DREAMS WITH OPEN EYES

A collection of photographs inspired by a trip to the Middle East and the writings of T. E. Lawrence

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Despite initially training in Film and Television, Max Pollard (b.1991) moves comfortably between photography and narrative film direction. Based in Melbourne he honed his eye by studying a Bachelor Film and Television at Swinburne University of Technology and then working under senior director’s as a Director’s Assistant at Exit Films. His work draws heavily from cinematic
language and the way frames are used to tell human stories and create a sense of mystery which draws the viewer closer.

 

This exhibition was produced while travelling with family in Oman and a solo journey to the vast red deserts and rocky formations of Wadi Rum, Jordan in 2018, a landscape used historically as backgrounds in a number of films.  Pollard was drawn to Wadi Rum after seeing a restored film print of David Lean’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962), the British epic historical drama film based on the
life of T. E. Lawrence from where Pollard would later find inspiration for the title of this exhibition;

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses
of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the
day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it
possible. - T.E Lawrence

All photographs are analogue 6 x 7 medium format film stills evocative of the grainy textural and visual language of cinema.