SAM STEPHENSON



WADE, 2006
ELISABETH, 2019


08.01.2020- 31.01.2020






‘Wade. Elisabeth. Two eighteen year olds, thirteen years apart. 2006 – 2019. Not much in common except both inhabiting inner-city Sydney and Samoh’s lens. And how that landscape has changed. And how the times have changed. Eighteen year olds haven’t though, and neither have Samoh’s photos much. Thirteen years on and he still uses a very similar camera, and the same film. But mostly what he captures in his photos has remained consistent – that beautifully awkward moment between candid and aware. And in these photos – that beautifully awkward moment between childhood and adulthood. 2006 – 2019, a gulf of time apart, and a time now gone. Luckily Samoh was there, is here, always discreet, always polite, never staging. These photos aren’t a sign of the times, they’re Samoh’s signs. Signs of reiteration, repetition, reflection, reaffirmation – the eternal return – that moment you ask yourself – if you had to live through it all again, all the highs and all the lows, would you?’- lil P