Storytelling is a powerful human endeavour. Practised since time immemorial, stories are composed as ways to understand the complex fabric of existence. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ancient creation narratives that outline cultural laws and knowledges have been passed down through oral traditions for countless generations. 

Visual storytelling allows narratives to be shared and experienced via additional and arguably more tangible means. Through a photographic lens, artists within this thematic section of 'Snap Blak' tell stories in the form of staged theatrical enactments, creating deeply personal responses to inherited histories of their ancestors and Country.  

These poetic reflections reframe accepted historical narratives to centre First Nations perspectives. Drawn from written records and oral history, events lost from collective memory are given visual form. In these images, the artists expose the violence of colonial encounters and counter historical amnesia to defy the erasure of their experiences.   

Unfolding across multi-panel photographic series, many of the works use sepia-toned washes or manipulations of colour as conceptual filters. By replicating visual signals of authority or truth associated with archival imagery, the artists position their photographs as new visions of history. 

Michael Cook’s photographs are surreal and politically potent compositions that explore the impact of British colonisation on Australia – and how it shapes personal and collective Indigenous identity. His highly stylised aesthetic, which reflects his origins in commercial photography, presents historical reimaginings that question the construction of history, knowledge and society.