Narelle Autio (born 1969) is an Australian photographer. She is a member of the In-Public street photography collective and is a founding member of the Oculi photographic agency. She is married to the photographer

Trent Parke Trent Parke is an Australian photographer. He is the husband of Narelle Autio, with whom he often collaborates. He has created a number of photography books; won numerous national and international awards including four World Press Photo awards ...

, with whom she often collaborates. She has won two

Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

for photojournalism, two first prize

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization holds the annual World Press Photo Contest for press photography. Since 2011, World Press Photo has orga ...

awards, and the

Oskar Barnack Award The Leica Oskar Barnack Award, presented almost continuously since 1979, recognizes photography expressing the relationship between man and the environment. It was known as the Oskar Barnack Award when presented by World Press Photo between 1979 an ...

Early life and education

Narelle Autio was born in 1969 in the

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

suburb of Henley Beach. She completed a

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

degree at the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

in 1990.

Career

Autio began her career as a photojournalist at the Adelaide ''Advertiser'' in 1991, before leaving Adelaide in 1994. She travelled extensively in the UK and USA, and working for several major UK newspapers as well as being a photographer at

News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp. The group's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television pr ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

bureau. In 1998 she returned to Australia, residing in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

this time. She was a senior staff photographer at ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'' until 2003, with her work including the

Sydney 2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

. In 1999, Autio and then-partner (later husband) and fellow-photographer

created the photographic series ''The Seventh Wave'', comprising turbulent images of people the ocean, many underwater, mainly captured in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

. The project took two years to complete, at locations including Bondi,

Freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

and

Manly Beach Manly Beach is a beach situated among the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. From north to south, the three main sections are Queenscliff, North Steyne and South Steyne. Etymology The beach was named by Captain Arthur Phillip for the i ...

es in

, and up the coast to

Bogey Hole The Bogey Hole, also known as the Commandant's Baths, is a heritage-listed Sea bathing, sea bath in Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. It is thought to be the oldest surviving European construction in the city ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie, sometimes shortened to Port Mac and commonly locally nicknamed Port, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane, on the Tasman Sea coast at the mouth of the ...

, and

Byron Bay Byron Bay ( Minjungbal: ''Cavvanbah'') is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of New South Wales, Australia (in Bundjalung Country). It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjac ...

. This was followed in 2002 by the series ''Not of this Earth''. Her solo show in 2004, ''Watercolours'', continued her exploration of Australians at leisure. She followed this in 2010 with the show ''The Summer of Us,'' a document of what is left behind on the beach, naturally and by humankind. In 2001 and 2006, Autio was selected in the '' Australian Art Collector'' magazine's "Australia's 50 Most Collectable Artists". Autio joined the In-Public

street photography Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...

collective in 2001. She is a founding member of Oculi, an independent, collective photographic agency. Her work is distributed by Agence Vu. In 2018, Autio and Parke made, along with filmmaker Matthew Bate, an eight-channel video work called ''The Summation of Force''. The work launched the 2018

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...

, and a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

version screened in the New Frontier Program at

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in the US. The work was exhibited extensively in the US, Asia, and Europe, and won the inaugural VR Award at

Imagine Film Festival The Imagine Film Festival, formerly Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, also known as Imagine Fantastic Film Festival or simply Imagine, is an annual film festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The festival was created in 1991 with a focus mainly on ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. is based in Adelaide.

Publications

Books by Autio

*''Place in Between: The Changelings''. London: Stanley/Barker, 2020. .

Books with contributions by Autio

* ''10 – 10 Years of In-Public''. London: Nick Turpin, 2010. . *''The Street Photographer's Manual.'' London:

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, 2014. . By David Gibson. Includes a chapter on Autio.

Films

*''The Summation of Force'' – eight-channel film directed by Autio, Parke, and Matthew Bate in 2017

Exhibitions

* 2002–2004: ''Dream/Life and The Seventh Wave'' (with Trent Parke). Canvas International Art Gallery, Amsterdam, 2002; FotoFreo Photographic Festival,

Western Australian Maritime Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, WA Museum Boola Bardip, is located in the Perth Cult ...

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

, 2004; Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, New York, 2004 * 2018: ''The Summation of Force'', an eight-channel video work, premiered at

Recognition and awards

*2000:

, Australia *2001: First prize, Nature stories category,

Award 2000, with

(for "Australian Roadkill" series) *2001: listed as one of the 50 most collected Australian artists by ''

Art Collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

'' magazine *2002: Walkley Awards, daily life category for "School of Dance", Australia *2002: First prize, Arts and Entertainment category, World Press Photo Award 2001 *2002:

Beach pictures: It's just another prize-winning day out there
, ''Sydney Morning Herald,'' 15 April 2002. Accessed 24 May 2014. for her series ''Coastal Dwellers'' (the only Australian thus far to win the award) *2001: again listed as one of the 50 most collected Australian artists by ''

'' magazine *2018: VR award at

, for ''The Summation of Force''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Autio, Narelle Living people Australian photojournalists 1969 births University of South Australia alumni Photographers from Adelaide Walkley Award winners Australian women photographers Women photojournalists