Camille Perry is a queer artist whose practice explores the entanglements of photographic processes, ecological ethics, and the landscapes shaped by these intersections. Her work navigates the paradox of photography as both a tool for preserving memory and an agent of environmental exploitation, using her professional experience in a film-developing lab as a lens through which to question the cultural obsession with permanence in an impermanent world.
Perry’s research-based practice delves into the temporal and material contradictions of photographic production, engaging themes of ecological degradation, the commodification of time, and the fragility of human memory. Her fascination lies in the archive’s dual capacity to preserve and distort, weaving her encounters with analog photography into broader narratives of environmental and cultural decay.
As the founder of Collective Agitation, an interdisciplinary group bridging art and chemistry, Perry belongs to a movement of artists rethinking traditional photographic practices. The collective democratizes knowledge of sustainable image-making by experimenting with biodegradable, foraged polyphenols—including rosemary, seaweed, invasive plant species, and household substances like coffee and sodium carbonate—as alternatives to industrial developers. Through these efforts, Perry fosters community engagement while addressing the ecological implications of photographic production.
Perry’s practice collapses linear narratives of time and memory, offering a kaleidoscopic view of photography’s power to capture and distort reality. By examining the chemical and cultural residues of image-based practices, Perry positions photography as a poignant metaphor for humanity’s fraught relationship with time and the natural world, challenging us to reconcile the material consequences of remembering.
There is an art to forgetting that we just can’t quite remember anymore.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023: 'For Want Of Eternity', Conners Conners, Fitzroy Town Hall
2023: '[Re]Collection', Seventh Gallery, Richmond
EXHIBITIONS
2018: ‘Make Your Best Work Move’, Blindside, Melbourne CBD
2019: ‘Headway’, Gallery St.144, Curated by Camille Perry, St Kilda
2019: ‘Can I Please Have a Minute?’, VCA Artspace
2019: ‘We’ve Got Chemistry Baby’ Noir Darkroom, Brunswick East
2020: CCP Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy
2020: ‘Pure Nowhere; Backyard Show’, Frankston
2020: ‘Fire Relief Fundraiser and Festival’ at 79 Beauchamp St
2020: ‘Resolutions’ Gallery 17, Curated by Nixie St Clair, St Kilda
2020: ‘VCA Graduate Exhibition’, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank
2021: ‘Freighted Specs, of Bio-Dwellings’, VCA Artspace, Curated by Abbra Kotlarczyk, Southbank
2021: ‘An Ode To Time’, Assembly Point, Southbank
2021: ‘VCA Graduate Exhibition’, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank
2022: ‘Moving Visions’, LOOP Projection Space, Melbourne CBD
2022: ‘A Diachronic Wind’, MADA Gallery, Curated by Tim Riley Walsh, Caulfield East
2022: ‘The General Public’, 99% Gallery, Melbourne CBD
2022: 'After Hours’, Hillvale Gallery, Curated by Sarah Pannell, Jason Hamilton, Andy Johnson, Brunswick
2023: ‘AN/ARI Fundraiser’, AN/ARI, Balaclava
2023: ‘Fossilised Sunshine’ as part of Collective Polyphony Festival, Blindside ARI, Melbourne CBD
2023: ‘Lateral Roots and Thermochromatic Feedback’ Comma Collective Gallery, Brunswick East
WORKSHOPS
2022: ’Collective Agitation’ Alternative Film Processing Workshop, Held at Woven Projects, East Brunswick
2022: ’Collective Agitation’ Alternative Film Processing Workshop, Held at ‘Uninstructing Photography’, KASK & Conservatorium, Ghent, Belgium
2022: ’Collective Agitation’ Alternative Film Processing Workshop, Held at APAX Warehouse, Preston
2023: ’Collective Agitation’ Alternative Film Processing Workshop, Held at Blindside ARI, Melbourne CBD
EDUCATION
2017-2020: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Victorian College of the Arts
2020-2021: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), Victorian College of the Arts
LECTURES
2022: ’Collective Agitation’ Alternative Film Processing Lecture, Held at ‘Un-instructing Photography’, KASK & Conservatorium, Ghent, Belgium
2023: ‘Fossilised Sunshine; The materiality of Memory’ Lecture, Held at Melbourne University for The Masters of Architecture
2023: ‘The History of Alternative Photographic Practice’ Lecture, Held at Victorian College of the arts for the Photography Department
PUBLICATIONS
2021: ‘Freighted Specs, of Bio-Dwellings’, Zine designed and curated by Abbra Kotlarczyk, Naarm
2021: ‘Afterlives’, Journal of Art Criticism, Barnard College, Alex Foo and India Halsted, New York
2022: ‘Temperature’, Journal of Art Criticism, Barnard College, Edited by Alex Foo and India Halsted, New York
2023: ‘On Contemporary Photography; The Analog Resurgence In A Digital World’ Demure Magazine, Edited by Eliza Byrne, Melbourne
REVIEWS
2020: Mass MeMo, Photography, Victorian College of the Arts, Claire Osborn Li
2021: Mass MeMo, Honours, Victorian College of the Arts, Eliza Baker.
AWARDS
2017: Peoples Choice Award, CCP Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy
2020: Roger Davies Social Justice Award, Victorian College of the Arts awarded by The University of Melbourne, Southbank
2020: Best Analogue Print Showing Technical Skill, CCP Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy
2022: NGVWA Award, Victorian College of the Arts awarded by The NGVWA