Narelle
Autio

Narelle
Autio

biography


Narelle Autio was born in 1969 and lives in Adelaide. She holds a degree in visual art from the University of South Australia. Now based in Sydney, Narelle is a photographer at the Sydney Morning Herald, after working at the Adelaide Adviser. She was the main photographer of the News Limited London office, and worked as a freelancer in the United States. Even today, his photos are sometimes published in American and Australian magazines.

In her personal photographic research, Narelle Autio likes to study the human body when it is in relation to water, carried by it, deformed, surrounded by a cloud of air bubbles that make it a surreal figure, at the limit of abstraction.

In 2001, Narelle temporarily moved away from her work on the water to do two series, one on the Melbourne School of Dance, and Not of this Earth, which brings together strollers’ views taken from the Sydney Bridge. In 2009, in the continuity of her photographs of beaches and the ocean, Narelle produced The summer of us, a series in which she focused her attention on the waste or natural elements that litter the sand, documenting each of her finds with the same attention to detail.

Her new work, Water Hole 2012, celebrates the supernatural beauty of the dark waters she encountered while travelling in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Mainly exhibited in Australia and the United States, she also presents her works in Europe. In 2000, her work was awarded the Walkley Photojournalism Award and in 2001, she won first prize at the World Press Photo Awards in the Nature and Environment category. In 2002 she received the Leica Oskar Barnack Award for her series Coastal Dwellers, as well as the World Press Photo First Prize for her work on the Melbourne Dance School. In 2001, L’Art Collector Magazine selected her as one of the 50 most collected Australian artists.

Series


Water Hole, 2013

I have always been fascinated by this combined experience of exhilaration and fear. I feel it when swimming in the ocean or even in the relative safety of a backyard pool.

To the Sea, 2013

These photographs have been collected over years and years of travel across the country, along dusty roads to nowhere in particular but on roads that always lead back to the sea.

Le burkini en Australie, 2011

Ahiida Zanetti lives in Sidney. When she saw her niece wearing her Islamic veil and doing sports, she had the idea of designing the burqini.

The Summer of us, 2009

For her new body of work, The Summer of Us, Autio has returned to the ocean, but this time to the shore, to the natural and man-made remnants of the long summer days...

Watercolours, 2008

Autio's vibrant images of Australians at leisure have won her impressive national and international acclaim. In 2006 her works shown with Stills Gallery, Sydney, pushed the expressive capabilities of photography.

The place in between, 2008

I love to photograph in the sea, it is my second home but I have always feared the ocean as well, or rather, what lies beneath.

The Seventh Wave, 2004

The work of these talented and award winning photographers has the air of both document and dream.

School of dance Melbourne, 2001

All around Australia, parents give up their weekends and spend copious amounts of money every year enabling their children to participate in the sport and activity of their choice.

Not of this Earth Australia, 2001

Not of this Earth by Narelle Autio features photographs looking directly down onto the parklands below Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge.

Water Hole, 2013

I have always been fascinated by this combined experience of exhilaration and fear. I feel it when swimming in the ocean or even in the relative safety of a backyard pool.

To the Sea, 2013

These photographs have been collected over years and years of travel across the country, along dusty roads to nowhere in particular but on roads that always lead back to the sea.

Le burkini en Australie, 2011

Ahiida Zanetti lives in Sidney. When she saw her niece wearing her Islamic veil and doing sports, she had the idea of designing the burqini.

The Summer of us, 2009

For her new body of work, The Summer of Us, Autio has returned to the ocean, but this time to the shore, to the natural and man-made remnants of the long summer days...

Watercolours, 2008

Autio's vibrant images of Australians at leisure have won her impressive national and international acclaim. In 2006 her works shown with Stills Gallery, Sydney, pushed the expressive capabilities of photography.

The place in between, 2008

I love to photograph in the sea, it is my second home but I have always feared the ocean as well, or rather, what lies beneath.

The Seventh Wave, 2004

The work of these talented and award winning photographers has the air of both document and dream.

School of dance Melbourne, 2001

All around Australia, parents give up their weekends and spend copious amounts of money every year enabling their children to participate in the sport and activity of their choice.

Not of this Earth Australia, 2001

Not of this Earth by Narelle Autio features photographs looking directly down onto the parklands below Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge.

Water Hole, 2013

I have always been fascinated by this combined experience of exhilaration and fear. I feel it when swimming in the ocean or even in the relative safety of a backyard pool.

To the Sea, 2013

These photographs have been collected over years and years of travel across the country, along dusty roads to nowhere in particular but on roads that always lead back to the sea.

Le burkini en Australie, 2011

Ahiida Zanetti lives in Sidney. When she saw her niece wearing her Islamic veil and doing sports, she had the idea of designing the burqini.

The Summer of us, 2009

For her new body of work, The Summer of Us, Autio has returned to the ocean, but this time to the shore, to the natural and man-made remnants of the long summer days...

Watercolours, 2008

Autio's vibrant images of Australians at leisure have won her impressive national and international acclaim. In 2006 her works shown with Stills Gallery, Sydney, pushed the expressive capabilities of photography.

The place in between, 2008

I love to photograph in the sea, it is my second home but I have always feared the ocean as well, or rather, what lies beneath.

The Seventh Wave, 2004

The work of these talented and award winning photographers has the air of both document and dream.

School of dance Melbourne, 2001

All around Australia, parents give up their weekends and spend copious amounts of money every year enabling their children to participate in the sport and activity of their choice.

Not of this Earth Australia, 2001

Not of this Earth by Narelle Autio features photographs looking directly down onto the parklands below Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge.

Interviews


Narelle Autio
Ian Potter Museum of Art

2014

Narelle Autio presents her photographic work on water on the occasion of the Basil Sellers Prize.

AWARDS


First prize, Arts Singles World Press Photo Award

For her project: Young Ballerinas

2002

Walkley Award- (for series of photographs)

For her project: Young Ballerinas

2002

Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Europe

For her project: “Coastal Dwellers”

2002

Second prize, Pictorial, American Pictures of the Year Award

For her project: ‘ Colour Beach’

2002

First prize Nature & the Environment Stories,

World Press Photo Award – “Roadkill Australia”.

2001

Walkley Award (for Series of Feature Photographs)

For her project: ‘The Seventh Wave’

2001

Runner-up, Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Europe

For her project: ‘The Seventh Wave’

2001

Second prize of Best Photographic Book,
American Pictures of the Year Awards

For her project: ‘The Seventh Wave’

2001