Michael Cook is from Queensland’s Bidjara people. Adopted as a baby by a non-Indigenous family, he was later encouraged to find his Aboriginal birth mother and to explore his Indigenous heritage. Originally a successful commercial fashion photographer, Cook’s expertise in digital image-making and post-production techniques lends an ethereal quality to his re-visioning of Australian history.
Michael Cook’s practice continues the strong Indigenous tradition of the exploration of photography, which includes the work of Mervyn Bishop, Michael Riley, Fiona Foley and Destiny Deacon, among others. Historically, Aboriginal people have been portrayed as the exotic ‘other’ or they have been photographed for the purposes of scientific inquiry. Cook is from a generation of artists who are reinvigorating Indigenous photography — reclaiming photography for their own purposes and provocatively using the medium to bring attention to Indigenous issues.
For more information please visit the – Artist Website
Image : Michael Cook, Civilised #13, 2012, inkjet print on archival Hahnemuhle cotton paper, 100 x 85cm / Text – QAG
