Pia Anderson photographed with items similar to those stolen by her convict ancestor William Roberts. Photograph (c) Mine Konakci
Mine Konakci, the photographer behind ‘A convict in the family?‘, will visit the Port Arthur Historic Site next week, and has agreed to give a public talk about her work and the show.
Now in its final weeks, the exhibition has been seen by thousands of visitors at Port Arthur and the Cascades Female Factory over the past couple of months.
Mine Konakci is an Australian with Turkish heritage. She holds a Masters in Documentary Photography, from the Sydney College of Arts, The University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Graphic Design from the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Istanbul, Turkey.
Her fascination with Australia’s convict past started when she was commissioned by a heritage publication in 2008 to photograph Anna, a high school student with convict ancestry. When she embarked on her Master’s degree in documentary photography, documenting direct descendants of convict settlers became the obvious choice for her major project.
Her exhibition reveals through rich, large-scale photographs the connections between convict settlers, their direct descendants and the petty crimes that changed the course of their families’ histories. Drawn from a diverse cross-section of the community, sitters have been photographed alongside a representation of the item, or items, stolen by their ancestors. Thirty-one of 40 images have been presented at Port Arthur, with the remaining nine on display at the Cascades Female Factory.
In the talk, Mine will discuss her background and the history behind this project including how she found her subjects. Mine lives and works in Sydney and A convict in the family? is her first solo exhibition. The show is a travelling photographic exhibition from Sydney Living Museums.
The talk will occur on Thursday 18 February, 2016 at 5.30 pm in the Asylum at the Port Arthur Historic Site. The talk is free, but anyone planning to attend is asked to RSVP by calling 03 6251 2324.
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Andrew Ross
