Visual Studies / 002

Signs, Gaze & Simulation

Melbourne and New York City

2022–2024

7 images

Psychic City

The eye as a conduit between perception and the city.

Psychic City follows eyes across bodies, signs, patches, murals and spiritual symbols. Repetition turns the eye from an organ into a charged urban motif.

Each appearance carries a different relation to vision. Some eyes look back; others promise surveillance, protection, intuition or access to what remains hidden. The photographs do not collapse these meanings into one symbol. They ask why the eye so readily gathers ideas about consciousness and power.

The series maps the distance between biological sight, the social exchange of the gaze and the desire to perceive beyond surfaces. In the city, looking is never one-directional. To see is also to enter a field in which one may be seen.

  • The Picture Looks Back

    The Picture Looks Back

    Every subject returns the camera’s gaze, turning scrutiny back on the viewer and questioning how we judge vulnerability, privacy, dignity and agency.

  • Pairs: Repetition and Différance

    Pairs: Repetition and Différance

    A photographic sequence exploring how repetition, relation and différance produce meaning between images.

  • Oral Fixation

    Oral Fixation

    A photographic study of people of all ages touching their mouths, tracing a small, often unconscious gesture repeated across public life.

  • Eye Contact

    Eye Contact

    Exploring the balance of trust, power, and vulnerability in human eye interactions.

  • Phnom Penh: The Waterline
    ,

    Phnom Penh: The Waterline

    Along the Tonle Sap below Phnom Penh’s riverfront promenade, swimmers, fishers and children occupy the rough threshold between city and water.

  • Fleet Week: A Maritime Tradition

    Fleet Week: A Maritime Tradition

    How military service members navigate between institutional authority and personal freedom during their temporary immersion in New York City’s civilian life.