April 2022
’Selina Ou: Neighbourhood Tales'
Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne

Selina Ou is recognised and celebrated for her large-scale documentary style photographs that often depict her subjects at work. Across a practice spanning more than two decades, Ou has sought out employees in the service industry – bartenders, butchers, chemists, and shop assistants of all kinds, to explore themes of consumerism, cultural and social hierarchies, identity and personal worth. By extending this focus to countries such as China, Japan, Chile and the United States, Ou’s images also bring into sharp relief the challenge of maintaining culturally specific traditions and ways of life in the face of global capitalism and its rampant consumerism. Ou’s images are dependent on the willing collaboration of her subjects, who are treated with a dignity and respect that places them at the centre of the frame, enabling them to participate in the way in which, through her photographs, they are presented to the world. Despite their recognisable roles, Ou’s subjects are not ‘types’. They are individuals, replete with their own rich and complex lives beyond their occupations. It is the hint of this – the realms beyond the expectations of work and the presentation of a public face, that give these photographs their power.  Read