Out in the dark, somewhere in the Australian bushlands near her home, Mandy Smith is burning up the night. By using long exposures and the technique of painting with light to create ethereal nightscapes, she calls on her subjects and the great Southern constellations to put on a light show of a different magnitude.
Having developed an affinity for photography as a teenager, it wasn’t until the start of the pandemic that Smith returned to her artistic roots. It’s hard to think that we would be without a burgeoning new talent today had she not thrown herself head and shoulders into relearning her craft. “I watched hundreds of tutorials online for beginners on how to use and understand the settings on a camera,” she says. “After that, I noticed so many different genres of photography, and it opened me up to a whole new world.”
Smith is a Barkindji woman, born and raised on the Latji Latji lands of Mildura, Victoria. She draws on the beauty of surrounding landscapes to embody her works with a strong respect and care for Country. In further support of her community, she is also a member of Blak Lens, a collective of photographers, cinematographers and videographers of Aboriginal heritage.
To create the effects in her images, Smith uses light painting tubes, plexiglass and fibre optics and positions her subjects in ways that are typically associated with otherworldliness. Photographically, she achieves an expert balance between the night sky and her illuminated objects, allowing her subjects to symbolically radiate in equal measure against the glow of a celestial canvas. “I enjoy experimenting with light, using light painting against landscapes to add something extra to the scene. I find that it really catches your eye. I love that when you are light painting, not every image is the same – each moment creates different patterns. So, although it can be challenging, it’s a lot of fun, which is why I enjoy it.”
In a way, Smith’s digital artistry can be analogised to the old-school labour of developing images in a dark room. In the way prints slowly reveal themselves after emerging from chemical solutions, so, too, do Smith’s compositions, as the invisible trails of light that turn into beautiful lines of movement require the passing of time to be viewed in full.
But while the dedication to mastering the technical elements of her vocation remains true, Smith reveals that the central pillar of her artform is to serve her culture through the act of storytelling.
From shooting dream-like images of birds and landmarks to photographing traditional Aboriginal rituals in a heightened form of performative art, she has begun to demonstrate her signature style of capturing moments of cultural significance. And while her artform is modern day and digital, there is a parallel between what is and what once was for those that wish to see it that way. There is a power in being out in open land, late at night, in the solitude of gathering darkness to record a photographic image for minutes on end that harks back to the ways in which we used to navigate the dark using nothing but ancient form of shadow and light.
For Smith, she is sure to have a storied career. She has begun channelling a personal sense of strength and spirituality through her work in the way all great artists do. And as the call for her photography grows, what a pleasure to know that her artistic vision will one day shape the creative industries here on home soil.
Above: Artist Mandy Smith. Courtesy: the artist.
