Welcome

Gina Hennessy is currently a student at the Newcastle Art School undertaking a diploma in Fine Arts.

“I am studying fine arts with a keen interest in photography and learning to draw.  My passion in photography began many years ago when I worked in a makeshift darkroom under the house. Now the digital darkroom has come of age and I am learning a new way of making pictures. I still have an interest in the black and white darkroom and am interested in using a medium format camera which I recently inherited from one of my brothers. Being back in the darkroom again and learning about digital photography has reignited my love of the visual image.

I hope you enjoy looking at some of my photographs.”

Artist’s Statement

Using photography as an “artform” or a medium for expression has always been fraught with controversy, namely that the very mechanical nature of photography nullifies its claim to carry the power of other artistic endeavours. Putting this aside I have found photography and the work of many photographers to reopen my eyes to the world and reconnect me in a way that other artforms have failed to do.

I remember seeing an exhibition by Axel Poignant at the NSW Art Gallery back in the 1980s and being frozen infront of an image of a white seagull flying over a deep blue sea; a simple image but powerful in its pure beauty. I realise now that in some of my pictures I have revisited the works of so many photographers and even painters, but subconsciously. It makes me realise how I sift through thousands of images that I have seen and remain drawn to the ones which for some strange reason hold something special for me.