Where We Meet

“Backyard sprinkler, rockpools, biting sun, sprouting pineapple top. There’s a literary quality to Naomi McKenzie’s work. Exercising the same perceptual salience as that found in a Tim Winton novel, she weaves the interpersonal with the weathered, prehistoric beauty of the Australian landscape. Her eye is cultivated and alert to temporal wonders.

Refreshingly free from contemporary visual trends and steeped in photographic history, when I first saw McKenzie’s work, I found the stars of twentieth-century photography winking back at me—the sensuality of Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham’s still lifes; the familial intimacy of Sally Mann; the shadow play in Olive Cotton’s photography; the smart composition of Toni Schneiders—all wrapped up in an antipodean sensibility.

Although an emerging artist on paper, McKenzie’s expertise tells a different story. Her arrival is long in the making, and she has been practicing with conviction for years.”

– Julia Scott-Green

Where We Meet features several black and white photographs by Naomi McKenzie, an emerging artist who was recently awarded as the winner of the Flying Arts Regional Arts Awards for 2023.