Hijacked

Flak Photo is featuring the Hijacked, Volume One exhibit and book project during September. The list of American participants is a Who's Who of emerging (and emerged) contemporary American photographers. The Australian representatives are all new names to me. It represents a layered composition of "New World cultures".

In the video Mark McPherson, Curator and co-Editor and Max Pam, co-Editor address how the project came about. They speak to it originating on a laptop in Perth, where these things simply are not done. Melbourne or Sydney but not Perth (sound familiar Mid-Westerners?). Through the Internet artists were "discovered", conversations started and relationships formed. It came about through "digital word of mouth". These are exciting times when smart, motivated individuals can hijack the expected, the norm and create opportunities using the new paradigm.

I'm particularly grateful to Andy Adams at Flak for offering us a month long view of this inter-continental exhibit. I enjoy looking at each image and reading through its representation of culture found and culture created to guess if it is the work of an American or Australian artist. To discern the familiar from the foreign by whomever it was made. By the way, as of today the currency exchange rate indicates you can buy the book for $81.51US