Douglas Holleley — Luna Park Sydney: The Image of a Funfair (Free to Members)

On Thursday November 8, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Dryden Theatre

Douglas Holleley will discuss the historically and culturally important amusement park, Luna Park, Sydney, Australia. Most of the images to be shown were made by E. A. Hopkins, who began working at Luna Park in 1935 when it was being built on the north shore of Sydney Harbor. In 1937, Hopkins began to photograph the Park. This he did with great skill and tenacity for some 35 years. In spite, or perhaps because, of his lack of photographic training, his images from the very beginning exemplify a mature and sophisticated understanding of visual structure. However, at the same time they present a series of perplexing paradoxes with respect to the assumptions of documentary photographic methodology. One reason for this is that these architectural spaces are also images — elaborately created tableaux — that have the symbolic qualities of, and may be “read” like, visual images, especially photographs.  Things are further complicated when these tableaux are then photographed.