• Photographic project captures Albury’s changing community in terms of its ethnic and social mix, and its patterns of work and play
• On a single day, 24 different people were photographed on the hour, every hour from noon to noon
• Additional images were captured during the following two weeks

An Australia-based photographer and Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic will launch an exhibition of his latest photographic project, Albury-Wide 24, in Albury on Wednesday 17 April.

The work of Dirk Spennemann, Associate Professor of cultural heritage management at CSU in Albury-Wodonga, explores the interaction of cultural heritage, landscape, and human experience.

“Albury’s community is changing in terms of its ethnic and social mix, but also in terms of its patterns of work and play,” Professor Spennemann said.

“The aim of the Albury-Wide 24 project is to provide a snapshot of Albury as it appeared at the end of 2018.

“It will showcase and celebrate real people in real settings, those who underpin the functioning of a city, as well as those who utilise its places and spaces.”

Professor Spennemann has had a number of exhibitions in Australia, Micronesia, and the USA.

In the context of the Albury-Wide 24 project, he explained that people perceive and experience their surroundings in a broad frame (our binocular vision is 120 degrees), yet confined by the technology of their camera, they tend to represent it in a fragmented form.

“This photo project used environmental portraiture, with a 120 degree distortion-free panoramic camera, to replicate human vision when capturing Albury at work and play,” Professor Spennemann said.

“On a single day, 24 people were photographed on the hour, one different person every hour from noon to noon, and additional images were captured during the following two weeks.

“The images were printed on polyester film (84 centimetres x 195 centimetres) and will be displayed for a four- to six-week period at various locations throughout Albury, using windows of vacant commercial premises, fences, people’s balconies, and other facilities as temporary art spaces.

“In addition, a series of images will be projected onto building facades or onto temporary projection screens from the inside of vacant commercial premises.”

The public exhibition will be accompanied by a permanent website which can also be accessed on the street by scanning a QR code on each of the images.

The website will contain a map with the locations of all displays. All images will be made available in a free book that can be downloaded from the internet (as a pdf file).

The Albury-Wide 24 exhibition will be launched in AMP Lane in Albury at 10am on Wednesday 17 April. For more details on the exhibitions see www.ausphoto.net

The project was supported by a cultural and community grant of Albury City as well as the CSU Institute of Land, Water and Society (ILWS), the participants, as well as the property owners who made their buildings available as public art spaces.