Despite around 98 per cent of Australians, regularly going to gigs, seeing plays, reading novels, attending festivals, listening to music and looking at images, the arts apparently have an “image problem.” They are elitist, disconnected from everyday life,  and a luxurious indulgence. The criteria for addressing this is a neo-liberal economic lens that focuses on big visitor numbers, box office dollars, international accolades and funding applications that address the concept of Australian nationhood or identity.  

The ethos of Light Paths is placed-based and regional. It aims to encourage, nurture and foster the culture of an independent and contemporary art photography in South Australia; a regional visual culture that explores how South Australia’s regional identities connect with the rest of the world.

Light Paths can be understood as a space or Khôra marked by regional difference and particularity. This space can be interpreted as a receptacle where connections among actual photographies happen, are nurtured, and art projects emerge and develop in the face of the art sector’s decline and gradual rejection as a a federally funded public project. As a digital space it exists beyond the consumerist algorithm of a social media feed and the fixed physical location of an art gallery, thereby  providing access to contemporary art photography to people no matter where they live.

Given that genuine, thoughtful discussion about Australian culture is getting harder to find the ethos of Light Paths is  also committed to a culture of critical engagement, discourse and accessibility by supporting emerging arts writers.  

The content that is published is open access and is free to view and read. This is a photography as a networked digital image that we can access through our own portable devices.