Bill Henson · Untitled 1974

‘Untitled 1974’ was one of Bill Henson’s earliest photographic series. When photographing the ballerinas, he found himself fascinated by faces, ‘lost to the world, absorbed in the dance. So I photographed their faces rather than their bodies. I was drawn to the spirit of some person in a space.’ Bill Henson 2004

Sequences are an important part of Henson’s work, creating a dialogue between the images and enhancing both the meaning and effect. An image that is hard to discern singularly becomes more readable as part of a sequence, while at the same time the whole sequence seems to become more ethereal and requiring of an emotional response. AG of NSW