How do women view the world when creating digital photographic art?
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That's one of the questions considered in A Feminine Perspective, The Hedda Photography Group's first exhibition after several years of existence.
"I started the group because some photography groups do tend to be quite male dominated," says the all-women group's convenor, Helen McFadden.
"Stereotypically, men are interested in the gear, and women are more interested in the actual images, what they mean, how they relate."
The Hedda Photography Group is named after Hedda Morrison (1908-91). The German-born photographer worked extensively in China, Hong Kong and Sarawak from the 1930s to the 1960s. She moved to Canberra with her husband in 1967 and in 1990 the Canberra Photographic Society made her a life member.
McFadden is also a member of the Canberra Photographic Society, which has about 50 men and women.
The Hedda group is smaller, looser and more informal with about 15 members.
"It's about ideas and creativity and encouraging peer support and peer review," McFadden says.
The idea of holding an exhibition was floated last year and it has now come to fruition. There were no constraints as to subject matter or theme: participants could express what they wanted to express.
The subjects explored in the exhibition range from the natural world and landscapes - constructed and natural - to people viewed in various environments both real and constructed.
The women employ many techniques including realism, deconstruction, compositing of images and photocollage.
They sometimes make reference to or incorporate traditionally female crafts such as scrapbooking, stitching and embroidery.
In their works, the artists are often contemplating their roles in families and as custodians of values and stories passed down through generations.
They are presenting viewpoints and subject matter that might be overlooked in male-dominated practice.
McFadden says her own works are "based on studio portraits, but I wanted to take them beyond portraits".
She's created composite images with digital manipulation and postproduction, textures and colours inserted into the backgrounds, and small amounts of hand embroidery added to the works to reference the fact that such handiwork is traditionally considered a "female" pursuit.
"I also wanted to make each piece unique."
Another artist with work in the show is Ulli Brunschweiler.
"She photographs things she sees, such as reflections in puddles, that are part of the environment and takes the work and creates something absolutely beautiful."
Margaret Stapper went looking for the house where her grandparents grew up in Mulligans Flat, which is now abandoned and derelict.
She photographed it and "added" an old family portrait to the wall.
"She was finding a legacy," McFadden says, noting that women are often the keepers of family history.
In her artist's statement, Stapper writes: "The inserted photograph on the back wall of the kitchen was taken at the time of my grandparent's engagement and pictures [Stapper's great-grandparents] Martha and John with my Pop and his fiancée and four of his sisters.
"They were sitting on the steps at the front of this cottage."
Judy Parker writes: "I feel a need to see things beyond the stage normally discarded as rubbish and to notice, study, record and celebrate this passing and the particular beauty of things timing-out."
These and many more works - other artists include Eva van Gorsel, Susan Henderson and Brenda Runnegar - will soon be ready to discover and contemplate.
A Feminine Perspective opens in Gallery 2 at M16 Artspace on Thursday September 8 at 6pm and is on until September 25. See: m16artspace.com.au.