Missy by Tajette O'Halloran

Details

Retail price for the framed work is for pick-up from NERAM, Armidale. Shipping Australia-wide can be arranged and will be invoiced separately.

Year: 2023

Medium: Canson platine rag

Framed size: 545mm x 805mm

Description 

In December 2023, I was commissioned to photograph Missy Higgin's album campaign for The Second Act – a deeply personal record reflecting the death of a relationship and the reimagining of her future. The intention was less about creating traditional portraits and more about documenting a moment of transformation. It was an opportunity to capture a woman in the midst of an unraveling, quietly sitting with the weight of her own evolution.

Biography 

Tajette O'Halloran is an Australian photographic artist whose work explores the intricacies of interpersonal relationships within suburban and rural landscapes. For almost a decade, O'Halloran has dedicated her artistic practice to two major ongoing series, 'In Australia' and 'The Quarry.'

'In Australia' serves as a personal reflection on her own adolescence, offering a nuanced glimpse into the complexities of Australia's small-town and rural culture, unveiling traces of unconventional family backgrounds, hardships, friendships and complex peer structures. Rooted in personal experiences, O'Halloran's conceptual documentary approach involves constructing cinematic scenes informed by memory, reflecting the diverse and shared experiences of adolescence across the Australian and wider global landscape.

In recent years, O'Halloran has developed 'The Quarry,' a series centred around an abandoned brickworks quarry turned swimming hole in rural NSW. Using traditional documentary photography, she captures the convergence of people, ecosystems, and the changing landscape, highlighting the quarry's dynamic microcosm.

O'Halloran has received widespread recognition for her work. She is currently undergoing a 12 month commission with the Powerhouse Museum documenting nightlife in regional NSW and will be holding her first solo exhibition in Melbourne in July 2025. She was awarded the British Journal of Photography's Portrait of Humanity award in 2019 and the Jurors Pick in the 2020 Lens Culture Award. She was also named a finalist in the National Portrait Prize in both 2021 and 2023, and was shortlisted for numerous photography awards including The Olive Cotton Award (2021) where she received an honourable mention, The Doug Moran Photographic Prize (2016-2019) The Bowness Photography Prize (2016,2019) and The PH Museum Women's Photography Grant (2021).

Her work has been featured in Australian and international publications, including the British Journal of Photography (UK), The New York Times (USA) and The Guardian (AUS). O'Halloran has contributed as both an artist and curator in ACTS I-VII at Benalla Art Gallery as part of PHOTO 2022 and is a member of Oculi Collective.

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