Rowan Conroy’s practice is informed by an interdisciplinary experience that combines field archaeology with the multifaceted nature of photography. Perceiving the enigmatic past in the context of the present – through measuring, surveying, comparing and contrasting – is as intrinsic to photography as it is to an archaeological sensibility. Photography of sites operates as a memory aid, a historical resource, and as a poetic reflection that plays with perspective and collective cultural memory. Ultimately, photography in this combination has the potential to alter our relationship to reality like no other medium in history.

 With several bodies of work from sites across Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, and Lake George in NSW, Australia, ‘Sightseeing’ highlights the dense and discordant histories that can inhabit an image through visual evidence of material culture and human intervention in the land.

 Rowan Conroy is Senior lecturer in Photomedia at the Australian National University’s School of Art and Design and lead researcher at the School’s Inkjet Research Facility. Conroy was awarded the 2018 Create NSW Regional Arts Fellowship, and is the official artist in residence at the University of Sydney’s Paphos Theatre Excavations in Cyprus 2018 - 2019.