Exhibition Detail | Kristian Haggblom 

Photographed by Robert Haggblom in 1976 and printed from his archive by Kristian Haggblom. 

Initially I thought this was a fairly straightforward idea that would produce a series of interesting photographs and a set of concepts about a particular place by a group of artists I respect. I was wrong. I began this project by driving and walking extensively around the mouth of the river where it drains into the ocean in Altona and at the source of the creek in Sunbury where there is really not much to be found. Much of this I did with my father who often accompanies me on shooting adventures. My father has lived and worked in the western suburbs all of his life since arriving from Finland when he was young. After a day of shooting I asked him if he had any negs in his archive of the creek or even my brother and I playing along the banks. My father began teaching photography and art at St. Albans Tech the year I was born. What he found was a roll of 120 film from the first year of him teaching that documents the school boys running a marathon and in the back paddocks and jumping “shit creek”. This location is now part of the urban sprawl and located near Carolyn Springs. In the initial statement for this project I reflected that it “raises questions about authenticity, originality and the creation of place”. While this work is obviously an ode to my father for his support, it also addresses those initial concepts that are so important to photography. 

After graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1997, Kristian Haggblom won the Documentary Award at the Centre for Contemporary Photography and had his first solo exhibition. Bored in Melbourne, he then moved to Japan where he lived for seven years. He has exhibited in Australia, Japan, America and Switzerland. He is presently a PhD candidate through Monash University and curator of Wallflower Photomedia Gallery in Mildura.

www.kristianhaggblom.com