2. Vee Speers was born in Newcastle, Australia in 1962. She is an Australian
photographer living in Paris. She studied photography and fine art at Queensland
College of Art in Brisbane, after which she worked for 5 years as a stills
photographer for the company ABC Television and Radio. After a short stay in
France in 1990, she then decided to make a permanent move to Paris, which
she described as having 'unlimite d po te ntial and e ndle ss cre ative inspiratio n' .
In 2002, she decided to visit the 1920's world of Les Maisons closes in Paris and
used the backdrop of actual luxurious locations (these are still intact today).
During this time, Speers began photographing eccentric people she met on her
travels, in order to show her admiration and ambition to photograph those who
'dare to be diffe re nt' . However, it wasn't until she looked towards her own family
and childhood for photographic inspiration that she became truly known in the
world of art for the series 'The BirthdayP ', however, she also has many other
arty
series of portraits, all equally unusual, such as 'Thirteen', 'Bordello' and
'Im ortal'. In her photos, Speers likes to explore hidden realities, and says 'my
m
pho to g raphs are linke d to the human co nditio n, the co mple xity o f who we re ally are
be ne ath the surface '.
3. The BirthdayP artyis Vee Speers' first series of photographs and it was they that
truly established her place in the art world. It is a series of portraits, all of
hauntingly beautiful children. They are all very simple, and through their simplicity
creates visual intensity, reminding us that the violence and conflict of the modern
world is the reality of life underneath the costume fantasies children often appear to
live in. The photo's seem to demand an emotional reaction from the viewer as you
look at them, as the children quietly seeming to stare straight through you in a
ghostly manner, telling you of the underlying traumas in their lives. The key to
these portraits is Vee Speers' gift to be able to blur the line between fantasy and
reality, bizarre and beautiful, leaving a sense of unease with the viewer as they look
at these photographs. Some people see these unusual portraits as portraits not of
children, but of different aspects of childhood that are generally unacknowledged.
The photos were inspired after Speers watched her children playing dress up and
shot against the same grey wall on the rooftop of her Paris apartment over the
course of two summers. Speers said 'Ialways sho t the m ag ainst the same o ld g re y
wall in o rde r to ke e p all the pho to s visually and co nce ptually co nsiste nt. A r that
fte
e ach o ne te lls a diffe re nt sto ry; diffe re nt e mo tio n and pe rso nality - de pe nding o n
the child o r the co stume , o r the attitude '.
