​​Beyond the Lens critically examines the travel footage of one man, spanning the 1960s to the 1980s, as it intersects with broader social and cultural narratives. Drawing from the Foundling Archive’s collection of ‘lost’ media comprising of discarded photographs, film, and trinkets from second-hand shops and online marketplaces. The project interrogates the dynamics of gaze, representation, and the power imbalances inherent in the act of filming. Through the lens of the privileged outsider, the project explores how the camera becomes a tool for asserting control over space and identity.

 

How does the gaze of the tourist shape the representation of the ‘Other’? How do those filmed respond to being subjects of an external, often intrusive, lens? What moments does the filmmaker prioritise, and how do these choices reflect his understanding of memory, difference, and cultural encounter? How does tourism, as both an act and an industry, shape and transform the cultures of both the tourist and the places they visit? Finally, how does our edit and editorial present in turn, come to reflect our contemporary values?

 

Beyond the Lens explores the complexities of visual power, the cultural exchanges embedded in the act of filming, and how these interactions influence the identities and narratives of both the observer and the observed.​

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This project has Screened at Federation Square, City Library, White Night, Melbourne.  

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