
Like Father, Like Son (Sort of) at Noosa Regional Gallery
Michael Brennan explores the creative and genetic links and contrasts of local father and son photographic artists, Rob and Andrew Maccoll.
I was talking with Andrew Maccoll a while back about his photographic work, as well as that of his dad’s, when I was reminded of an exhibition that I curated perhaps 12 years ago or more. Titled Apple From The Tree, the show staged works by contemporary artists alongside those of their children – typically of school age and younger. The idea was to take a playful look at the way creativity might be passed from one generation to the next – the apple not falling far from the tree, as the saying goes.
Andrew is an award-winning photographer and film maker based in Peregian Beach. His design studio boasts an impressive roster of A-list clients, while his fashion shoots are fit to grace the pages of magazines and his celebrity portraits have found their way into the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, among others. His dad, Rob Maccoll, on the other hand, is a Walkley Award-winning photojournalist, having documented conflict zones and sites of disasters around the world for decades, including East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq, the aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami and the Bali Bombings, to name a few.
The idea occurred to me that it could be interesting to take a more in-depth look at the way an artform might pass through a family tree, the creative impulse taking root in a child’s make up, and the different fruit it might bear (I think I’ve exhausted my apple tree puns all in that one sentence). I proposed the idea to Andrew and both he and Rob were on board. I hadn’t anticipated, however, the kind of space a contrast in subject matter might reveal.
Both Andrew and Rob’s photos are visually arresting – although typically in quite different ways. Andrew’s works elevate beauty and glamour. A great deal of effort is exerted in order to portray a subject’s near perfection. For Rob, by contrast, the subjects are often just trying to survive. There’s nothing in Andrew’s photos that doesn’t need to be there; for Rob, it’s often the noise of the scene that gives gravity to the work. Rob’s work enables an empathetic connection to people from settings we’ll likely never experience. The exclusivity in Andrew’s work, however, is in the people, not the place.
The contrast is uncomfortable – especially when you pair works by the two photographers that echo colour, composition and even occasionally, subject matter – but in jarringly different ways. At first, I was concerned that the significance of Rob’s work in documenting some of the planet’s most difficult and tragic events might position Andrew’s work as vacuous by contrast. But the reality is that both of these acclaimed photographers are documenting a world of our making. We lament one extreme while we celebrate – and maybe even aspire to – the other. But the discomfort that comes from pairing these works is a result of them being a reflection of us. We’re asked to reckon with our place in between – our pining for, or implication in, and a taking stock of what really should matter.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Dual Vision: Rob & Andrew Maccoll
One Thread Many Loops: Mieke Van Den Berg
Until 9 February 2025. Free entry.
Noosa Regional Gallery, 9 Pelican St, Tewantin