Archive - EMSLA 2018
Creative Interconnections
In November 2018, I had the privilege of assisting with the installation and photographic documentation of the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (EMSLA) at Project Contemporary Artspace in Wollongong. Working alongside Dr Leigh Summers and Dr Mal Eutick, I helped prepare the exhibition and document what had become one of Australia's most respected still life art prizes.
EMSLA 2018 Official Invitation and Finalist listing
At first glance, EMSLA 2018 might appear to be simply another exhibition project within a long career across the arts. Looking back, however, I now recognise it as one of those rare moments where multiple strands of my creative life unexpectedly converged.
My connection to EMSLA extended far beyond the 2018 exhibition itself. Throughout my years in Coffs Harbour, I regularly documented the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award as part of my ongoing photographic work with the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and its public programs. This period coincided with my long association and friendship with Dr Leigh Summers, then Director of the Gallery, and with Dr Mal Eutick, founder of the award.
Established in 2006 by Dr Mal Eutick in memory of his parents, Lillian and Malvin Eutick, EMSLA grew to become one of Australia's most respected still life art prizes. Through my photographic documentation of exhibitions, openings, artist events, and gallery activities, I was fortunate to record many chapters of the award's history during its Coffs Harbour years.
In 2017, following local government restructuring and significant changes within the gallery environment, the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and Friends of the Gallery redeveloped the award as STILL: National Still Life Award.
EMSLA continued independently as a still life painting prize until 2019.
Having documented the award for many years, assisting with the installation and documentation of EMSLA in Wollongong in 2018 felt less like working on a new exhibition and more like reconnecting with a creative story I had been recording for over a decade.
EMSLA 2018 Exhibition Installed
The exhibition itself was remarkable. The gallery was filled with outstanding contemporary still life works from artists across Australia, and the opening night attracted a large and enthusiastic audience. As part of my role, I documented the installation, the exhibition spaces, opening night speeches, audience interactions, and the performers who helped bring the event to life.
EMSLA 2018 room views of the exhibition fully installed and ready for guests
Guests arriving at the opening night of EMSLA 2018 at the Project Contemporary Artspace in Wollongong
What I did not fully appreciate at the time was how many familiar connections were quietly reappearing.
One of the featured performers was celebrated soprano Amelia Farrugia. Years earlier, Amelia had been involved in the Northcott Society's Role Models - Celebrating Women's Achievement fundraising events, where I served as Creative Director, Choreographer, Parade Coordinator, between 1998 and 2004. Those events became highly regarded community celebrations and were recognised with the Parramatta Business Award for Best Fundraising Event in 1998.
Dr Mal Eutick and Dr Leigh Summers introducing the evenings formalities and announcements at EMSLA 2018
Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin and opera singer Amelia Farrugia performing at EMSLA 2018 the opening night festivities
Seeing Amelia again at EMSLA was a reminder of how creative relationships often continue across decades, resurfacing in entirely different contexts.
Facebook post and promotion for EMSLA 2018 and the Mendoza Tango Quartet
The opening night also featured the Mendoza Tango Quartet, another familiar connection. I had previously photographed the ensemble during a performance at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, where I regularly documented exhibitions and public programs. Once again, a relationship formed through one arts organisation reappeared years later in another.
Perhaps the most significant connection of all was the presence of renowned composer and pianist Elena Kats-Chernin.
During the opening events, I asked permission to photograph Elena both performing and interacting with guests. Among those images was a portrait that would later take on a life of its own. That photograph was subsequently selected as a finalist in the 2018 Percival Photographic Portrait Prize, becoming my first appearance in one of Australia's most respected portrait awards.
Eight years later, in 2026, I would again become a finalist in the Percival Photographic Portrait Prize with Taken, creating an unexpected bridge between two chapters of my photographic journey.
Looking back, EMSLA 2018 represents far more than an exhibition installation. It stands as a reminder that creative lives are rarely linear. The people, places, and projects may change, but the connections endure.
Dance led to performance.
Performance led to photography.
Photography led to galleries.
Galleries led to new relationships.
And those relationships continue to resurface in unexpected ways.
Performers, artists, curators, audiences, and creative collaborators cross paths again and again over decades, forming an invisible network of relationships that quietly shapes the work and the opportunities that follow.
EMSLA remains one of those special moments where many of those paths converged in a single room. It brought together people, places, and creative histories that had travelled alongside me for many years. It also produced a photograph that would go on to become part of my own artistic story.
Looking back now, EMSLA 2018 was not simply an exhibition. It was a reminder that the arts are built upon relationships, and that the most meaningful creative journeys are often measured not only by the work itself, but by the connections that continue to endure long after the exhibition walls have come down.
View other Publishing, Documentary Photography, and Community Projects prior to ART1 in the Selected Credits.