The William John Woodhouse Rephotography Project

The William John Woodhouse Rephotography Project  (WJWRP) is the product of four years of research undertaken for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Visual Arts through Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. This project was made possible through a collaboration with The Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney, whose collection  the William John Woodhouse Photographic archive is held. The WJWRP used the process of rephotography to revisit over 145 sites originally photographed by William John Woodhouse in Greece from c.1889-1936.  The exhibition presents a series of large digital prints and seven folios of photographs taken by Rowan Conroy in mainland Greece from December  2009 – September 2010. The new photographs by Conroy and the old by Woodhouse, are displayed side by side, inviting the viewer to compare the changes and or continuity of the objects and buildings in the landscape.

Rowan Conroy (b. 1982 Coffs Harbour) is a Sydney based artist whose practice focuses on the use of photography and large format digital printing to present visions of the contemporary landscape and its detritus. Conroy’s photographs document the archaeology of the present, the collision of the deep past with the recent past. This has been explored through projects such as Puratha: the sad place  (Sydney College of the Arts, 2007; Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, 2008) which surveyed the landscape of the Burrup Peninsular and the threatened rock art of the region. Similarly Lebanon: Photography, Antiquity and Ruin (Nicholson Museum, 2006) collected visions of modern lebanon and its antique past.   Conroy’s work is in the collections of the Australia Council for the Arts, The University of Wollongong Permanent Collection, Delmar Gallery Trinity Grammar School, and numerous private collections.

See: www.rowanconroy.com