Goethe Scenes

Subversive Focal Lengths

Bandaged Goths, rivetless punks and colour-crazed intellectuals – current social frontier runners are not only infiltrating the mainstream, but also their own clichés. Thirty-two young photographers from Australia and Germany have brought the most diverse subcultures in front of the camera for Hijacked 2 and examined their perspectives of social power, control and subversion. They encountered not only boundary riders and fringe dwellers, but also international commonalities: trends that reveal how colourful the cultural identity of a country can be today. A joint project by the Goethe-Institut Australia, Big City Press and the Australian Centre of Photography can be seen in Sydney until 17 July and will then tour through Australia’s cities until 2011. The catalogue offers a foretaste.