Bill Henson was born in 1955 and
had his first exhibition of photographs in 1974.  An Australian artist, his
work has been rather difficult to find in the USA, at least until the
publication of his previous work, Lux et Nox, also published by Scalo. 
So there is reason to be very grateful for this retrospective of his work, in a
large-format book of about 500 pages, containing 493 photographs.  The
collection reveals both a consistency in quality and a diversity of styles and
themes in Henson’s work, and shows him to be one of the most interesting
contemporary photographers.

The book shows selections from
different periods in Henson’s work, interspersed by reprints of essays by critics
and one interview with him.  It is beautifully produced, and while the
reproductions of the photographs cannot match the size of the originals
(especially of his more recent work, which is typically well over 1 meter wide
or high), it is possible to a good sense of his intent.  While it is not
possible for me to compare the reproductions with the originals, the colors of
the book are rich and the detail is subtle.  While a book can not duplicate the
experience of seeing big pictures in an exhibition space (especially since
Henson insists the room is kept quite dark) it is the only way that most people
will get to see his work (apart from even smaller reproductions available on
some websites).  Even the current retrospective major Australian exhibitions of
his work will not contain all the images reproduced in this book. 

It is clear that Henson has always
prioritized composition and visual beauty, even when his pictures seem to
depict pain, despondency and the results of violence.  He has often concentrated
on youthful subjects, and in recent years he has tended to depict young naked
people who seem desperately unhappy, and console themselves with sex and
drugs.  In the context of his other work though, we can speculate that even in
these more recent pieces, he has been preoccupied by larger themes.  Despite
the sense of "gritty realism" and voyeuristic documentation in
previous book Lux et Nox, it is possible to find allusions to the
history of art in those photographs, and his connection with high culture and
modern art is brought out through examining his earlier work.  It is worth
keeping in mind that the title of the book, Mnemosyne, refers to the Greek
goddess of memory and the mother of the Muses.  Henson in his interview shows
himself to be well versed in modern literature and obviously he is well aware
of the history of art and photography.  So in interpreting Henson’s work, one
aspect that deserves inspection is how his work relates to other art and
literature. 

The allusion to high art is especially
obvious in the series "Untitled 1983/84" which has several panels of
photographs juxtaposing classical painting and ornate architecture or furniture
with various images of teens.   In the "Paris Opera Project 1990/91"
Henson depicts a number of people dressed up in formal evening wear, young and
older, looking as if they are at a concert, interspersed with images from
nature, such as clouds and mountains.  In other series, Henson brings to mind
more modernist approaches in modern painting.  For example, in "Untitled
1979/80," some of the images are half pictures, torn along one edge and
others look as if there is a cut right down the middle of the picture.  In
several of "Untitled 1977/87" Henson uses double exposure, doing his
juxtaposition of images in one frame.  In "Untitled 1992/93 – Untitled
1996/97," Henson goes to his greatest extreme in making the viewer aware
of his manipulation of the image since he cuts out different photographs and
tapes them together leaving many odd shaped gaps in the final product.  In
interviews, he explains how for all his photography, he spends a great deal of
time in the dark room working on the look of his photographs, and this becomes
very clear from looking through this collection.  He is acutely aware of the
composition of images, and he occasionally forces the viewer to share this
awareness and the artist’s role in forming the image. 

One question that is unanswered in
the book’s text is the extent to which the images of people are posed. 
Henson’s most recent work, such as in Lux et Nox, has an almost
documentary feel showing the interactions between drunk and miserable teens at
night.  However, looking at his prior work throws into doubt the idea that
Henson was an invisible observer taking pictures, since so much of that work is
obviously posed.  This issue is significant because nearly all Henson’s work
raises the question of his relation to his subjects, and less directly, the
viewer’s relation to them. 

For example, in "Untitled
sequence 1977," there are 16 images of a young naked man lying on a
floor.  One of the pieces included in the book describes him as masturbating,
which goes beyond anything that we see, but several of the pages show his face
looking sexual and internally preoccupied.  The pictures are highly personal,
but they seem very different from Nan Goldin’s
friends in sexual situations, for instance, and they make the viewer wonder
what is going on between the photographer and the subject.  One can reframe the
issue by asking what kind of voyeurism we are being implicated in when looking
through Henson’s pictures.  Certainly this seems to be a theme that preoccupies
Henson himself and focuses on in various series.  In "Untitled sequence
1979," he shows details of crowds — with no context to show why people
are gathered together, although it looks like a busy street corner — with most
people in the frame looking elsewhere, but one person, often in the background,
looking directly at the photographer.  When one sees the person in the crowd looking
back at one, while other people are oblivious, one gets a sense of connection
with that person.  Henson is not taking revealing pictures of ordinary people
like Tom
Wood, but is engaged in a more abstract or conceptual enterprise.

At the same time, Henson always
makes his images engaging and attractive, even when he deliberately counteracts
this by cutting up the picture or using double exposure.  He loves people’s
faces and naked bodies, and nearly all of his pictures project a feeling of sensuality. 
All through his career, he has been preoccupied by adolescents, and surely this
partly stems from the beauty and promise of youth.  However, much of his work
also highlights the suffering and vulnerability that exists before adulthood. 
For example, in "Untitled 1983/84" we see young women crying, lying
naked, dirty and bleeding, and one young face with staring open eyes that
suggests death.  One beautiful picture shows a young person getting ready to
shoot up drugs.  All these are interspersed with images of formal beauty from
high art.  It is open to the viewer to interpret what Henson intends by this
contrast, but it is clear that his real concern is human life rather than
inanimate objects.  One possible interpretation would be that Henson is ridiculing
the pieces of high art by showing the vastly greater emotional power that comes
from the images of vulnerable or hurt youth, but at the same time, he seems to
be objectifying the humans by showing them in the same frames as the objects. 
This series is perplexing and mysterious, yet the visual pleasure it provides
is undeniable. 

"Untitled 1985/86"
signaled a return to color photography, continuing his juxtaposition of faces
with things.  The faces are mostly of young people, and the things are mostly
clouds and buildings.  Most of the pictures are taken at twilight.  The images
here are more naturalistic and the use of color is melancholy and even eerie,
and invites comparisons with Gregory Crewdson. 
While Crewdson completely composes his images and makes them artificially odd,
Henson evokes an uncanny feel by more ordinary images carefully composed and
contrasted.  This sense of strange beauty is also strong in "Paris Opera
Project 1990/91" with Henson clearly working very hard to control the
lighting of faces from below, using a bluish tinge and capturing a certain
tension in body language. 

Henson’s recent preoccupation with
emotionally-charged images of naked adolescents has probably brought his work
more into public view, but they fit in perfectly well with the rest of his
work.  The dark moody sensuality of his pictures is appealing even when they
seem to show drunkenness, degradation, and misery, and presumably that is
partly his point.  He could portray the same topics in far more shocking and
disturbing ways, but he chooses to emphasize texture, light, and arrangement in
his compositions.  One might worry that he is aestheticizing and thus
trivializing human suffering, or indeed he might even be accused of eroticizing
unhappiness.  While such worries cannot be dismissed, it would be simplistic to
condemn Henson’s work altogether on such grounds.  He is a thoughtful and
extremely careful artist, and his pictures are extraordinary subtle.  He always
has the option of deflecting such criticisms by arguing that his pictures raise
questions for the viewer, and if they disturbing in some ways, then this is at
least partly because the viewer is ready to be so disturbed.  One of the
advantages of being able to see Henson’s work as a whole in Mnemosyne is
that this complexity and subtlety becomes especially apparent, and we can see
how he has worked to approach some central themes in a variety of ways over the
decades.  This is a wonderful book which makes a strong case for including Henson
among the most important photographers currently working. 

 

 

 

 

Links:

·       
Scalo Publishers

·       
Bill
Henson at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

·       
Pavement
Magazine article on Bill Henson

·       
Ego Magazine
interview with Bill Henson

·       
Metapsychology
review of Lux et Nox

 

 

© 2005 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved. 

 

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island.
He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main
research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: ArtAndPhotography