Shea Kirk
Shea Kirk
(b.1985, Melbourne. Lives and works in Melbourne)
Shea Kirk is an artist who works primarily with traditional photographic methods and techniques. With a focus on studio portraiture and large-format photography, his practice has recently centred on the ongoing portrait series Vantages, which debuted at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP), Melbourne, in 2019.
In Vantages, Kirk invites people to be photographed in the setting of his home studio, in front of simple, unadorned backdrops. Using dual large-format cameras, each portrait is exposed onto separate sheets of black-and-white film, capturing two images of the sitter from slightly different perspectives, emulating the viewpoints of each eye. In an explicitly contemporary take on traditional modes of portraiture, Kirk’s considered and methodical process facilitates an intimate exchange between photographer and subject, with the intention of creating a heightened sense of agency for each sitter. In this way, the series becomes an exercise for the sitter in representing themselves, defying the threat of reduction to a single vantage point.
Based in Melbourne, Kirk won the National Photographic Portrait Prize Art Handlers’ Award in 2020. He has been shortlisted for other prizes, including the Olive Cotton Award (2019), the National Photographic Portrait Prize (2019), the Head On Portrait Prize (2019, 2018) and the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize (2020), and has participated in a number of group exhibitions across Victoria. In addition to CCP, Vantages has exhibited at Not Fair (2021) and Daine Singer for the PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography (2021).