Bauhinia Bicentennial Art Gallery at Springsure

Lou Petho – On the Road

“On the Road” is a photographic travel story of two parts from the perspective of local photographer and documentary filmmaker, Lou Petho.

Part one explores the roads linking Australian towns as characters of their own; from the quirky, whimsical and overlooked, to the vastness and at time tragedy that is met on these roads. The images were taken with medium film cameras (a format killed off by digital), while Lou spent weeks on the road travelling between film jobs around all Australian bar Tasmania during 2022.

Part two covers an 8 year period (2003-2011) while working and living between France, Thailand and Australia. The images were taken with long exposures while follows motion, giving familiar landscapes and scenes an abstract fluid motion that reflects Lou’s whirlwind existence at the time. Using a digital camera allowed for instant viewing and more experimentation, without the constraint of film’s cost and processing time.

About the Artist – Lou Petho

I’m a cinematographer, documentary filmmaker, and photographer with over 30 years of experience. Starting as a cameraman with the ABC in the early 1980s, I then moved on to filming and directing documentaries from the early 1990s. To date, I’ve made over two dozen films ranging from adventure, wildlife, science, and cultural events.

First shown on the ABC and SBS, most of my work is now for European and international audiences. Much of my subjects revolve around people working with wildlife; telling the stories of people who work tirelessly to protect wildlife but get little recognition.

I trained as a photographer before moving into film and video, recently gravitating back to my ‘first love’ these past few years. Though I shoot digital photography for convenience, my focus is on using film format, utilising a range of cameras from 35mm to medium format, as well as large format.

My first solo exhibition was ‘Tel pere, tel fils’ (Like father, like son) at Alliance Francais in Sydney; it compared similar photographs that my father took of Paris in the late 1950s and 60s, with ones I took in the early 2000s. ‘One the road’ is a current project, exploring the character of Australia’s roads and experimenting with motion during international shoots.

Aside from production work, I’ve given talks and workshops on documentaries; workshops at DocFrest in Sheffield UK, as well in Uzbekistan via the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and UNESCO.

I’ve received cinematography awards from the Australian Cinematography Society (ACS) and a BANFF Rockie Award for directing “Ted’s Evolution”

Exhibition will be on display 21 January – 25 February 2023.

Opening Hours Mon – Fri 9.00 am – 5.00 pm (closed 1-2pm) / Saturday 9.00 am – 12.00 pm