Doubletake I

Catherine & Jennifer Strutt (2009)

Alisha & Natasha Pearce (2009)

Alyssa & Amber Stewart (2009)

Anna & Georgia Shackleton (2009)

Caitlin & Jessica Schiavone (2009)

Jasmine & Daniella Reeve (2009)

Kate & Jess Blurnbull (2009)

Natalia & Georgia Hristidis (2009)

Doubletake (three portraits from the on going series) by Suellen Symons

When I was ten years old my parents took me to see an exhibition of Diane Arbus photographs touring Australia at the Australian National University in Canberra, where we lived. Naturally this work had a profound impact on me at such a young age. Arbus had an ability to be in close communication with people in all circumstances. Her subject matter shows her interest in a huge cross-section of humanity itself, including twins.

It was growing up with twins as siblings in my family that probably influenced me as much as I was aware of their close bond. Then, in my twenties, I realised that many of my friends were twins, that is two people who shared a close communication bond, just as I had witnessed in my family.

So began a series of photographed images of twins that I started in 1984, the final year of my Post Graduate studies at the College of Fine Arts UNSW. For two years ideas were questioned and discussed with our lecturer John Delacour, and I just started to document the twins I knew. Each of the twins in this exhibition have been photographed using analogue and digital cameras: I photographed my entire series of twins in medium format film from 1984 up until 2006 using my Mamiya RB 6X7 camera. For the last ten years I have been primarily using digital DSLR cameras.

In 2010. I won the Publishing Prize from the AGNSW for the prototype of my book Doubletake, begun in 2009 while completing a Masters Degree at Sydney College of the Arts. Since that time a four year TAFE course (Diploma of Digital imaging Photography, 2010-2014) has given me the confidence to self-publish. Other opportunities have helped me in this endeavour and this exhibition is the penultimate showcase prior to publication.

Twins photographed for this exhibition are Elisabeth Burke and Catherine De Lorenzo; Catherine and Jennifer Strutt (the Strutt sisters); and Alexandria and Isabella Voce.

Elisabeth Burke and Catherine De Lorenzo
I met Elisabeth and Catherine through a friend I was studying with in 1982.

Altogether I remember four times we met to photograph. I had two sessions with them in 1984 one at their mother’s home in Mosman and one at the studio space where I lived in the old “Art Unit” on Henderson Road Alexandria. A third one in 2007 at Sydney College of the Arts’ garden and finally in 2012 at TAFE Ultimo’s flash lighting studio where I had designed the lighting for the shoot. When I met her, Elisabeth, a corporeal-theatre artist, had been touring throughout Europe with the troupe she co-founded Entr'Acte Theatre. Catherine was already an academic and a lecturer in the architecture faculty at UNSW. Catherine has written extensively on art history including an illuminating piece on my series “Her stories: the Wentworth Women”, a re-enactment of how I imagined the Wentworth Women (William Charles Wentworth’s wife and daughters) lived which I directed & photographed at Vaucluse House and later exhibited there in 1995. So I have been aware of their extraordinary talents for a long time. Also what is very moving to me is the trust in the collaboration with Elisabeth and Catherine as they have posed for me nude in 1984 and partly nude in 2009. It felt very natural and unforced as though we were always friends.

Alex and Bella Voce
I photographed Alexandria and Isabella in 2005 and in 2011 in Canberra. So I watched Alex & Bella grow up into young women, suddenly before my eyes. In their words:

“We both completed our undergraduate degree in Psychology and went on to do an honours year. In terms of what we are doing now:Alex – currently doing her PhD in psychology at ANU. She is looking at the link between casual methamphetamine (ice) use and psychosis.Bella–currently working as a researcher at the Australian National Institute of Criminology. Next year I’m hoping to do a PhD in psychology at ANU as well, with a focus on forensic (crime-based) psychology.I think we are both really happy with our educational careers/professions right now. We both live separately with our partners now, but still are very close.

About the inherited background apart from Australian:Mum’s side of the family is Greek and Turkish. I honestly really don’t know about Dad’s side – his parents were Australian – but I think their parents may have a bit of English or German. I wouldn’t quote me on that though….”Bella(2016)

Catherine and Jennifer Strutt
I first photographed Jennifer and Catherine in 2006 in their studio in Newcastle Community Arts Centre, 2010 in Damien Minton Gallery, 2013 in NG Gallery Queen St Chippendale and in 2016 Kensington Contemporary Gallery. Kensington St Chippendale I met them through another friend who is a twin. The photograph here was taken outside the exhibition the sisters held at Kensington Contemporary Gallery Chippendale about a month ago. It had begun to rain and we were outside in the laneway. I managed to take this with a flash on the camera before the camera & I were inundated with rain.

The following is an extract from the book I am publishing “Doubletake” later this year:

“Catherine and Jennifer have been the subject of research with ABC TV because they both have synaesthesia, a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another (like sound inducing the visualisation of a certain colour). The research focussed on the results of brain exercises to determine if the girls’ responses were the same because they were twins. Australia leads the way with synaesthesia research, thought to affect some 10,000 people here. Jennifer and Catherine told the ABC that hearing music makes them see colours. “All wind instruments seem to be a light blue with a fluffy kind of look to them”, Jennifer says. She added that a double bass is a dark blue to red colour while to Catherine it is dark green grading to purple. Jennifer added that all major keys are bright and all minor keys are dark.

The ABC program explained that the easiest facet to investigate scientifically was the link between letters and colours. The twins were assessed to find out the exact shade each has for the various letters of the alphabet. Although Catherine and Jennifer are twins, many of their colours are different. A surprisingly large number of synaesthetes are artists, just like Jennifer and Catherine, and one theory for why this is the case is that synaesthetes have extra brain regions devoted to colour imagery.”

Catherine Strutt.

Suellen Symons 2016 extract from “Doubletake” a book I have been writing since 2009 which will be published later this year.