Geoffrey H. Short
Geoffrey H. Short
PhotoForum Member Portfolio, June 2020
Effigies 2004 -2005
In 2004, after a long hiatus from making art, I wanted to make pictures of people without using real people. I felt that a photograph of an actual person is often dominated by the specifics of the individual's identity and appearance, I wanted something more universal. I settled on using effigies of various kinds, inspired by the cookie cutters that a friend had on display in her home. I found that the best objects were small and without too much detail. The prints were large, 1.2 by 1.5 metres, so they achieved a sculptural presence. Exhibited at Matakana Pictures, Matakana in 2005 and at Momentum Gallery, Auckland in 2008.
Geoffrey H. Short is an artist and photographer living in Auckland, New Zealand and has been the director of PhotoForum Inc. since 2012.
After studying at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in the 1980s, he worked as a documentary photographer at the Waikato Museum in Hamilton. He then worked at Real Pictures, laboratory and gallery for the camera arts in Auckland, initially as a custom printer, then as gallery manager. From 1990 he freelanced as a commercial photographer, specialising in stills photography for film and television.
In 2008 he returned to Elam to complete his degree, in 2010 graduating as Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) with first class honours. He was awarded a Senior Prize in Fine Arts by the University of Auckland, and work from his graduating exhibition was included in reGeneration2 - Tomorrow's Photographers Today, curated by the the Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, and toured internationally.
Geoffrey was nominated for the 2010 Lacoste Elysée Photography Prize, and was a finalist in the Photolucida Critical Mass 2011.