When photographers do use a camera, sometimes they deconstruct it. Two powerful images by Penelope Davis at Robert Lindsay until 12 April show an SLR camera apparently leaking light all over. The backgrounds are dark and the light appears to emanate from the normally sepulchral color of cameras. The images have a luminous presence and memorable impact that don't simply derive from technique or from reinterpreting the familiar as something alien. The ghostly camera isn't seen as passive witness but as a menacingly numinous Maker.
Artists often engage photography without wielding a camera themselves.
Joan Letcher, for example, uses photocopies of photographs in her exhibition The Pill at helengory galerie in Prahran until 30 April. The Age Company Ltd 2000. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.