Ten Series/106 Photographs

Australian photographer Matthew Sleeth is a consummate observer, exploring the world around him with an acute and often humorous eye. His latest project, composed of ten series, emphasizes the sequencing of images as an essential part of creating photographic meaning, a conceit with precedents in the work of Ed Ruscha and others. Sleeth’s playfulness, wry sensibility, and unorthodox visual style, however, also recall practicing photographers like Lars Tunbjork and Lee Friedlander.\n\nWith its range of typologies, Matthew Sleeth: Ten Series/106 Photographs is varied and eclectic. Topics include Japanese women in uniform, tagged trees and plants in an arboretum, “Red” China, and Mount Fuji, inspired by old Japanese prints but with each image taken from a modern vantage point. Through its casual exploration of these disparate themes, Matthew Sleeth: Ten Series/106 Photographs offers a view of a contemporary world that is structured on somewhat arbitrary types, categories, and systems of classification, all the while making allusions to the role that photography has played in this process.\n\n\nMATTHEW SLEETH’s work has been exhibited extensively around the world, including exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and the Noorderlicht Festival, the Netherlands. His previous books include Survey (2004), Opfikon (2003), and Home & Away (2003), among others. His 2002 publication Tour of Duty, exploring the Australian presence in East Timor, is featured in Martin Parr’s The Photobook: A History, volume two.