Episode 8: Lisa Garland on photographing her community
Season 1 Lutruwita | Tasmania
Episode 8: Lisa Garland on photographing her community
We are in conversation with Lisa Garland, a photographic artist who has been documenting her community on the North-West Coast for more than 20 years. Lisa makes portraits of people so deeply connected to where they live that often the portrait of their place tells more about them than the people themselves. As a new generation is emerging and another passing, Lisa reflects on what she looks for in her subjects and how her focus is changing.
In this episode we cover:
how Lisa’s photographic portraits of people and places are influenced by her upbringing and community,
how Lisa’s early career as a newspaper photographer made her value her own personal projects, particularly portraits of her family and community members,
documenting generational changes occuring in Lutruwita | Tasmania, particularly during residencies in Queenstown and King Island,
how the intimate relationship between artist and subject comes through in her images and the extent the stories shared are conveyed through image and text,
the changes in Tasmania's cultural and physical landscapes and the loss of traditional craftsmanship,
her shift from portraiture to photographing symbolic spaces, and
the value of storytelling and the significance of preserving the authenticity of her subjects and their environments.
BIOGRAPHY
Lisa Garland lives and works on Tasmania's North-West Coast. She is a photographer specialising in large-format silver gelatin portraits, meticulously printed in a traditional darkroom. For over 20 years, Garland has captured the lives and homes of unique and often eccentric locals through her large-format portrait photography. Her atmospheric black-and-white images, rich in detail and emotion, stand apart from conventional studio portraits.
Garland earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Tasmanian School of Art in Hobart in 1992, followed by a Diploma of Education. She teaches photography at Hellyer College in Burnie, Tasmania. Her work has earned recognition, including shortlistings for awards such as the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the Hobart City Art Prize, and the City of Devonport Art Award. In 2007, she received the Moorilla Prize. Garland’s photographs are featured in both private and public collections, including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Tasmania, Burnie Regional Art Gallery, Devonport Regional Art Gallery, and the Museum of Old and New Art.
