Roderick McNicol's Projects

In the early 1980s, I created this series of very direct black and white portraits of my peers – fellow artists, writers, junkies and the like. Moving into an old warehouse come daylight studio, I sought to make a series that pared portraiture back to a sort of bare essence. I had long been intrigued by early nineteenth-century photographic portraiture: the slow exposure times back then seemed to dictate a formal but very engaged look back to the camera. And this fascinated me. So I set about making this work – creating a quiet, still environment that helped me concentrate on this engaged gaze.

Portraits from Last Century was made in the late 1990s. I endearingly referred to the subjects of these portraits as "my feral princes and princesses". These young people – for the most part, "save the forest" warriors for the environment – often used to congregate at the Friends of the Earth café near my studio. I loved the way they presented themselves, especially the girls – sometimes quite tribal, sometimes almost medieval, always with a strong sense of their individual selves. Through the use of colour in this series, I was glancing back to Renaissance portraiture, seeking to infer a sense of timelessness in the work.

Made in 2004, this particular series found meI looking at the new, younger generation that was now living and working in and around my studio – making portraits of these more recent inhabitants of my 'urban village'!

In 1986, I created a series of very direct studio portraits of my peers – fellow artists, writers, junkies and the like. This original series was titled A Portrait. Twenty years later, in 2006, I brought many of the same sitters back to my studio again to create this time series – A Portrait Revisited: 1986, 2006. In making this series of double portraits, I was seeking to explore that uncanny ability that photography possesses to reveal haunting notions of time and mortality. Works from this series are held in major collections here in Australia, and in the Bibliotheque Nationale collection in France.

For decades now I have been working away here in my old, inner city, daylight studio, making very quiet, very direct portraits – drawing my sitters from the various subcultures that have been part of my 'urban village'. At the time this particular series, Newcomers to my village, was made there was a was a lot of new arrivals including both immigrants and overseas students, and I was keen to celebrate this ever-increasing diversity happening here in my village!

This ongoing series of portraits is of people I have called 'pillars of my village' – a monk/artist, a working girl, a writer/junkie, and a mentally troubled soul with tons of character. These are some of the pillars of MY village!

Portraits from my Variegated Village: I live and work in an old warehouse studio in the inner city area of Melbourne, Australia, drawing the sitters for my portrait series– as I have done for decades now – from the vibrant life around this, my ‘urban village’. In looking once again to portray another, younger generation around me, I am fascinated by the ever increasing cultural, ethnic and gender diversity of the young people now living and working in this area. At a time when powerful, isolationist forces worldwide are currently seeking to stem the tide of such diversity, I cherish the fact that this wonderful cultural mélange is flourishing here in my own village! It is, indeed, cause for much celebration!