Monument by Trent Parke

In Monument, Trent Parke brings together images produced over a 25 year period on the streets of Sydney and Adelaide, Australia. Upon moving to Sydney from a small Australian country town, Parke’s first impression was of the sheer volume of people. At rush hour he would watch as the city’s workers moved in mass, walking the great conveyor belt of life. The more Parke photographed the rush hour, the more he was drawn to the light, following the sun as it shifted from one street corner to another, all the while trying to make sense of the endless procession in front of him. Monument stands as an elegy to time, to the late light of city streets and to the movement of people, as well as to the circling of moths as night falls. 

“At night I would watch the eclipse of moths, millions of them constantly circling the lights of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At the same time, on my balcony, a miniature performance played out around the light above my head. The moths inevitably and without resistance were drawn to their ultimate demise. Spiralling out of control, like small space-ships caught in a tractor beam. An electrical charge in the still air. A small puff of smoke. Gone. Instant disintegration of a life form. Another blip in the universe. Another small space craft colliding with the blazing sun.” – Trent Parke

About Trent Parke:

Trent Parke was born in 1971 and raised in Newcastle, New South Wales. He began taking pictures as a child, using his mother’s Pentax Spotmatic camera and the family laundry room as a darkroom. He started his career in Photojournalism, becoming the first Australian member of Magnum Photos in 2007. Today Parke is known for his impressionistic, long-form projects that offer a portrait of contemporary Australia; from southern outback to crowded beaches and city streets. While rooted in the documentary tradition, Parke bridges the gaps between reality and fiction, exploring themes of identity, place, community and family life.

Parke’s work has been exhibited widely and is held in major institutional collections, including: the National Gallery of Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Art Gallery of South Australia. He has published seven books, including: Dream/Life (1999), The Seventh Wave (with Narelle Autio, 2000), Minutes to Midnight (2013), The Christmas Tree Bucket (2014), Crimson Line (2020), Cue the Sun (2022) and Monument (2023). He is the recipient of 3 World Press Photo Awards alongside the W. Eugene Smith grant for humanistic photography.

In collaboration: