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Kaliopy Interviews Artist Samantha Everton
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Kaliopy: Could you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Samantha Everton: I am a photo artist working from Melbourne. I grew up in remote mining towns in central Queensland
(Emerald and Capella mainly), I travelled a lot as a child, even having 4 months off school at one stage so we could travel
right around Australia. My homework for those 4 months was to write a foolscap page each day of what we did. I then worked and
travelled overseas as a hairdresser for 8 years before moving to Melbourne in 1999 to begin a career in photography.
Kaliopy: When did your interest in photography first begin?
Samantha: I have always been artistic but it has taken me a long time to find my medium. I wasn't one of those people who
was given a camera at a young age and went wow and that was that. I used to paint, sew, bake and design elaborate cakes, I
can make just about anything with my hands. My first career was hairdressing and I had a great time creating weird and wonderful
hairstyles. I went through this fantastic transition where I combined my urge to create with the beginnings of my interest in
photography. I shaved elaborate patterns into peoples hair with a cut throat razor and then painted them and photographed them. This
painted hair project ended up being the very first exhibition I had. It was held at the Blue Train cafe in Melbourne.
I was drawn to photography as it incorporated all my skills. I often panit backgrounds, make props, do the hair and make up.
Sometimes I don't think of myself as a photographer as the action of taking the photo is such a small part, I am a set designer, hair and
make up artist, costume maker. Basically I create a theatrical production in front of the camera and then shoot it.
Kaliopy: Do you ever have creative slumps? How do you break out of them?
Samantha: So far I have not had a creative slump. I guess the closest thing to it would be the whole proces of organizing
and having an exhibition. I always give myself several months off after completing a body of work and having an exhibition.
Kaliopy: The subjects in your photos mimic the surreal. Do dreams ever influence your work?
Samantha: Not dreams necessarily, but that moment in bed just before you go to sleep, when your mind has all the day's
events jumping around, and then your mind becomes clear just before you sleep. I keep a sketch book beside my bed and a great
deal of my ideas come to me just before I go to sleep.
Kaliopy: How long does it take to plan a photo shoot for an exhibition - what is the creative process?
Samantha: I plan my compositions using scrapbooks of drawings and collages to construct a mood and a balanced visual
theme, I spend time experimenting with colours. I then source and adapt or design the locations or studio sets. I am constantly
rummaging through second hand shops sourcing props or just plain making them if I can't find what I'm looking for. I am lucky that I
am good with my hands and have been able to turn my talents into set design and styling and as I was a hairdresser I also do the hair
and make up for the shoots. It is important to me to control every aspect of the image. It is the finer detail that can make or break an
image. It can take anywhere from 1 to 3 months to plan a shoot. Sketching the idea, sourcing the props, model, location etc. I am
absolutely definite about detail and if I decide that I want a blue bird with a pink beak then I will go to the nth degree to find it, and
won't settle for anything less. Basically in short it goes like this, I story board my images first, then source the details, then shoot, then
digital post production.
Kaliopy: And lastly, what's the biggest thrill you have had as a photographer?
Samantha: Being able to have the opportunity in life to work in a creative way. To create and construct images from my
imagination and enjoy what I do.
Solitude Pigment Ink on Rag Editions:3
Respire Pigment ink on rag Editions:3 1130 x 1845 mm
Surrender Pigment ink on rag Editions:3 1130 x 1845 mm
SAMANTHA EVERTON
Samantha Everton is a Melbourne-based photographer with a taste for magic realism and seeing the absurd in everyday interactions. She has been
working as a photographic artist since 2003 when she graduated from RMIT with a B.A. (Photography).
In her latest series Vintage Dolls, Samantha continues her journey into the realms of the subconscious, where our innermost thoughts and emotions are played
out in elaborately staged, theatrical compositions.
Samantha Everton came late to photography. Hers was an evolutionary process that started with her imagination, visions and images as she was fossicking for
gemstones in outback north Queensland, where she grew up, in towns with evocative names like Emerald, Saphire and Rubyvale. She was child in a large
multicultural family, which was very unusual in outback Australia. The dichotomy of a multiracial family set against country conservatism; of languid
imagination against rural practicality, yielded an artist with a unique Australian perspective.
At Samantha's first opportunity she traveled to South East Asia, the land of her siblings and the first step in a four-year journey around the world, her living
made from her hands working with hair, food, craft and sets. One of her many jobs was as a barber in London where she was taught the traditional cut-throat
razor shaves and she called herself a barberette. Only when she arrived home to Australia did her creativity consolidate; it was one thing to create and design,
but it was another to capture creativity on film. She worked at The Barber of Seville for a year while volunteering in photographic studios and newspapers
wherever she could. And she was soon snapped up by The Melbourne Times as a cadet photographer.
An opportunity presented itself when Samantha applied and was accepted into the RMIT Photographic Design Degree. She graduated in 2003 at the top of her
class receiving the Steve Vizard Most Creative Folio Award. This provided her with the means and the impetus to establish her forthcoming career.
Samantha is now about to stage her fourth solo exhibition in 2009. Since her graduation, she has won a number of awards including the Px3 Paris
International Photography Awards (people's choice), the 23rd MacGregor Prize for Photography and the 2005 Australian Leica Photographer of the
Year. Her work has been published and reviewed in numerous books and magazines around the world, including The NewYorker, Photofile,
Harper's Bazaar and Blanket magazine.
With a background rich in diversity this is an artist that demonstrates a penchant for the unusual and captures the imagination at play.
Night Carnival Pigment ink on rag Editions:8 1060 x 1260 mm
Night without darkness pigment ink on rag paper Editions:8 820 x 965 mm
Solo Exhibitions
•2009 Vintage Dolls, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne, Sydney
•2007 Catharsis, Horsham Regional art Gallery, Victoria
•2007 Childhood Fears, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
•2007 Childhood Fears, Sandra Byron Gallery, Sydney
•2006 Catharsis, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
•2006 Queensland Centre of Photography, Brisbane
•2006 Sandra Byron Gallery, Sydney
•2005 Catharsis, Gasworks ARB Gallery, Melbourne
•2004 Inaugural Solo exhibition, St Michaels Uniting Church Gallery, Melbourne
•2004 Customs House Gallery, Warrnambool, Victoria
Selected Group Shows
•2008 40x40 Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
•2008 Connections, Mixed Media group show, Gardener Gallery
•2007 New York, Photography Art Fair
•2006 La Trobe University Acquisitive Art Prize exhibition
•2006 New York, Photography Art Fair
•2005 Julie Millowick Acquisitive Photographic Award Exhibition, Castlemaine
•2005 Leica Documentary award exhibition, CCP. Travelling Australia Wide
•2005 Photo Plastic, Red Gallery
•2005 The Discovery Art Show, Gasworks Art Park
•2004 Australian Commercial Magazine Photography Collection 10
•2004 VISPY Victorian Institute of Professional Photographers awards exhibition
Awards
•2009 Honorable Mention, Px3 Paris Photography Prize
•2009 Highly Commended Award, MORAN Contemporary Photographic Prize
•2009 Selected for the core program of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale
•2008 Finalist in the MORAN Contemporary Art Prize
•2008 People’s choice award winner in conceit ’08, Corangamarah Art Prize.
•2007 Px3 Paris International Photography Awards, peoples choice 1st place.
•2006 Winner of the Twenty-Third McGregor Prize for Photography award.
•2006 Highly Commended Award, Twenty-Third McGregor Prize for Photography
•2006 Selected for inclusion in the New Yorker Magazine, April 2006
•2005 Winner of the Australian Leica Documentary Photographer of the year award
•2005 Charades selected for auction & sold at Sotheby’s charity art auction for Girls On Top.
•2005 Winner of Hardcopy: Digital Art exhibition, Gasworks art park
•2005 Second place winner, Head On 2005 photographic portrait prize, Michael Nagy Gallery.
•2005 33rd Alice Prize, Acquisition of work for Alice Springs art gallery permanent collection
•2004 Australian national finalist for Victoria Fulbright Visual and Performing Arts Award
•2003 AIPP Australian Professional Photography awards: 1 gold, 2 silver medals.
Awarded Highest aggregate score winner from amongst all Victorian photography students.
•2003 Winner of the Prestigious Steve Vizard Award - Student of the year / most creative folio RMIT.
•2003 Victorian Institute of Professional Photographers awards:Runnerup Victorian student of the year
Published Images
•2008 Blanket magazine, feature article, Summer 2007-8
•2008 Foto & Video Magazine, 8 page feature article and cover, Moscow, Russia May 2008
•2007 Capture Magazine, Emerging Talent, Summer Edition 2007.
•2007 Harpers Bazaar Australia “Bazaar Insider” June , 2007
•2007 Photofile “Art Review” Childhood fears Exhibition reviewd by Maggi Finch, Spring edition
•2006 New Yorker Magazine, April 2006
•2006 Reviewed by Keith Skipton in Australian Art Review, “Through a looking glass, darkly”, Mar-Jun
•2006 The Weekend Australian “Investing in Art” July 22nd 2006
•2005 Reviewed in Photo Review magazine, June/July edition.
•2005 Sydney Morning Herald Art Review, The Culture.
•2004 Featured in Photo Review magazine, Emerging Talent section April/May edition.
Grants
•2007 Australian Council, New Work Emerging grant recipient
•2006 Private Residency, Luther College, June 2006
•2006 Victorian Arts Council Grant “Artist in Schools” Residency 2006
Charades ultrachrome pigment-based ink on Hahnemuhle rag Editions:15 860 x 793 mm
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The Sitting Room ultrachrome pigment-based ink on Hahnemuhle rag Editions:15 910 x 931 mm
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Grace
Pigment ink on rag
Editions:8
1060 x 1240 mm