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The Camera Wanderers

Rachel Gaffney-Dawson talks about the Camera Wanderers program at Access Arts and the artists involved….

Camera Wanderers supports individuals from a background of disability or disadvantage to develop their photographic skills to a professional standard in an individualised, responsive and accessible learning environment. Ranging in age from 22-59, some people have an intellectual or learning disability, others experience depression or anxiety, other members have Down’s syndrome or vision impairment.

Access Arts’ Camera Wanderers began in 2010. The group initially started out meeting in Access Arts office to share and discuss recently taken photographs. Over the years we have become more and more adventurous. Camera Wanderers has now evolved into a hands-on, predominantly outdoors workshop where participants explore Brisbane City through the lens of their camera.  Recent locations include Captain Burke Park at Kangaroo Point, Manly Beach, UQ St Lucia Campus, New Farm Park, Brisbane Powerhouse, and travelling up and down the Brisbane River on the City Cat capturing landscapes in motion. All possible to a wheelchair user.

The program is tailored to support the access requirements of the individuals enrolled. Workshop and exhibition locations are always wheelchair accessible, and easy to access both by car and public transport. The support we offer individuals includes assistance with remembering information, providing information in large print for vision impaired participants, assisting a member to set up a tripod to take photos and supporting the hand of a person with low muscle control.

The photographic experience and artistic aspirations of participants varies. Magda, a Polish-born photographer now based in Brisbane says: “My motivation for taking photos is seeing the world in a different light, capturing things before I lose them”. She has pursued her passion for nature and the abstract through the lens for 14 years, but it wasn’t until she joined Camera Wanderers 5 years ago that her photography really started to become a professional career.  She has sold her artwork, exhibited widely in different Brisbane galleries, and been commissioned as a photographer – recently by State Library of Queensland to photograph members of the community informally engaging with the library service.

Colleen is another Camera Wanderer. The highlight of her experience was her international photographic exhibition in Luxemburg. Raised in a Rockhampton orphanage, Colleen says it was when she joined Camera Wanderers that her professional career really started to grow. A lover of water, the abstract and rotting fruit, Colleen is passionate about photographing the visually interesting world around her: “Photography is a way of learning all your life, learning something new every day”.

Levi, who has been with the Camera Wanderers for two years, explores themes of bullying through her creative practice: “As my photography practice develops I find myself looking at the world from a different perspective, with greater clarity and attention to detail”.

Another Camera Wanderer has paranoid schizophrenia and depression. His carer said what a great deal Camera Wanderers has done for him giving “enjoyment and enlightenment”. He “has trouble getting out in public and being able to maintain anything he starts usually” – the one exception is Camera Wanderers.

Members have exhibited in Brisbane Festival for the past 5 years, their artwork featured in Undercover Artist Festival at Queensland Theatre Company 2015, Wonderland Revisited at Queensland Multicultural Centre 2015, Art from the Margins Exhibition at Brisbane City Hall 2014, Living Flow Exhibition at KPMG 2014 – the list could continue.

Camera Wanderers benefits the artists involved in many ways. Magda says Camera Wanderers has helped her build relationships with other photographers who experience disability, establish her own professional style and show her work throughout Brisbane in numerous exhibitions.  For Colleen the group has increased her self-confidence, given her a sense of community, new friends and professional development as an artist.

What’s next? Perception, an exhibition by Access Arts’ Camera Wanderers, is part of Brisbane Festival. In addition, Camera Wanderers’ artwork forms part of a second Perception exhibition at KPMG’s offices overlooking the Brisbane River, which opened on 17 September marking Disability Action Week. Members of the public may view this exhibition at KPMG by prior appointment through Access Arts. The artwork will hang there for three months during which time KPMG estimates some 15,000 people will view it.

Rachel Gaffney Dawson
Rachel Gaffney-Dawson is the Visual Arts Coordinator at Access Arts; facilitating the Brisbane Outsider Artist Studio, coordinating the Camera Wanderers photography program and curating a range of exhibitions.

She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) from Queensland University of Technology and Bishops University in Quebec, Canada.

Rachel has worked with drawing, abstract drip painting, woodblock carving/printing, digital collage, video and sound art. She is currently working with oil paints to explore the sacred relationship between self and nature.

Rachel is also a musician and has a background in singing, flute, piano and guitar, and writes original music in the genre of alternative/folk. Her music has been described as minimalist, ethereal, meditative and reflective. In 2014 she raised funds through a successful crowd-funding campaign for her first solo exhibition, and the recording of her debut album.  

Rachel’s solo exhibition titled Vast took place in November 2014, and explored experiences of vast, open, spacious landscapes and the great sense of clarity and perspective such environments can evoke. 

In 2014 Rachel also initiated and exhibited in Hatch, a group exhibition featuring nine of Brisbane’s arts workers. Rachel’s debut album will be released late 2015.