Rural Australia is dying. It once used to be a thriving, prosperous area, with millions of Australians choosing the freedom of the bush over the crowded, fast paced urban life. Recently however, many people have chosen to walk off the land and move to the cities, leaving very few remaining rural residents to grapple with the strain of such an isolated and gruelling existence. I wanted this series to document the oddities of a dying town through my own rural hometown's demise, and depict the blue collar people living lives of quiet desperation, portraying everyday struggle and ordinary tragedy.
Claudia Caporn (b. 1997) is an emerging portraiture and documentary photographer based in Perth, Australia. She grew up on her family’s wheat and sheep farm in Quairading, and her passion for capturing the human condition emerged. She is completing a BA in Photography in Perth, Australia. The duopoly of this parallel existence in rural Australia and urban city is deeply ingrained in her practice through the combination of her role as a flaneur, and her unusual eye in ordinary circumstances. Her works aim to give prominence to the mundane and often neglected aspects of life.
Awards Awards:
Top Graduating Student in Photography, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 2019.
Selected exhibitions:
2019 - Red Giant, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia.
IRIS Award (Finalist), Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia.
Rotterdam Photo, Rotterdam Photo Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
2018 - Collective, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia.
CLIP (Finalist), Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia.
2017 - Collective, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia.
Places of Curtin, Place Activation at Curtin University, Perth, Australia
