Australian Dream Ed. 1 of 2

from the publication THEATRE OF LIFE - PORTRAITS BY ALEX FRAYNE (Wakefield Press)-

There exists a particular street in Kilkenny which affords residents a view of the glass factory at the end of the road. A bourgeois reading of the Kilkenny series might result in a sort of revulsion at the thought that people might actually want to live on a street next to a factory. Ewww! But the truth is the opposite. Most of the residents are actually fond of the behemoth at the end of their street. They find the hums, bleeps and bloops of the thing comforting. I photographed Gary several times over a two year period. He lived in the house closest to the factory. The last time I knocked on his door I was met by the unmistakeable silence of suburbia. A neighbour told me he had recently died.

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Alex Frayne has been involved in film and images from his earliest school days. Beginning with an 8mm camera in hand he has continued his love affair with visual media ever since. His stills photography work has earned acclaim and his work is held in galleries including the National Portrait Gallery (two images in the Permanent Collection).

He shoots mainly analogue film formats, including 6x6cm, 6x9cm and 35mm formats. In 2023 his performance MUSIC FOR OTHER WORLDS had its world premiere at the prestigious Adelaide
Festival of Arts, featuring the esteemed pianist Paul Grabowsky responding in real time to a series of his photographs projected.

In 2026 his American Photographic Essay MANIFEST DESTINY premiered at the Adelaide Festival Of Arts to huge acclaim. Rosemary Neil writing for The Australian proclaimed it "the best photographic exhibition I have seen in years."

He has four art books published by Wakefield Press. Simon Caterson, for The Australian, writes: "the last book confirms that Frayne deserves to be thought of alongside Ansel Adams and the other great landscape photographers.' (Landscapes of South Australia, Wakefield Press, 2020).

BOOKS (all published by WAKEFIELD PRESS, ADELAIDE)

-Adelaide Noir, 86pg, 2015
-Theatre of Life, Portraits - 80pg, 2017
-Landscapes of South Australia, 216 pg, 2020 (3 print runs)
-Distance and Desire, 216 pg 2024