Trent Parke - Monument
© Trent Parke, Monument, Courtesy of STANLEY/BARKER
Trent Parke’s Monument is said to be a “portal through which we bear witness to the disintegration of the universe.” At least that’s what the publishers, Stanley/Barker, tout in their press release. This may be true for two reasons. One, the monolith of a publication, bound in totem-embossed leather, is 294 pages, contains multiple paperweights, and holds a loose steel plaque that, after removal, leaves the book without text. If that doesn’t incite universal disintegration, Parke’s photographs might.
© Trent Parke, Courtesy of STANLEY/BARKER
Born in Newcastle, Australia, where the bush meets the suburbs, Trent Parke moved to Sydney when he was 21, leaving everyone he knew behind. A newfound sense of urban loneliness and lingering grief from his mother’s sudden death when he was a child, shaped his first project, Dream/Life—black and white, surrealist street photographs that strike a discord between Parke and city life around him (indeed, this sense of alienation from the world has often bred excellent street photographers.) He recalls spending every day photographing the city, and when night fell he’d retreat to his apartment window to photograph the moths flapping around the lights.
© Trent Parke, Courtesy of STANLEY/BARKER
The pages of Monument thematically ping-pongs between jubilation of everyday life and the looming threat of societal collapse. This unfolds in his trademark overexposed figures that appear simultaneously angelic and ghostly, the stark contrast within each photograph and his conservative use of midtones. His work debates good and evil, heaven and hell, us or them. The breadth of his work serves as the language for both sides, never arriving at any absolutes. He champions the blending of subjects to create a bricolage of symbols. One photograph reads as a starry sky, which reveals itself to be a constellation of winged moths, which create the imprinted halftone of a face.
© Trent Parke, Courtesy of STANLEY/BARKER
Parke gained notoriety from his third project, Minutes to Midnight, published in 2005, which is a salutation to the Australian country. The book features dreamy landscapes and peculiar portraits—a bright sky dotted with superman-like bats, the ghostly underbelly of an opossum jumping over the camera, a girl frowning at Parke on a cloudy hill, a Queensland horse race, to name a few. Many of these photographs are included in Monument.
© Trent Parke, Courtesy of STANLEY/BARKER
Photography is a labor of love, and Parke knows it. He recalls shooting 100 rolls of film (3600 photos!) to achieve the vision he had for a single photograph. Moving bus depicts pedestrians lining the sidewalk, the white ghost of a bus projecting their shadows like holograms. The shot is a Truman-show-esque—the monotony of urban life with bursts of magic suggesting that just below the surface is a mystery, if you just squint your eyes and wait a couple seconds longer. He recalls going to this spot every day for the 15 minutes when the light would land perfectly between two buildings. He recalls, “Once I’d got that image, I just couldn’t get anywhere near it again. That’s always a good sign: you know you’ve got something special.”
© Trent Parke, Courtesy of STANLEY/BARKER
Aptly named Monument, the volume is a testament to the miraculousness of Australian life, and to the magnitude of Parke’s work. But, the interpretation of his work balances on the viewer: the photographs can read as evidence for our innate schism from one another (his motif of star-shaped human figure floating in black abyss comes to mind), but perhaps, this very disconnection is what binds us to one another—like icy chains, or moths blindly searching for the light.
Presale for Monument began on June 26th. It will be published by Stanley/Barker this September.
