BY ROBERT CATTO
I seem to be accumulating identities.
As of a week or so ago, I’m now a permanent resident of Australia - on top of being a Canadian, and a New Zealander. It’s taken eight years of living here (three of which were spent applying); but there’s a bit more certainty to my life here, now.
In a strange way, I keep acquiring new definitions as the years go past. I’ve let a few go along the way - box office manager, lighting designer, occasional actor - but I’ve managed to stay a photographer for eighteen years, even while changing countries.
So really, perhaps the question is this: where do I feel most at home?
And my answers are somewhat contradictory: I’m at home on an island in Canada; in a forest in New Zealand; and in a theatre. Any theatre, really…
To me, this collective has always been a personal project, something separate and distinct from my usual work; but maybe this is where they intersect, where my essays start to cross over into my performing arts work. I’ve certainly written about that on my own blog - I have a whole section about photographing the arts - but I haven’t brought that here very much.
It seems today’s the day.
These are a few of my favourite images from the past 18 years of photographing theatre, in New Zealand and Australia; on stage, below it, behind it, beside it.
Some might have been seen at the time, but many of those websites have disappeared over the ensuing years. I’ve gone back to the original RAW files and edited these anew, though; so even the original images would have been quite different.
This is me, at home. This is life in the arts.
