Lisa Sorgini loves Australia, but she’s not really interested in the glimmering picture we’re sold with postcards and cold beers. She wants to look at the quiet thread of loneliness and desolation that she sees sewn through nature and the city. Her photos are of suburban streets, forgotten objects, unsuspecting subjects and beautiful places. They’re never sentimental or saccharine, rather they ask the viewer to think about who they really are, rather than who they want to be.
Australia seems like a constant muse, do you feel like your work forms a larger statement about it?
It definitely is. I am also interested in sociology and in particular the contrast between the way the country likes to present itself and the way that it it really is for the majority of people that live here. That’s a major part of my fascination.
That’s interesting, is there a particular narrative around Australia you’re looking to divert?
I wouldn’t say that I am hoping to divert but rather to offer another perspective. For all of the pockets of forward thinking ingenuity, we also have vast traditionally cultural voids that exist side by side and become intertwined.
Maybe a better questions is: Is there an element of the culture you find yourself returning to?
Our suburbia and the vast, seemingly abandoned “cookie cutter estates” have always resonated with me and drawn me in. The nuances and absurdities of suburban life is fascinating, tragic and humorous all at once.
Alongside that is a juxtaposed fascination with nature.
I found that I am primarily interested in capturing a feeling of loneliness in a lot of my images and so this for me can be found in spades in both suburbia and nature.
Your work is so reflective of your home, do you ever wonder about how different your output would be if you lived somewhere else?Absolutely, but I can’t begin to consider how it would be. A sense of place in the world is such a strong theme for me and I am very aware of it. I do wish I could look at our country with fresh eyes or from another perspective.
We’ve talked about the desolate elements in your work, but you actually shoot a lot of traditionally “pretty” things—like flowers for example—but they always come across as surreal or macabre, how conscious is that?
It is not so conscious, I think it comes from the way I see the world. Pretty, absurd and macabre go hand in hand for me very often.
A little bit of sentimentality is in everything I do but it is never at the forefront of my intentions when making an image or series, more of a secondary layer and hopefully it comes across that way.
When you feel stuck or sapped of ideas, where do you look?
I find inspiration in everything: music, the pub, a drive to the shops, my nanna’s kitchen, the arts, my family and friends. For the most part I am rarely stuck for ideas, more the time/motivation/cash to follow through with them, which can be infinitely more frustrating.
Credits
Words Wendy Syfret
Photography Lisa Sorgini