Cover Image: Duncan Wright’s Veil (Heddwch A Tawelu Yma) sits on the sands of Bathers Beach/Manjaree, the artist’s grandfather’s shed transformed into a camera obscura for the Fremantle Biennale. Photo by Adam Kenna.

Photography is an art form normally associated with the here and the now, especially in an age when each day seemingly brings new digital marvels. “Is that real or is that AI?” is the question of the moment.

However, gazing back in time is equally important to port city photographer Duncan Wright, who for this year’s Fremantle Biennale has transformed his grandfather’s garden shed into a camera obscura that will sit on Bathers Beach/Manjaree during the month-long arts event.

Adding to the depth of inspiration is that Wright’s grandad was prominent Welsh-born Perth landscape painter, academic and critic Gareth Morse, who passed away in 2023.

Morse bought a home in Fremantle next door to Wright’s parents, so young Duncan spent every morning in the company of Morse, who retired from academia in 1990 and lived out his days practising his craft, often inside the tin shed that has been converted into camera obscura that you will be able to step inside during its Biennale run.

“My grandfather was a deep thinker and very creative who was always teaching us things, such as how to draw and perspective and colour,” Wright tells me after giving me a preview of his Biennale piece Veil, whose subheading Heddwch A Tawelu Yma is Welsh or “peace and quiet here”.

Wright’s entry is a profoundly personal response to this year’s Biennale theme of Sanctuary.

“My grandfather’s work was not always well-received in his day. They were big, bold landscape paintings and considered a bit old-fashioned — but I look back at them now and they are really remarkable,” explains Wright after taking me through the “shedio” that for Wright still stores the spirit of his grandfather. 

“I can also see how his work has influenced me. I can see so much of my way of looking in his paintings. The oversaturated colours, big blacks and high contrast, really loud moments and really quiet moments,” says Wright, whose startlingly bold photographs have won him many fans and clients.

“My grandfather would always tell me to ‘look beyond the veil’ and see what’s not there. It’s about capturing the feeling, the emotion. It was after spreading his ashes that it clicked. My piece for the Biennale comes from this insight.”

This notion of seeing what is not there is perfectly embodied by the camera obscura that Wright has created by putting lens into the wall of his grandfather’s shed that has been relocated to Bathers Beach/Manjaree and aimed at the Indian Ocean.

The lens brings into focus the light waves coming off the water and the beach and projects them onto the back wall of the shed, allowing those who enter the artwork to see what is not there. 

And the shed itself registers the fact of the late artist, who covered the walls with words that document the later years of his life, including the phrase — “Heddwch a tawelu yma” — that Wright uses as part of the title of the piece.

“My mother was an archeologist and her world was defined by objects. They were proof that people were living in places thousands of years ago. And objects have always been important to me, which is why I have made the camera obscura not from any material but my grandfather’s shed. The shed helps tell the story,” explains Wright.

Indeed, the Biennale itself is an important object for Wright, who is not only one of the dozens of participating artists but leads the team of photographers recording the event.

“Shooting the Biennale as I have done for the past few years is a real point of pride for me as they allow me to do it in my own way. They let me respond to things rather than having someone’s vision forced upon me. I’ve always struggled with people telling me what to do. My grandfather was exactly the same,” says Wright.

Veil – Heddwch A Tawelu Yma is exhibited at Manjaree (Bathers Beach) Precinct until November 30, with entry free.

For more information, visit:
https://fremantlebiennale.com.au/event/veil/