Gordon Monro — Asymmetries of Ballarat

We like symmetry in the built environment around us. But sometimes symmetry is difficult to achieve, and sometimes it doesn’t stay achieved...

The photographs were all taken in Ballarat, mostly in Ballarat Central, in 2024 and early 2025. Most photographs were taken with an iPhone 13 Pro, a few with an iPhone 16 Pro.

The photographs were converted to black and white, since what is important here is the form, not the colours. Quite a few could not be taken from square on and so were "straightened out" using the Perspective Crop tool in Photoshop. Otherwise they were left alone.

This series is now on exhibition as part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale Open Program (until 19th October). The Open Program shows works in shops and cafés throughout Ballarat.

Information about my exhibition, and about the Foto Biennale, at https://ballaratfoto.org/program/asymmetries-of-ballarat/

Historical note: The photographs in this series could be regarded as rather distant inheritors of the tradition of "objective" photography represented by Albert Renger-Patzsch and later Bernd and Hilla Becher in Germany, and Wolfgang Sievers in Australia. Their work was serious in intent, unlike my photographs here.

The series Asymmetries of Ballarat is the first time that I have exhibited what are essentially unmodified photographs. The nearest my previous work has come to this was with the series Pandemic Distortions, which was based on of photographs of household objects taken during the pandemic lockdowns. Those photographs were then distorted in various ways to make the works in Pandemic Distortions.