Through the looking glass

The fantasies of photography

Featured in

  • Published 20241105
  • ISBN: 978-1-923213-01-2
  • Extent: 196 pp
  • Paperback, ebook, PDF

Photography and truth have always had a complicated relationship. Long before AI and deepfakes recalibrated our trust in the medium, we’ve seen reality reinterpreted or misrepresented through the lens of a camera. For Australian artist Amy Carkeek, this porous boundary between photographic fact and fiction is a source of wide-­ranging inspiration and a way of interrogating some of our abiding cultural norms and motifs, from the vanishing suburban dream to society’s treatment of women. In this conversation, Carkeek talks to Griffith Review Editor Carody Culver about the oppositions and opportunities of the photographic image.

CARODY CULVER: Many of the works in this visual essay are from three photographic series: Descry (2021), Objects of Despair (2022–) and Gestures of Retribution (2023–). Aesthetically, these series are all strikingly different, which of course reflects the versatility of photography as an art form. What draws you to work in this particular visual medium?

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Amy Carkeek

Amy Carkeek is an Australian artist and researcher. She has exhibited in galleries across Australia and the US, and has been a finalist in...

More from this edition

The window

FictionOne dinner, in the midst of playing with Seb in the reflection, Rudi laughing and squealing away, there came the distinct burst of a sob. We stopped in our tracks, looking around at each other in confusion until we located the downturned whimpering in Tim’s eyes and mouth. What is it? I asked, putting my hand on his shoulder. He turned and buried his face into my neck. What is it? I repeated. I don’t like them, he moaned, his hand pointing towards the window.

Auburn Falls

Non-fiction Trigger warning: loss of a child, discussion of miscarriages This piece was written with the permission of my sister and mother, though neither wants to...

Staying faithful to Earth

Non-fictionIt is a startlingly new discovery that there are more planets than stars in our galaxy. Even if early astronomers (like Kepler) intuited that other suns must have planets, we didn’t have definitive proof until very recently that our solar system is not unique in consisting of planets orbiting a star. The first exoplanet was confirmed in 1992; the first exoplanet around a star similar to our sun was discovered in 1995. The latest count is over 5,000 and growing. Discoveries have stacked up so fast that astronomers and astrophysicists who used to know each individual exoplanet by name now say it’s impossible to keep track of those that exist in just one small part of the Milky Way, with thousands more expected to be found in the coming years.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.