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Article: Light versus dark Bill Henson is Australia's most feted contemporary photographer, a modern master of chiaroscuro. As a new collection of his works are published, he gives a rare interview to Sebastian Smee
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 15, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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AS ANYONE WHO has seen an installation of Bill Henson's
photographs will tell you, the first time is difficult to forget. The
room is generally darkened. The photographs, large, slightly rippling
prints, are pinned to the wall. And from the slender amount of light
accumulating in pockets in the actual images, you sense that it is
either shortly after dusk or an hour or two before dawn - an hour
when even real events take place as if in a dream.
There are those who criticise Henson's presentation as some kind
of improper seduction. Their uneasiness is fired, perhaps, by the
recurring presence in many of the photos of a handful of adolescent-
looking faces and bodies, both male and female. ...