Featured Artist: Prudence Bansemer

Prudence Bansemer is a Naarm/Melbourne-based landscape and architectural photographer working predominantly with 35mm and medium format film.  Prudence's work discusses topics around environmental and social justice, issues that have been informed by her upbringing in rural Victoria, followed by over fifteen years living, working and travelling overseas.  After completing a Certificate IV in Photo Imaging at Photography Studies College, Prudence is now pursuing her interest in global affairs by undertaking a Bachelor of International Studies at RMIT.

Prudence's extensive travels have also inspired her to use art as a tool to fight complacency, producing works which encourage questions and help to challenge the status quo. Through her work she aims to capture images which explore the beauty of humanity, but also the harsh realities that our impact has on communities and the global environment.  Prudence works extensively with alternative photography processes like infrared and lomochrome film, which lends her work an otherworldly, dream-like quality. 

Read on as we question Prudence about her artistic influences and the evolution of her photography practise.

Take us back to where your interest in photography first began. Can you recall the first photograph you took that made you realise the power or potential of photography?
I started taking photos when I was really young, perhaps 10 years old, but when I was gifted my grandpa’s Pentax K1000 in 2014 I went back to shooting film. This took me back to basics and taught me a lot. I had a creative shift when I moved to Canada in 2016- that’s when I really began to see photography as a powerful tool for storytelling and changemaking. I met a man named Roy at a ferry terminal and asked to take his portrait; we then became friends and he told me some wild stories of his 70+ years. I often think of him as the most evolved and peaceful human I have ever met.

What are the primary themes or topics that you consistently explore and address in your photography? Could you elaborate on why these particular topics are important to you?
I started out shooting portraits and later moved my focus to landscape and architectural images. My attraction to architecture (particularly modernist and brutalist) is a reaction to that magic when form, function and accident make something beautiful. I also appreciate the need for more thoughtful structures in our growing urban centres; photography can help make visible what thoughtfulness creates. I love shooting landscapes simply because they take my breath away – Mother Earth showing us her wildest, most ethereal work- which we should all take more time to appreciate.

Your use of lomochrome and infrared film has created some incredibly stunning effects, especially in your otherworldly, dream-like desert landscape captures. In what ways do you feel these films enhance storytelling or convey emotions differently compared to traditional photographic techniques?
Experimenting with lomochrome and infrared films has introduced a visual language to my work which I hadn’t anticipated. Shooting with these films has offered a departure from traditional photography and helped me to restore scenes that have become ordinary to the otherworldly beauty that I see at their core.

Earlier, you’ve mentioned how 15+ years of living, working and travelling overseas have largely informed your interest in social and environmental justice. How do you plan on using photography as a tool to approach and discuss these important issues?
I’m very much interested in how we – especially those of us in Western capitalist societies - have always viewed the earth as something to be consumed, but how consumption of the beauty we admire is leading to its destruction. . By capturing already beautiful/desolate scenes through an altered medium, I am adding a layer of abstraction that challenges the viewer to question their own relationship with the natural world.

As someone who primarily shoots 35mm and 120mm film, in your opinion what sets analogue photography apart from digital photography as a medium for artistic photography? Is it an aesthetic choice or is it more about the process for you?
It’s both! I think the process is more beautiful with film (slower, more considered), and there is certainly an aesthetic element which is unmatched (in my opinion). I’ll admit I started to cheat on film in 2022 when I studied digital imaging at PSC, and I do appreciate its practicality and some of the creative freedom that comes with it. But film will always be my first love!

What is your favourite camera to shoot with, and why?
Still the Pentax K1000, as it’s so familiar and hugely sentimental. And so sturdy.

Can you share how your artistic practise has changed or evolved over time? What factors have influenced these developments?
That shift from portraiture to a focus on natural landscapes when I travel occurred because I began to reflect on the power dynamic between the subject and object. Through RMIT I participated in a study tour to Odessa in India and we discussed this at length, which lead me to realise that my previous practice (which included asking many strangers for their portraits) was somewhat exploitative. I would love to shoot documentary style portraits with a more collaborative approach in the future.

Are there any photographers, artists, or movements that have had a profound influence on your artistic style or approach?
There are LOTS of people I admire - Ai wei wei made me realise art didn’t need to just be visually appealing, but had to have a political purpose (and I’m still striving to achieve that). Also, Natalie Christensen – a photographer based in New Mexico shoots some amazing minimalist architecture and influenced me to play with light/shadow and colour. And of course, my first exposure to infrared film was Richard Mosse’s powerful series shot in the Congo (after seeing that series, I promptly got on to ebay to order my first batch of infrared film!).

What’s next for your photography practise? Do you have any projects or goals in the pipeline for the rest of 2024?
I now live in Central Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung Country and I am hoping to have an exhibition in the region this year. I did a collage workshop at Centre for Contemporary Photography and would love to explore those techniques to add further surreal elements to my images of landscapes. I also still love portraiture- locally I’m working on making beautiful images of people, their weddings, and their dogs 😊