in this meaningful undertaking please email Charmaine Lyons Photography for details
www.clyonsphotographer.com
clyonsphotographer@bigpond.com
charmaine_lyons_photography
@charmainelyonsphotography
0412786511
