The Heart of Punchbowl

Andrew Frost

One of the most pervasive of contemporary truisms is that anyone with an iPhone is a photographer. True, with the right app, a good eye and lucky timing, smart phones can be a way to create a certain kind of photography. But to claim that Instagram or sharing on Facebook is the same as older forms of photography is to fundamentally misunderstand the differences between the technology and the practice of making images with a camera. Photographer Andrew Quilty and writer Jackie Dent’s project The Heart of Punchbowl is a reportage project that reminds us that the tradition of photojournalism can never be replaced.

Commissioned to accompany SBS’s four-part landmark series Once Upon A Time in Punchbowl, the exhibition is a testament to the duo’s close and sustained observation of the suburb’s Lebanese community. Quilty’s images reveal the reality of a day-to-day life lived by a group of people who, in many respects, represent the mainstream of Australian society and its values – community, family, work and play. But in the context of the often-uneasy relationship between mainstream Australia and groups identified as outsiders, different and suspicious, The Heart of Punchbowl makes a powerful statement for tolerance and acceptance.

November 22 & 23

Bankstown Arts Centre, Bankstown

http://www.bankstown.nsw.gov.au/index.aspx?NID=323

Pic: Andrew Quilty, Aisha.