IN SITU
“In Situ is a recording of uncontrolled, untamed nature. A homage to the Land I can now call home, Bundjalung Country. A Land that inspires me to sit, observe, listen, smell and feel.
The complete series is a collection of 36 analogue photographs.
I created this series using a 4x5 large format camera with Harman Direct Positive Paper. In Situ in its final form is a selection of 15 photographs and 2 paintings.
This slow process, the technicality of large format photography combined with the Harman DPP, makes IN SITU a unique body of work: each image created is a unique positive photograph, a one-off which cannot be reproduced. A relationship to time that stretches into histories beyond my own.
This series is part of my ongoing research into the concept of MA, the negative space.
With IN SITU, I would like to invite you to take a moment to pause, to contemplate what nature in its purest form tells us, teaches us.
IN SITU is a collection of intimate portraits, of a sacred place, lands of healing for the Arakwal people. With these images, I want to pay homage and respect to WHAT WAS, WHAT IS AND WHAT ALWAYS WILL BE.”
Joel Benguigui
Exhibition Talk
Joel Benguigui talks to Gallery 3 about the body of work exhibited in his solo show, ‘In Situ’ (2022) – about his methodology as a photographer / how ‘In Situ’ as a follow up of his 2018 show, ‘Motus in Silencio’ in its inquiry into negative space and the Japanese concept of Ma.