THE official opening of Peter Cooke’s solo photography exhibition, See What I’m Looking At, was held yesterday at the Yarragon Arts Hub.
Pictured: images from the exhibition opening. All images and text by David ‘Wombat’ Lyons.
Trafalgar resident Peter Cooke has been taking photos since he was a teenager and said he sees “photography as a collaborative activity shared with the viewer.”
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Peter said his inspiration came from looking at people and their place in the world and in this exhibition he compared his travel around Australia with images from a recent trip to India.
He said the experience of being among 20 million people in an Indian city was overwhelming but inspiring. For Peter, “street photography in particular transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, and highlights the poetry and the simple feeling of being human, weather in Melbourne or Mumbai.”
While the images of India were interesting to me, Peter’s more local subject matter from travel around Australia stood out, like his images of a teenager skating boarding past public art in Geelong and of an indigenous man looking for books at an Alice Springs library.
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Peter said he wanted his images to be emotional and to reflect himself, creating an artistic conversation. At the opening he thanked his family for helping prepare the event and the community for attending. He said the technical aspects of photography were as important to him as the artistic.
See What I’m Looking At, photography by Peter Cooke will be displayed at the Baw Baw Arts Alliance Arts Hub, Murray Street, Yarragon until 2 February 2014. The Hub is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.30am to 4pm and orders for the limited edition prints of the photography will be taken during the exhibition.
David ‘Wombat’ Lyons is a goat farmer at Yarragon Goats and hobbyist artist who encourages everyone to participate in the creative community of Gippsland. Remember to like the Yarragon Goats Facebook page.
Hip hip hooray, arts and goats!