Graham Miller
www.grahammiller.com.au
Rhonda and Chantelle, 2007
Off Quaker Bridge Rd, 2007
Aina, 2007
Frank, 2006
Robert, 2006
Dave, 2005
Everson Creek, 2007
Joe, 2007
Alice, 2005
Shelby Avenue, 2007
Graham Miller
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"Suburban Splendour" materialized from encounters observed while driving and the direct observation of daily life, from eavesdropping and casual conversation, but more often than not the photographs were inspired by literature and cinema. Films by Paul Thomas Anderson and Ray Lawrence contributed, as did writing by Richard Ford and the paintings of Edward Hopper. But the background soundtrack that remained constant was the voice of the American short story writer Raymond Carver. Carver’s vision of ordinary blue collar people living lives of quiet desperation, seems to me to tap into a sense of contemporary isolation that reflects the anomie, uncertainties and vulnerabilities of existing in the contemporary world, and on a planet which contemplates an undecided environmental future.
Like Carver’s stories and Hopper’s paintings, these images depict everyday struggle and ordinary tragedy. They touch upon areas of experience simmering just below the surface, and explore the notion that the lives of others, no matter how close we are to them, will always remain fundamentally unknowable to us. That, in essence, we all exist as unitary individuals.
These characters are troubled, but not irretrievably lost; they carry a dignified endurance and a sense of bruised optimism. These people are survivors. They have a desire, as we all do, to be transported from darkness into light.
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