Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/dean-andrew-sewell

Birth Place

Sydney, NSW, Australia

Biography

Dean Andrew Sewell is a Sydney-based photographer born in 1971 to a site-builder father and fashion retailer mother. As a seventeen year old in high school he was inspired by a photographic course, which lead to his decision to be a photographer. Sewell came to admire the work of major international photographers, such as Bruce Davidson, Eugene W. Smith, Alex Webb and Susan Meiselas. He took up an apprenticeship in 1989 in the photographic department of the Sydney Morning Herald , complemented by a Certificate course in Photography at the Sydney Technical Institute (TAFE) in Ultimo, Sydney. Learning from practice, he believes, is vital. While partly influenced by a number of European artists, Sewell believes that working with the photographers at The Sydney Morning Herald has provided him with a solid foundation in the medium. As an Australian, Sewell searches for what he sees as the truth of Australian life. His series Bushfire Aftermath (2002) and his reflection on the lives of Aboriginal people on The Block (2001) are indicative of this. They illustrate Sewell’s aim to use photography as an artistic medium that can help people understand or interpret the important economic and environmental events occurring around the world. He is not interested in the role of a photographer singularly pursuing art, journalism or political issues. For instance, The Block series tried to show every aspect of Aboriginal people’s real lives in Redfern (Sydney, NSW), not only the negative aspects the mainstream media often portray to the public. As a Sydney Morning Herald photojournalist he photographed the Chechen war in 1996. Sewell’s 2000 coverage of the invasion in Dili, Timor Leste, focuses on the lives of the East Timorese. His acclaimed Tsunami Aftermath (2005), following the devastation caused in Aceh province, Indonesia, allowed him to reveal aspects of the devastation hidden by the mainstream media (Giblett, 2005). By choosing black and white over colour photography, Sewell hopes viewers might pay more attention to the grim story and to realise that a natural disaster is also a human disaster. Both these series of images won Sewell major awards. An individual image that has also won an award – the 2009 Moran Contemporary Photography Prize – is A Dry Argument (2009). The coloured photograph shows a flat landscape with distant bushes on the horizon and a clump of tall grasses in the left foreground. Central to the image is a wooden jetty thrusting into the middle distance over a sandy and grassy terrain. At one end of the jetty is a large unfurled sun umbrella, a small table and an empty chair. Just to the right of the jetty and presumably tethered to it, is a small row boat, sitting on dry land. Although dark clouds fill the sky, enough sunlight seeps through to allow the jetty and boat to cast strong shadows. The introduction of the surreal props heightens both the intense image and the imagination, leading the judges to comment that: “It is an original and telling account of what is one of Australia’s most pressing concerns and surely an accurate and concise interpretation of 'contemporary Australian life’” ( Photofile , 2009). In 1994 and 1998, Sewell won the Australian Press Photographer of the Year Award. In 2000, he achieved second place in the World Press Photo Awards for his coverage of Timor Leste (East Timor). In 2005 Sewell was awarded first place for his work on the Tsunami aftermath in Aceh, Indonesia. In 2005 and 2008, he was awarded an Artist Residency by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in the historical village of Hill End in New South Wales, Australia. A Dry Argument (2009) secured him the aforementioned Moran Contemporary Photography Prize in 2009. The impulse to inform a wider public through visual stories of human lives also drives the collective Oculi, established in 2001 by Sewell and eight other award-winning photojournalists in Australia. Oculi’s focus is on, “Revealing real lives and real stories that are overlooked by mainstream media” (pers. comm.) The photographers try to implicate every aspect of our time and region through a visual poetics that seeks “the extraordinary in the ordinary” (Oculi website). Free from the commercial drivers often underpinning photojournalism, the Oculi collective pursues their own understanding of documentary photography. In his spare time, Sewell plays music, especially garage music, rock and punk. He also makes objects out of recycled and discarded materials. Sewell occasionally makes political sculptures. Sewell’s photographs are in the National Library of Australia and private collections. His submissions to the World Press Photo Award have been exhibited at the State Library of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW). He has served as a judge for a number of photographic contents, including the Historic Houses Trust “My Sydney” Award in 2007 and the Tweed River Art Gallery Photography Prize in 2009. Writers: De Lorenzo, CatherineZhang, Xueting Date written: 2009 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1971

Summary

Dean Sewell is a documentary photographer and award winning photojournalist whose work focuses on the lives of people whether from Redfern in inner Sydney, the outback, Timor Leste or the tsunami survivors in Aceh province Indonesia.

Gender

Male

Died

None listed

Age at death

None listed