Bridie Fitzgerald

“The keeper of time’s unfolding; a moment found, lost and then found again.

The photograph resists as a convergence of the actual, and the virtual past, Its presence alludes to mortality while maintaining an indexical relationship to reality.  The image persists as a viewpoint: interrogated and guided by both spectator and creator as contrasts between imagination and reality long remain a point of conflict for the artist in the search of a universal understanding of our place in the passage of time.

In this interplay, a paramnesic reality is unearthed; To picture is not to remember. No doubt a recollection, as it becomes actual, tends to live in an image  The static nature of photography has altered our perception of memory, Here I am in the presence of images, in the vaguest sense of the word, images perceived when my senses are opened to them, unperceived when they are closed. Philosopher Henri Bergson describes the interplay between image and memory, how we have become a voyeur to our own lives.

Our memories sit nestled between cellulose triacetate and layered gelatin chemically coaxed into permanence where meaning is latent, and where the image is both a memory and a myth - image and the illusion of perceived reality converge. Illusion and perceived reality converge as the image becomes a fragment of place, filtered through longing, and solidified in silver.”

Bridie Fitzgerald is a multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm (Melbourne), working primarily with analogue, lens-based media, After commencing studies at the Victorian College of the Arts Fitzgerald has returned to her work in a film developing lab, of which largely influences her work, her practice is grounded in the tactile processes of traditional photography. Drawing on her experience working in a film developing lab, she embraces manual and alternative printing techniques to create work that is both materially rich and conceptually layered.

Navigating the dualities of familiarity and disconnection, Fitzgerald seeks to make sense of an ever-shifting world through close observation of the everyday. Capturing still texture, holding the moment, looking closer, and indulging in the fervour of just being, She captures a fleeting beauty in the mundane, offering viewers a contemplative space to consider their own relationship with place. Fitzgerald has exhibited widely and was selected as a finalist in the Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize.