Statement
'Michael' is a young Queer man living in Naarm/Melbourne. Whilst photographing him in a studio setting the introduction of pink roses as part of the composition became more than a mere prop. They were immediately a charged object. For Michael the idea of giving flowers as a romantic gesture to another man was a complicated act. For him coming out in his earlier life was not an easy process and took years. This image for me plays on all the complex tensions of the vulnerabilities of a Queer individual expected to operate within traditional heteronormative modes of courting.
Christopher Allery is an artist working in Naarm/Melbourne and Meanjin/Brisbane. Storytelling is at the crux of Allery’s practice. Influenced by his experiences in South East Queensland, a place where street lights are sparse and there is no light pollution. It is in these ‘imagined spaces’ on the edge of suburban, small town life that the conceptual geography for Allery’s practice was initially formed and continues to develop.
As a queer photographer Allery is interested in examining the shifting concept of ’otherness’. Recent projects have seen him investigate, celebrate, and explore the complexities facing Queer Australians of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Allery has both a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film Production) from the Queensland University of Technology. He was Highly Commended for the Percival Photographic Portraiture Prize 2022, and was a finalist in the Iris Awards 2021.