The Haunting

AUD$2,200
Size: 94w x 144h x 5d cms
View in my room

When I first met cinematographer Augusta Miller for a portrait sitting, she recalled a dream about her godfather, play-write Nick Enright.

Nick had a profound influence on her life and the more we spoke of the dream the more appropriate it was to place her in it for this portrait.

At his side on his death bed at the very young age of 52, Augusta asked her godfather to come back and haunt her….. he said he’d try.

Eventually, he appeared to her in a dream, alone on a dark stage, standing under a single spot light.

Augusta asked of him: “Is there a God?”

In The Haunting, Augusta listens for his answer.

She also holds the watch he wore every day – the only possession of his that she requested after his passing.

Uncannily, the watch stopped years later at 5.20 – the exact time of Nick’s death.

The ‘shroud-like’ quality I have chosen to encase the subject in refers to the embryonic ambience of the dream state….

her head pushes through – out of the confusion of the unconscious realm – listening intently for an answer.

Perhaps by holding something of his from the material world – his watch – there may be a chance of connecting……