Heart of the Nation: Highfields 4352

Sam Scoufos captures photographic portraits of people as they appear reflected in various liquids – water, coffee, diesel, wine – ruffled by the wind. He calls the results ‘beautiful accidents’.

“Portrait of Carly in Nescafe Blend 43”, and “Self-Portrait in Water” by Sam Scoufos

The story of how Carly and Sam ­Scoufos met is like something from a rom-com movie. He was on a train in France, heading to the D-Day beaches in Normandy, but when he reached his stop his backpack got snagged on something in the carriage and he couldn’t get off in time. As the train pulled away from the station, he made the split-second decision to jump – and landed in a heap on the platform, right at Carly’s feet.

“The conductor was yelling at me in French, and my CDs spilled everywhere,” he recalls with a laugh. Back then, Sam was a 21-year-old skater kid from California; Carly was a shy girl from country Queensland on her first trip abroad. They were both on backpacking adventures around Europe with friends. Was it fate that brought these kindred spirits together at Bayeux ­Railway Station in 2001? Perhaps. For as she helped him to gather up his CDs, they started talking, and there was a spark. And for the past quarter century they haven’t stopped talking and sparking off each other.

These days they live on a 26ha farm outside Toowoomba – a property that’s been in Carly’s family since the 1930s – and juggle the boutique farming life with parenting two young daughters and working on their artistic projects.

Carly is a sculptor who works with woven wire; her large-scale, cloud-like creations are installed in the lobby of the Queensland Government HQ in Brisbane, and in Perth Airport, among other places. And Sam is a photographer.

These two images – titled Self-Portrait in Water, and Portrait of Carly in Nescafe Blend 43 – are from an intriguing new series in which he shoots people’s reflections in a container filled with different liquids. As well as water and coffee he’s tried beer, diesel, wine and cranberry juice; they all render slightly different effects. And it’s done outside, so the wind ruffles the ­liquid’s surface, distorting the image in unusual ways. Often the results are comical or grotesque – but every now and then, something wonderful will occur. He has a name for these moments of serendipity. “I call them beautiful accidents.”

To see more of their work, go to

https://www.scoufos.com/

https://carlyscoufos.com/