Megan Lewis: profile of a must-see exhibition and book

Megan Lewis embodies the strong spirit, dedication and heart as a documentary storyteller that I respect & admire in this world of photography.  She had the courage and foresight to give up her job in the media in 2002 to live in the desert with the Martu people following her gut feeling.  She became a symbolic fly on the wall as she embraced and lived within traditional Aboriginal culture in Western Australia.    

This powerful body of work “Conversations with the Mob “ opens on Sunday May 6^th 4-7pm at Artsite Gallery 155-157 Salisbury Road, Camperdown (Sydney) and runs until May 20^th, 2012.

This is one of the very few pieces of visual reporting that goes beyond the surface of documenting and understanding Aboriginal culture in Australia. The photos are also a significant historical testament to the Martu people who are some of the last Aboriginal people in Australia to come into contact with white people.  Lewis’ own intuition and spirit were more important than mere words in completing this long-term reportage.

“Taking a picture is hardly ever a simple act, often the difficulty arises from complex cultural thinking and shyness, other times it just simply boils down to the fact the Martu are never switched off to their surroundings.  The desert doesn’t suffer from background noise and the release of a camera shutter draws as much attention as a shot from a high-powered rifle in the dead of night,” Lewis said in her book Conversation with the Mob, published in 2008 by the University of Western Australia Press.

Over the past years when I worked as a photo editor for 4 magazines, I would regularly commission Megan to shoot assignments in Western Australia. Often she was in the desert and unable to do commercial work, but when she was available I knew that every single cent she earned went back into her personal work.    Lewis said, “It is my wish that my photographs and the mob’s stories will allow hearts to open… serve as a bridge across a great cultural divide.” She continues to work tirelessly to secure funding to help improve the lives of the Martu and their health-care initiatives. Recently, she found sponsorship to fund members of the community to fly to Sydney to attend the exhibition opening tomorrow.  This is a “must-see” exhibition documenting the Australia we rarely see.