In association with Head On Photo Festival
Artist statement
Sacrifice brings together portrait photography and oral histories into a body of work by William Debois that highlights contemporary social issues. Through the personal and often powerful stories, participants to the project contribute to an un-curated narrative that brings about universal notions of generosity, hardship, community, commitment, and privilege and inequality.
Sacrifice reflects the universal notations of sacrifice, be it big or small, life-affirming or limiting, tragic or slightly trivial. It explores universal notions of community, connectionless and personal struggle. It is an outlet for self-expression that is inclusive and non-judgmental, expressed through photography and oral histories. The portraits and stories captured and shared in Sacrifice are told and received through diverse views and lead to conversations about our role and responsibility towards our community and society.
A multi-year project Sacrifice that Debois has been working on since early 2020. In this time Sacrifice has documented sitters with black and white film in front of a backdrop custom made for the project, collecting the sitters' oral histories of sacrifice. Drawing its development founding from the classic road-trip format, a format undertaken by many influential photographers, Debois has captured portraits of people met along the way, by chance or through recommendation. In his travel Debois has met, listened to, and captured their visual and oral representations of sacrifice. A significant portion of the artworks were created during a road trip fromMelbourne, Victoria, to Gladstone, Queensland, covering 1,986.4kms from February toMarch 2021. In each town, and for each shoot, Debois set up a rugged-looking backdrop, fabricated from an old military tarpaulin, photographing his sitter using a classic Hasselblad film camera.
In this creative and personal process, the sitter is asked to share their reflections on the two questions:
What does sacrifice mean to you?
What sacrifice have you made?
Using the central theme of sacrifice, the project aims to illustrate the diversity of lifestyles, values and aspirations that define the Australian nation in 2021, reflecting the complexity of personal narratives.
Artist bio
William Debois is a photographer pf French origin based in Gladstone, Queensland, His photographic career spans 25years, practicing in four countries. Debois splits his practice between commercial photography and arts projects. This way of working supports his fascination for the imposing nature of industrial Central Queensland and the subtitles of human lifestyles. Debois has held solo exhibitions and been curated into group exhibitions. He has been published on his arts projects and won numerous awards, including Martin Hanson Local Artist Award (2019) and Martin Hanson People’sChoice Award (2020). He was formerly trained in file photography in France,England and Germany. His portrait of radio DJ and activist Viv Maloo, taken inCollingwood, Victoria for Sacrifice has been selected as a finalist for head OnPhoto Awards.
Artist statement
Sacrifice brings together portrait photography and oral histories into a body of work by William Debois that highlights contemporary social issues. Through the personal and often powerful stories, participants to the project contribute to an un-curated narrative that brings about universal notions of generosity, hardship, community, commitment, and privilege and inequality.
Sacrifice reflects the universal notations of sacrifice, be it big or small, life-affirming or limiting, tragic or slightly trivial. It explores universal notions of community, connectionless and personal struggle. It is an outlet for self-expression that is inclusive and non-judgmental, expressed through photography and oral histories. The portraits and stories captured and shared in Sacrifice are told and received through diverse views and lead to conversations about our role and responsibility towards our community and society.
A multi-year project Sacrifice that Debois has been working on since early 2020. In this time Sacrifice has documented sitters with black and white film in front of a backdrop custom made for the project, collecting the sitters' oral histories of sacrifice. Drawing its development founding from the classic road-trip format, a format undertaken by many influential photographers, Debois has captured portraits of people met along the way, by chance or through recommendation. In his travel Debois has met, listened to, and captured their visual and oral representations of sacrifice. A significant portion of the artworks were created during a road trip fromMelbourne, Victoria, to Gladstone, Queensland, covering 1,986.4kms from February toMarch 2021. In each town, and for each shoot, Debois set up a rugged-looking backdrop, fabricated from an old military tarpaulin, photographing his sitter using a classic Hasselblad film camera.
In this creative and personal process, the sitter is asked to share their reflections on the two questions:
What does sacrifice mean to you?
What sacrifice have you made?
Using the central theme of sacrifice, the project aims to illustrate the diversity of lifestyles, values and aspirations that define the Australian nation in 2021, reflecting the complexity of personal narratives.
Artist bio
William Debois is a photographer pf French origin based in Gladstone, Queensland, His photographic career spans 25years, practicing in four countries. Debois splits his practice between commercial photography and arts projects. This way of working supports his fascination for the imposing nature of industrial Central Queensland and the subtitles of human lifestyles. Debois has held solo exhibitions and been curated into group exhibitions. He has been published on his arts projects and won numerous awards, including Martin Hanson Local Artist Award (2019) and Martin Hanson People’sChoice Award (2020). He was formerly trained in file photography in France,England and Germany. His portrait of radio DJ and activist Viv Maloo, taken inCollingwood, Victoria for Sacrifice has been selected as a finalist for head OnPhoto Awards.
