Passage

A major monograph on Australia's most exciting photographer co-published with the National Gallery of Victoria

Passage: The Art of Atong Atem is the first major monograph on acclaimed South Sudanese-Australian artist Atong Atem. A vivid exploration of migration, memory and the making of identity, it traces her journey from South Sudan to Australia's east coast, revealing how family, storytelling and image-making shape her richly staged portraits.

Working across photography, video and textiles, Atem reimagines the intimacy of portraiture. Her signature framing devices - small portals hovering over her subjects' faces - invite us to look again, through a lens that is at once surreal and deeply personal. Drawing on the legacies of such African studio photographers as Malick Sidibé, Philip Kwame Apagya and Seydou Keïta, she constructs lush tableaux that probe diaspora, postcolonial identity and the meaning of home.

Lavishly illustrated and featuring new essays by leading international voices, Passage is an essential volume on one of the most compelling artists of her generation.

Co-published with the National Gallery of Victoria.

• Format: Hardback
• Pages: 256
• Imprint: Thames & Hudson Aust
• Supplier: Penguin Random House Distribution
• Subjects: Individual artists, art monographs, Individual photographers, South Sudan, Relating to migrant groups / diaspora communities or peoples, Afrofuturism, Exhibition catalogues and specific collections, Australia, Atong Atem; art monograph; south sudanese artist; australian artist; photography; photography monograph; studio photography; MARS gallery; Malick Sidibé; Seydou Keïta; Manthia Diawara; The Crystalists; 1970s Khartoum; identity; heritage; NGV; national gallery of victoria; Australian photographers; Australian artists; textile art; migrant narratives; African diaspora; portrait; portrait photography; studio portraiture; Art Gallery of New South Wales; National Portrait Gallery; Immigration Museum; Gertrude Contemporary; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; Paris Photo; Photo London; Photo Basel; Unseen Photo Fair; South Sudanese-Australian artist; Australian contemporary art; migration; memory; postcolonial identity; home; family; storytelling