One and Only

One and Only, is my way of letting contemporary Indigenous youth culture speak for itself.

Graffiti has sprung up in the heart of the Australian desert, like in all major cities around the world.  There’s a big difference though between Indigenous Australian desert graffiti and the street art of the world’s big cities. Traditionally, graffiti artists use a ‘tag’ name, hoping to divert attention away from their identity. For me, the most intriguing thing about indigenous graffiti is that taggers usually write their full name and the community they’re from.

Names-in-full and love and hate graffiti are the 21st century equivalent of traditional rock paintings. It is the most elemental form of indigenous public art in Central Australia. This really is the voice of bored and restless youth.

Jesse Marlow

Jesse Marlow is a Melbourne based photographer. His works are held in public and private collections across Australia. In 2002, he was the inaugural winner of the Australian Hasselblad X-Pan Masters competition. In 2003, he published his first book of photographs: "Centre Bounce: Football from Australia's Heart", (Hardie Grant Books). Images from "Centre Bounce" have been exhibited and published extensively, both in Australia and internationally. In 2005 he published a book of street photographs titled "Wounded", (Sling Shot Press). "Wounded" won the Mc Naughton Review 2005 Book Design category. In 2006 he was selected to participate in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam. He is a member of both the international street photographers collective in-public.com and Oculi, Australia's leading documentary photography agency.

www.jessemarlow.com