Newcastle street exhibition 'We Are' casts female lens on the stories of creative women

In this way Binnie has illustrated her story, that of fulfilling her dream of becoming a professional photographer despite a "self sabotaging" inner dialogue of doubt. Her self-portrait is part of a "paste-up" exhibition by the WH!P (Women of the Hunter In Photography) Collective, which was installed on the hoardings around the old post office in inner-Newcastle as part of celebrations for International Women's Day.

There's as much of an art to being in a camera's frame, as there is to being behind the lens. Some of the subjects in the We Are exhibition are accustomed to being in public focus, and some are not.

Through her studio, Soul Lens, Binnie practices "transpersonal photography", offering a way to discover a comfort zone in front of a camera. This involves thinking about how people feel when they see a photograph of themselves, and how they want to feel about their image as it is depicted by a photographer.

WH!P photographer Emma Warren watched the reactions of passers-by as the poster-scale works, printed in the largest "A" format (A0, which is 841mm x 1189mm), were pasted up wrapping most of the way around the currently dormant landmark of Hunter Street.

"Their body language changed, they slowed down to really take it all in," Warren says.

The exhibition includes lightpole banners in front of the Newcastle Art Gallery construction site and posters in city shop windows.

Titled We Are, the exhibition defines female gender terms - such as woman and women - to be inclusive of gender diversity. The point is more to loosen, than to define. It's about more than that which is readily seen.

QR codes at exhibition sites link to the stories of the photographs through TiNA (This is Not Art), an organisation that supports Hunter emerging and experimental art.

Edwina Richards, who started the WH!P Collective, says portraiture is an act "of taking notice for a while". She photographed textile-sculpture maker Sandy Sanderson, who describes herself as an "artist - fun enthusiast".

Other exhibited images include a work by Renae Saxby who was recently announced as a finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize. She photographed The Illume Girls who sing bilingually, in the Yolngu Matha language of North East Arnhem Land, and in English. Herald photographer Simone De Peak has depicted Laura Johnson, organiser of the Hunter Valley's Mulletfest that celebrates the culture surrounding mullet hair styles. Johnson has been a hairdresser, is a pilates instructor, owns a motorsports park, operates a heavy haulage company with her husband, and has a licence to drive oversized semi-trailers. She is also a mother of four.

Swedish-born designer Lisa Messiter is photographed by South African-born Hilda Bezuidenhout. They are both now local, and have a strong affiliation with beach life, reflected in the underwater image of Messiter rising through the sea towards light.

Local Fijian-born musician and masseuse Milika writes lyrics about human connection with the sea, which she will perform at the exhibition's (post-Supercars) public opening celebration, to be held at The Lock-Up gallery this week. The idea to be photographed with her daughter Eleni part-submerged in the place they call the "World Pool" was Milika's. They were photographed by Emma Warren, who says many of the We Are portraits were born of a joint creative process, "saying to our subjects, 'let's find a way together'".

Milika and Eleni are seen in close up, so where they are is not readily known. They are in the children's wading pool next to Newcastle's Ocean Baths. There was once a piece of public art there, a map of the world with the continents emerging from the pool's waterline. The map no longer exists but it remains part of the imaginative spirit of the city.

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