Mike Harding -
Pride the Mela: the viewer and the viewed

26 June - 10 July 2010

This exhibition is more about the viewer than the viewed.

A photograph is usually thought to represent truth and authenticity, but the exhibition considers how we can almost wilfully misinterpret a photograph when we view a portrait through the tinted spectacles of preconception and assumption.

Pride is a festival of gay and lesbian culture, while the Mela celebrates all things Indian. Mike Harding and Trevor Smeaton set up a photographic studio at both these events in 2009, inviting the revellers to have their portrait taken. The exhibition includes a selection of the images made at the two summer events. The result is a cross-section of the people, their families and their fashions, which constitute just two small slices of our diverse community.

The set of portraits are both simple, and complex. At one level they are a straightforward series of representations of the people who have attended the festivals, and who represent the two sub-sections of our culture.

But there is a more complex interpretation of the images. These portraits reflect the ambivalence with which we regard ourselves and each other. It is not always possible to tell at which event the subject was photographed. Some subjects carry clear signifiers of their cultural group. Others are less clearly badged, and some of the subjects are from the broader community who came to the events because they were simply fun places to be.