All you need to know you knew early

Darren Sylvester was born in Sydney and currently lives in Melbourne. He studied photography and graphic design at Charles Sturt University (Riverina) and is currently working on a Master of Fine Arts at Monash University.

Sylvester has exhibited his work extensively throughout Australia since the mid 1990s. He has also exhibited internationally and was included in ‘Supernatural Artificial’ which toured Asia 2004/05. Collections include the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Charles Sturt University and the Sir Elton John Collection amongst others. His work is also held in private collections in Australia, Switzerland, Singapore and Japan.

‘All you need to know you knew early’ is taken from the point of view of a child standing to the left of what might be the chief protagonist. However we can only see their shoulder and some strands of hair. The journalist is the one person to be seen almost full face as the cameraman beside her is obscured. Who is thinking or saying the words of the title? Does the title even have any relevance to this image? As Edward Colless has pointed out, ‘The photographic image isn’t an illustration of the story, nor even of the title. Instead the photograph is a type of performance or mimicry of emotion induced by a minimal yet emotive script.’ ['Artcollector' #36, April - June 2006 p 102]