About the Artist

Kate Baker is an Australian fine art photographer. Born in 1963 she made and developed her first photographs in her teens however did not begin to show her work until much later. During 2003-2004 Kate studied at the Australian Centre of Photography, with further studies under master printer Gordon Undy, a former student of both Paul Caponigro and George Tice. Since 2005 Kate has exhibited in galleries in Australia and her work is held in collections in Australia, the US and UK. 2008 saw publication of her first book Fridays at Oasis, a series of portraits, to critical acclaim, with a work from this series a finalist in the Olive Cotton Award for Portraiture the same year.

Kate uses black and white film with a range of small, medium and large format cameras. She develops and prepares her handcrafted gelatin silver prints in her darkroom in Australia's Yarra Valley in Victoria.


General Artist Statement

My photographs explore connectedness, to that which is both within us and beyond us. It begins with my own connectedness. I seek that space of resonance where, with harmony of photographer, subject and camera it's possible to go beyond "likeness" to make something that conveys a sense of soul. Whether in portraiture or landscape or in fact any kind of photograph, my intent is to reveal a bridge that allows people to connect, to see, to feel...


La Poesia della Danza

La Poesia della Danza (the poetry of dance) explores dance as one medium of creative expression. I am interested in what it "feels like" to create, to draw on creativity, to express. For a dancer, when they are "in the flow" dance can be a soulful fully connected experience, as if the world internal and external are one. The fluidity of movement, the ability to express, is beyond the tangible. It is both beyond the physical and absolutely physical. In dance this work is about what does it "feel like" to dance and how I can convey that photographically so the emotion is somehow "felt" by the viewer.

The series shares an unscripted dance session in a single room with just a window looking out over the waters of Sydney. No music, no choreography. A dance from within, a dance made without music, where the "voice of dance" came from within. A shared expression of the soul.


Borderlands

This series includes works from my windows series... also my gates series, pathways, and other landscapes of varying kinds that reflect for me some kind of borderland. As one example, I am fascinated by windows as metaphor. Windows certainly have a function however they are so much more. They frame your view of the world. Do they draw your mind and awareness outwards? Or do they keep you in? Does the world outside feel remote... as if you are a voyeur to the world beyond? Does the window bring a richness to your inner world that might not have been noticed otherwise...? Whether you are inside looking out or outside looking in, a window can be highly evocative... it can evoke memories, fantasies and imaginings... it can allow a sense of space... or not. This borderland, this window, is a highly subjective experience.

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