LEVEL 3, GALLERY 28
AUSTRALIA, BORN 1965
LIVES AND WORKS IN MELBOURNE
PROJECT
Yanni Florence’s ten untitled photographs from his 2019 Tram Windows series feature portraits of anonymous commuters photographed through scratched and scarred tram windows. Taken at a tram stop opposite the Nicholas Building on Swanston Street in Melbourne, these photographs are sensitive studies of people captured in moments of introspection. Discussing the series, Florence reveals that the initial inspiration came from a famous photograph by Robert Frank of people looking out of a trolley car in New Orleans: ‘I wanted to explore some ideas I saw in that photograph … I took a few photographs of people looking out of tram windows and tried to get as close as possible to make portraits. The passengers sit there, mostly passively waiting for their journey’s end, looking out, watching the world go by. There is a very open, unguarded and accepting look they have, that I tried to show.’
ABOUT
Yanni Florence co-founded and designed the art publication Pataphysics Magazine in 1989. In 1997 he completed a Bachelor of Architecture at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Florence has been making and publishing photographs since 1990. His monographs comprise thoughtfully nuanced and sequenced selections of images. The works from the Tram Windows series are from his first solo exhibition of photographs in which he extended his practice from the printed page to the gallery wall. Florence’s work has been included in several group exhibitions, including Melbourne Now in 2013. His first solo exhibition, Tram Windows, was held at ReadingRoom Gallery in 2019.