Close of No Lilies: Women and Work Photo Exhibition

Cleaning, Havana

The 6th annual fundraiser exhibition by women photographers in honour of International Women's Day opened on 3 March at Magnet Galleries in the Melbourne CBD. Thanks to Susanne and Michael Silver, the gallery owners, for their vision.

I was delighted to be invited to participate, to join Pam Davison, Margot Sharman, Helga Leunig, Ilana Rose, Jill Frawley, Cheryl Lucy, Wendy Currie, Judith Crispin, Joyce Evans, Carole Hampshire, Maggie Diaz, Susan Henderson and Amy Feldtmann, who produced a fascinating diversity of images in response to the theme.

After I got over the stress, opening night was great. It was a thrill to be in such company and to be buoyed up by the loving support of the family and friends who managed to attend. It was a real buzz to join the crowd looking at my fellow photographers' work and to discuss my own pictures with a range of different people. And I loved the fact that my kids were so proud of my efforts.

Listening to Bronwyn Halfpenny MP who launched No Lilies (photo courtesy Gina Perry)

Much as I would like to talk about everybody's work, space doesn't permit. So here is the artist's statement and 5 other photos of mine (number 6 is the header) that were in the exhibition:

  Sue Jackson is a photojournalist with a particular interest in social justice and environmental activism.

 Sue also loves food, particularly of the fresh, organic variety, and those who grow it. But as any departure from the inner city tends to bring on light-headedness, Sue’s particular interest is the numerous urban dwellers worldwide who are farming their streets.

With 70% of its food produced within city limits on footpaths, balconies, bathtubs, windowsills, even buckets and in community gardens of every description, Havana proved a ‘must’ on her travel itinerary. ‘Home Grown Havana’ is a picture of the tiny stall for city-grown bananas on the corner near her hotel in downtown Havana. ‘Cleaning, Havana’ (header) is a picture of Claribel who always had the entire outdoor dining area spotless before hotel guests arrived to breakfast on their locally-grown tropical fruit platters.

Much closer to home, in fact within a mere 10 kilometres of the Melbourne CBD, the old public housing suburb of Heidelberg West is home to a small cluster of farmlets, run by the ‘Hoodies’. This inspiring group of young permaculturalists are living ‘almost self-sufficient lives’ amidst an array of vegie gardens, fruit trees, worm farms, bees, rabbits, chooks, ducks and, of course, their beloved goats.

‘Goat herders Heidelberg West (1) and (2) captures two of the hoodies tending to their ‘girls’.

Sue was the unofficial blogger/photographer for the successful campaign against the environmentally disastrous East-West Link project that was dumped by the incoming Victorian Labor Government at the end of 2014. The daily Tunnel pickets, integral to the campaign’s success, started earlier and earlier. ‘Keeping the Peace’ captures a police officer, guarding a test-drilling site at 5am, asleep on her feet.

‘Disturbing the Peace’ is a photo taken at last year’s ‘Reclaim Australia’ rally where the police, and their horses, acted as a barrier between the ‘reclaimers’ and their many opponents.

Sadly 'No Lilies' had to come to an end. And last night proved a fitting farewell. We all sat together at a long table in the darkened gallery sharing great food, wine, conviviality and talking about why we do what we do. And why we will never stop.