MPB Meets: Black-and-white Photographer Angus Scott

Photographer and visual editor Angus Scott is the winner of the 2021 Open Doors Gallery OD Photo Prize. We interviewed Angus Scott to discuss his winning photo, ​​Teetering like a September Myth, his creative inspirations and advice for aspiring photographers. His work, alongside the other eight finalists, was featured in an MPB-sponsored exhibition at The Old Brick Shop, Southwark, London.

MPB: Congratulations on winning the inaugural OD Photo Prize! How does it feel to have won, and could you tell us more about the winning shot?

AS: It feels quite incredible really. For this project especially, knowing that people are viewing and finding meaning in the work is really important to me. Teetering like a September Myth was formed over a few months this spring. My closest friend experienced a very sudden loss in his life, and as we were working through his grief and mourning I was personally confronting the existential fears that can accompany the sudden loss of a young person within your peripheries. We were spending a lot of time escaping to local bushland and watching the regrowth cycles, which is where I found catharsis in the ongoingness of surrounding ecosystems. I was listening to old Appalachian hymns, reading about various cultural understandings of death and learning about the season. All of this sort of combined to help me form some kind of a response that would eventually become the project.

MPB: Could you tell us more about yourself and your creative background?

AS: I’m an Australian artist whose practice is centred around photography, moving images and writing. My creative background is fairly varied. I moved around a lot in my early 20s and spent some time in film production, commercial retouching, photography and construction. In 2017, I settled down in Naarm/Melbourne and began doing community management at the Fox Darkroom and Gallery. It was here that I was really given the opportunity to grow as an artist, bouncing ideas off like-minded people and learning from my friends and colleagues. I fell in love with the community and have been creatively engaged here ever since.

MPB: Teetering like a September myth is in black and white, a style you don’t always shoot in, could you tell more about that decision?

AS: For the past couple of years, I’ve been gravitating more towards colour and experimenting with moving images. These steps felt like progression. However, with a background in the darkroom, I have always been a black-and-white photographer at heart. This project was so personal, the decision to photograph in black and white occurred quite organically. It felt like an easier place to explore vulnerability, like coming home in a way.

MPB: What was your kit setup for the shoot? Did it differ from your usual setup or preferred kit?

AS: The project was made using a combination of 35mm black-and-white film and a Sony A7R II. Initially, I was working solely with film, but as I began honing in on the most individual elements within a scene, the high resolution of digital became really important for the ability to crop. My lens choice was limited to a wide-angle zoom and a short telephoto, neither of which can focus very close. Due to this, I found the process of making pictures with a crop in mind and then realising that composition in the post to be the best way forward. It was definitely a new way of working for me.

MPB: Who or what are the biggest influences on your work?

AS: In general, my biggest influences probably come from family and environment. My father is really big on using the environment as a metaphor in everyday speech, and I think I inherited this way of turning to natural processes to describe and understand human conditions. My partner is a seed collector and ecologist-in-training, so I also take a lot of influence from the way she studies the land and interacts with it. Specific to this project, the Appalachian shape-note song Idumea was an important backdrop for me. Written in the early 1800s, the hymn questions the meaning of life and mortality, opening with the line “And am, I born, to die?”. The words contained within Idumea kept reminding me that, at the end of the day, we are all left to grapple with our own constructs of beginning and end. This really influenced the ways I was thinking about ‘unknowingness’ in a broader, more universal sense.

MPB: You have mentioned your work looks to ‘form personal musings on identity and place’ could you tell us more about that? How did you come to decide that would be the focus of your work? Why is that particularly important to you?

AS: I have a fascination with how personal, historical and familial narratives form our sense of self. For this project, the plants and wildlife featured are all strong fixtures of my upbringing. They are visual representations of the sounds and smells that have formed my connection to place, and that same connection was passed down from family members who came before me. This all felt really important for reconsidering the start- and end-points in my own life cycle.

At the same time, as an Anglo-Australian, I feel that working to understand the history and perpetuation of these stories is really important for positioning myself within the system of colonisation. The land that I feel so connected to is stolen land, and much of the meaning I ascribe to it has been appropriated from Traditional Owners/Custodians. It is a really nuanced dichotomy that seems impossible to reconcile in a way, however, I feel a personal responsibility to continue listening and considering my position within it all. My thought process while making work seems to continually circle back to these cycles of narrative, self and place.

MPB: What would you say have been the biggest learnings from your creative journey so far, and what advice would you pass on to aspiring photographers based on your experiences?

AS: Personally, I have found being a member of the larger community of artists around me has been really instrumental to my growth. Through constant exposure to new voices, I find myself soaking up ideas and taking in unique perspectives every day. Each new connection is a chance to consider a new way of thinking about something. I also experiment and try a lot of different things, so it’s really invaluable having people around me who can look over at what I’m doing and say “Hey, that’s working” or “You’re getting a bit off track”. I’d say if you’re early in your journey, find these people and hang onto them.

MPB: You are also an editor at Photo Collective, could you tell us more about that project?

AS: Photo Collective is an organisation directed by my friends Harriet Tarbuck and Tom Goldner. We are a small team that advocates for Australian photography, providing opportunities through awards recognition, publication, event promotion and education. We have also just launched a biannual publication dedicated to contemporary Australian photography that is formed in part by commissions and in part by community submission.

Through this work, I’m really immersed in photography every day. It’s a really exciting space to be a part of as Australian photography is so diverse and engaging. We are constantly looking to share big ideas and find meaning through photography, and the artists we are working with are consistently raising the bar in this regard. Harriet, Tom and I curate most things together. As an editor, I take on the role of directly communicating with artists and contributors to form content for our online platform where we publish new project work and written articles each week.

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