Sculpture by the Sea: Gavin Libotte’s happy hunting ground

Street photography requires the photographer to go unnoticed. So how does Gavin Libotte manage that when he uses flash?

Street photography by Gavin Libotte

Street photography is an unusual discipline, in that it requires the photographer to go unnoticed. It’s about observing without being observed: you ­immerse yourself in the scrum of humanity and try to capture those moments when the light, the built ­environment and the cast of characters fleetingly conspire in beautiful, intriguing ways. But it must be done candidly. As soon as people realise they’re in the frame “the whole ­dynamic changes”, says Gavin Libotte, who’s become rather obsessed by the genre in the past three years. Libotte likes to experiment with his street photography, and has lately been using a technique that you might think would scupper any chance of going unnoticed. He uses flash.

The 54-year-old is an artist to his core. After completing a graphic design degree in Perth he studied painting and sculpture at the Claremont School of Art, then pivoted into music and spent three years at UWA’s Conservatorium of Music studying jazz. In between his coursework, he had a gig painting murals – not the spray-can graffiti sort but copies of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, executed with a brush – in private homes and wineries. And for the past 25 years he’s made a living as a musician, playing ­guitar in gigs with his wife Niyati, a singer, and performing his own instrumental compositions; he also teaches guitar, bass and ukulele at blue-chip Sydney schools including Knox Grammar and Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School.

In recent years, he’s added street photography to his list of artistic pursuits. This shot was taken at Sculpture By the Sea; the annual public art exhibition is a happy hunting ground for Libotte. Here, he captured a tableau of interesting characters around the rusting mass of a giant industrial steel sculpture. Even in bright sunlight, he uses flash for the extra “pop” it gives to subjects. His trick for not getting ­noticed? “Never make eye contact,” he laughs. “Every time the flash goes off, I’ll look down at my camera to check the image on the screen. People might be confused by what I’m doing, or they think I’m photographing something else, but they ignore me. So they don’t even know they’re the star!”

To see more of Gavin Libotte’s photography go to
www.instagram.com/gavinlibottephotography