offering[s] is a compelling photographic survey by award-winning South Australian photographer Tony Kearney, comprising seventy-five black and white portraits of contemporary South Australian artists. Created using medium and large format analogue processes, this series offers a timely and enduring visual archive of artistic identity and creative practice in the state.
Each portrait is the result of a collaborative gesture. Participating artists were invited to bring a personal object into the frame—an item that holds significance, evokes inspiration, or speaks to their practice. These artefacts, which range from handmade works to inherited tools or talismanic items, transform each image into a layered portrait of the artist’s inner world and creative lineage.
The decision to work in black and white film underscores Kearney’s commitment to craft and permanence. The aesthetic is both timeless and formally rigorous, offering collectors and institutions access to a rare and meticulously executed body of work that honours both subject and medium.
offering[s] holds particular significance for those invested in documenting and supporting South Australia’s cultural narrative. It is a project of enduring value for curators, archives and collectors seeking to engage with the living history of the region’s artistic ecology. At once a celebration and a record, this series captures a creative generation through the lens of one of the state’s most sensitive and observant photographic voices.
