Polixeni Papapetrou facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Polixeni Papapetrou
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Polixeni Papapetrou with her works at a 2012 show at Melbourne's Nellie Castan Gallery
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| Born | 21 November 1960 Melbourne, Australia
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| Died | 11 April 2018 (aged 57) Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
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| Nationality | Australian |
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| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Known for | Photography |
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Notable work
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| Style | Photography, painting, scenic backdrops, landscape, childhood |
| Spouse(s) | Robert Nelson, art critic, The Age |
| Awards | William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize 2017 MAMA Art Foundation National Photography Prize 2016 Windsor Art Prize 2015 Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award 2009 |
| Elected | Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Board of Management 1985–2003 |
Polixeni Papapetrou (born November 21, 1960 – died April 11, 2018) was an Australian photographer. She was famous for her photo series that explored people's identities. Her work often featured themes like childhood and how we present ourselves.
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Early Life and Photography Beginnings
Polixeni Papapetrou was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1960. Her family had moved there from Greece. She studied law at the University of Melbourne. Later, she earned advanced degrees in art.
Polixeni started taking photos in 1987. At first, she focused on different groups of people. She photographed Elvis Presley fans and people who dressed up as Marilyn Monroe. She also took pictures of drag queens, bodybuilders, and circus performers. Her early work looked at how people express who they are.
How She Created Her Art
Polixeni Papapetrou used photography to explore ideas about identity and childhood. She often used special backgrounds, landscapes, costumes, and masks in her pictures. Her two children, Olympia Nelson and Solomon Nelson, were often the main people in her photos.
Early Photo Series
Even though she is known for her work about childhood, Polixeni explored many types of identity.
Elvis and Marilyn
From 1987 to 2002, Polixeni photographed Elvis Presley fans. They were honoring Elvis on the day he died. This series was called Elvis Immortal. It was shown in many galleries.
She was also interested in Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn was a famous movie star, just like Elvis was a music icon. Polixeni created a series called Searching for Marilyn in 2002. Instead of fans, she explored the idea of Marilyn as a character created by Hollywood. This series looked at how Marilyn's identity changed based on what people expected of her.
Other Early Works
In the 1990s, Polixeni photographed wrestlers and bodybuilders. She also took pictures at circuses in Melbourne. She photographed drag queens at nightclubs and special events. These early works showed how people use their bodies and clothes to create an identity.
Her series Curated Bodies (1996) looked at how gender is shaped by biology and society. In Body/Building (1997–2002), she explored how bodybuilders changed their bodies. She placed their photos next to pictures of old Greek buildings. This showed a connection between the idea of a perfect body in ancient Greece and modern bodybuilding.
Exploring Childhood in Photography
In 2002, Polixeni Papapetrou began to focus on childhood. She said she wanted to explore what it means to be a child. She was fascinated by how children change and grow. She saw them as "shape-shifters" who transform through play and imagination.
Masks and Imagination
In her first series with her daughter, Olympia, called Phantomwise (2002), Olympia wore masks. The masks covered her face but showed her mouth and ears. Polixeni was interested in how masks can change a person. They can move the photo from real life to an imaginary world.
Inspired by Lewis Carroll
Polixeni's series Dreamchild (2003) was based on old photos by Charles Dodgson. He is better known as Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Polixeni recreated his photos because they showed children playing dress-up. This idea of dressing up and pretending is common in childhood. She photographed Olympia in many different costumes.
In the Wonderland series (2004), Polixeni explored how her daughter felt while playing a pretend role. She used painted backgrounds that looked like the drawings from the original Alice in Wonderland book.
Children in Nature
In 2006, Polixeni moved her work from fantasy to the real world. She felt this was right as her children were getting older. Their experiences were shifting from imaginary play to the world outside their home.
The series Haunted Country (2006) was inspired by old stories of children lost in the Australian bush. Polixeni went to the places where these children disappeared. She set up scenes and took photos imagining what it might have been like for them.
Games of Consequence (2008) was based on Polixeni's own childhood memories. She remembered playing outside the home. She wanted to show the freedom that children of her generation had in these outdoor spaces.
Hidden Faces
Later, Polixeni started covering the faces of her subjects. She wanted her photos of children to be about childhood in general, not just one specific child. By hiding their faces with masks, the person in the photo could represent anyone or everyone.
Polixeni used masks in her series like Between Worlds (2009), The Dreamkeepers (2012), The Ghillies (2013), and Lost Psyche (2014). The masks and costumes changed young bodies into old ones, or children into animals.
In Lost Psyche (2014), she used painted backgrounds again. She explored old symbolic roles that were fading from history. She used masks, costumes, and child actors to show how some historical ideas stay, while others disappear. In 2016, she created Eden. This series completed her journey of photographing her daughter and friends from childhood to adulthood.
Exhibitions Around the World
Polixeni Papapetrou's work about childhood was shown in many important photography festivals worldwide. These included festivals in places like Lucca, Italy; Berlin, Germany; Seoul, South Korea; Paris, France; and New York, USA.
Illness and Passing
Polixeni Papapetrou was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. She got better, but the cancer returned five years later. In 2012, she was told she had only a few days to live. She went home for care. She lived for more than five more years and passed away in April 2018, at the age of 57.
Recognition for Her Work
Large exhibitions of Polixeni Papapetrou's work were held in Sydney in 2011 and Melbourne in 2013. These shows celebrated her important contributions to photography.
Books About Her Work
- Naomi Rosenblum, A History of Women Photographers, Abbeville Press, New York, 2010
- Anne Marsh, Look: Contemporary Australian Photography, Palgrave MacMillan Australia, 2010
- Anne Higonnet, Rachel Lafo, Kate Dempsey (ed.), Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Massachusetts, 2008
- Susan McCulloch, The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art, The Meigunyah Press and Australian Art Editions, Melbourne, 2006
- Martha Langford, Mirroring Ourselves, Recasting Otherness, After Alice: Angela Grossman and Polixeni Papapetrou, Image and Imagination, ed. Martha Langford, McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal & Kingston, 2005
- Anne Marsh, The Child and the Archive, The Darkroom: Photography and the Theatre of Desire, Macmillan, Melbourne, 2003
