Ricky Maynard
"Ricky Maynard’s approach to documentary photography began to take shape during a period of employment at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 1983-86. As Maynard catalogued and archived vast numbers of historical photographs of Aboriginal people since colonisation, he began to ‘see’ pictures for the very first time. Looking is easy, seeing is not.
'I saw every picture. I looked into the faces of all those people and it was so sad. I started questioning the photographer’s role, the influence of the image in society and its persuasive nature. It changed my life and the way I viewed and made pictures'…
…In 1985 Maynard returned to the Bass Strait Islands of Tasmania, the birthplace of his parents and many generations of his people. He photographed the traditional mutton bird season on these islands producing The Moonbird People… A series that exudes cultural connectedness – the everyday essences of life that connect land, people, place and history…
… Portrait of a Distant Land is a new works in progress [that] represents his 'life long dream of a pilgrimage, to sacred places that will echo into issues of the spirit that relate to longing and belonging'. A body of work that honours significant sites combined with a collective oral history…
… Maynard is committed to photography and its ethics of approach,
'My work continues to motivate and inform me of the intent of history, which is,to help us keep our bearings and pave a way for future generations. To know what is significant and most importantly to teach us how to recognise the significant. What happens when history is distorted, or when we no longer have the same skills of recognition, we as human beings become disabled by the inability to distinguish what is real from what is not'.
(Ricky Maynard 2006)
