Statement
After the death of my last parent – the last living connection with my ancestral past - I came into possession of an extensive collection of old family photographs, some dating back to the late 1800s. My initial intention was to scan and archive the images. However, while assembling the photographs on the flatbed scanner I started using its tools and settings to explore new ways of interpreting the photographs. I wanted to inject a new life and new meaning into the personal and historical narratives that are interwoven within my family history. So I used the ‘scan frame’ tool to isolate certain areas, individuals, or features. Within those ‘frames’ I created colour, tonal, or exposure overlays to accentuate a known familial story or relationship, or to add my own interpretation, or inject abstract compositional elements. I then took screenshots of the new compositions. By intertwining and overlaying the photographs with my own ideas it’s my way of re-framing my ancestors’ personal and historical narratives, bringing their histories into my own 21st Century photographic world.
Chris Round is a landscape photographer based in Sydney, Australia. He studied at both Canterbury College of Art and the School of Communication Arts in the UK, and also Sydney College of Art in Australia. Chris has also had a successful career in advertising, winning many international accolades including a coveted Grand Prix at Cannes.
From documenting landscapes featuring direct human interventions to exploring ideas of place, Chris’s work primarily investigates our ever-changing relationship with the 21st Century environment. Within these themes he looks for scenes that visually activate their surroundings in strangely compelling ways, fortuitously photogenic environments that he carefully documents rather than photographically exaggerates.
Chris’s work has been awarded both locally and internationally highlights include: Shortlisted, World Photo Awards and Winner Australia National Award; Grand Prize winner, PDN Exposure Award; Prize Winner & multiple Finalists, HeadOn Landscape Prize; Exhibitor, Royal Photographic Society IPE prize; multiple Prize Winner, Kodak Salon, CCP Melbourne; Selected Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Prize; Prize Winner & multiple Finalists Perth Centre for Photography CLIP award; FotoFilmic Shortlist & exhibitor; Moran Prize Semi-finalist.