Trent Parke

During 2000, Parke collaborated with Narelle Autio to exhibit The Seventh Wave. Their lyrical images of bathers captured the drama and otherworldliness that lies beneath the surface of the water. More recent works in 2006 continued his exploration of urban spaces in colour. In these works he focuses on the line of urban development that snakes its way along the coast of Australia. Parkes' subjects negotiate a proliferation of high-rises, take-away shops, faded signs and electricity wires.

Parke’s Dream/Life & Beyond, exhibited in 2001, presented a city seemingly peopled with spirits and shrouded in the mythical. The play of light and shade, individuals and crowds, reality and dream, elevates his works beyond the documentary

For his series Minutes to Midnight, Parke documented his journey around Australia over a two-year period, examining the current and changing state of the Australian nation. Capturing the mood of a still young and emerging nation, Parke examined the disjuncture between the perception of the Australian way of life, with its nostalgia and romanticism, and the more complex reality.

Trent Parke is the first Australian to become an Associate Member of the renowned photographers cooperative Magnum Photo Agency.