National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 Finalist
Tamara Henderson
born Canada 1982, Australia from 2019
Green in the Grooves 2023
pigment photographic print on paper, kiln cast glass frame
‘This self portrait is a 16mm film still taken from Green in the Grooves. The film focuses on the close observation of microbiology in compost soil, and the chemical and insect-driven processes of decomposition and earthworm ecology. In this photographic frame I was under a pane of glass and soil was progressively scattered onto the glass. In the moving picture the image progresses from being of the sky to an opaque but reflective surface – via the application of soil. It is a moment that depicts a body which is under the earth and in reflection simultaneously.’
Tamara Henderson is an artist based on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country in Kamberri/Canberra whose work draws attention to the often-unappreciated earth beneath our feet, the grounding of life on this planet.