Introduction

An introduction to my Research An Image assignment for Photography Studies College. I'm doing Polixeni Papapetrou's photo Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman (Off Duty).

Fig. 1

As mentioned in the video, I never liked this photo. It was on display in the Geelong Gallery for a number of years so I've seen it a number of times. I wanted to know about what the themes and ideas behind it are so that I have better views about it.
At the moment, I see the image being about an exploration of a tradition (Chinese heritage). The props Papapetrou has used all look fairly typical for what I would imagine when I think of that kind of culture, with the vibrant reds and blue and floral patterns. I feel that the artist is expressing perhaps part of her own heritage in the making of this image. She may have some kind of Chinese influence in her history and the photo is her way of paying a homage to that background. As it has fairly typical scenery for what you'd expect from Chinese traditions, I think she used them deliberately to make her audience immediately identify what it is she's trying to bring across.



Fig. 1: Olympia as Lewis Carroll's Xie Kitchin as a Chinaman (off duty), Polixeni Papapetrou's website, viewed September 14, 2012, http://www.polixenipapapetrou.net/works.php?cat=Dreamchild_2003