Roz ‘Spiri’ Laurie

Like most of us, Roz’s earliest photographic awareness came from her family – her father’s 16mm home movies with reams of brilliant colour footage from his frequent exotic trips overseas, and her Grandfather’s hand-tinted photographs of the Australian tropics. This Grandfather was W. J. B. Laurie, a well-known photographer who established a studio in Townsville, Far North Queensland, where in the first decades of last century he photographed the development of the new town, the local people, and early tourists to the Great Barrier Reef, along with scenic shots. Being photographed and taking photographs was a regular family past-time, with cine film coming later. Roz first seriously started taking photographs on her first long overland trip from Australia to Britain via South East Asia in the late seventies; obtained a B-Tech Diploma in Photography from Paddington Green College some years later; continued her broad photographic interests on numerous travels from her London base.

Jabiru Dancers was exhibited in 1991 at Queensland House, Strand, London. The exhibition was very well received, mostly by antipodeans, since few British had been to Australia or knew or cared much about our Indigenous culture.

Jabiru Dancers was her first exhibition and reflected an increasing pre-occupation with music and dance. I hoped the available light, close-up zooms and movement would convey a strong dramatic feeling of being right there and experiencing the heightened theatrical tensions. I wanted to achieve a narrative in a single image – the before, now and after – with very slow shutter speeds and very fast film. It was experiential and experimental – warts and all.

Other Exhibitions
Jazz Café, Camden Town, London, UK
Group exhibition of jazz musicians with two other jazz photographers

Brighton UK
Local London musicians

Sydney
Gallery East
Maori Men of the Cook Islands was the inaugural exhibition of ARTHERE.

Currently
Digitalizing major projects while playing around with a Coolpix doing abstracts, colour shifts, landscapes, usually with some movement.

To purchase Roz ‘Spiri’ Laurie’s work contact her here.