I’m in Sydney now, and its good to be “home”. Yesterday we went to the Australian Centre for Photography which, for a number of years was a place that I almost lived at. In the early 1990’s I had worked there as a vounteer setting up a database of all their ephemera – books, exhibition catalogues, prints, albums etc. Then later I was the administrator for dLux media arts (an Australian arts org providing advocacy for screen based art) and for a while we were based just around the corner, above the Chauvel Cinema and often collaborated with the ACP for screenings and events. Even later still, in 1998, I did a short digital arts residency at the ACP, so there was a time when I knew the place inside out.

Going back there now, I’m surprised by how it has changed. The café that used to be at the front has been changed into a gallery, and although I do like the café culture, I think the extra gallery is a good thing. It means that they have much more room and can show a larger variety of work. The gallery to the back and the smaller room off that are pretty much as I remember them – overall very good space.

Sandy Nicholson from the exhibition "2nd Place" - the accompanying quote was something like " We're thinking of quitting the team".The exhibitions Hyper by Denis Darzacq and 2nd Place by Sandy Nicholson were excellent! Hyper is a series of street dancers shot in a supermarket in France in the most intriguing postions. The colours are bright and the images very entertaining. The highlight for me though, was 2nd Place which was a series of portraits of quotes of people who came 2nd in local and regional competitions in Canada, the US and Australia.

The images are from a wide range of events from burger eating to agricultural events and iron woman contests. The combination of quotes with even images, plus the formal portraits works really well and gives such an insight into what people hold important. To me this has a bit more depth than just “straight photography” because we get to see a bit of what someone is thinking. My favourite one was the image of a cow where the farmer who had come second claimed that “ Empress has a beautiful udder” – goodness, how on earth does one rate beauty in cow’s udders? This has never ever ever occurred to me! It just reminds me of how differently we each perceive the world. Provoking thought and contemplation like this, are to me, important aspects of creating works of art.