On the move

When photographer Patricia Niven was growing up in Brisbane, she always had dreams of being a ballet dancer.

Not that she ever studied ballet. Niven took up the fast-moving Irish dancing instead and, upon leaving university, became a photographer and moved to London, where she has been working ever since.

But her passion for ballet has again surfaced as Niven’s photographs of dancers are being featured in an unconventional exhibition which opens in London next week.

Titled Stop Moving, it is a display of the work of 13 artists, staged on a 40-tonne industrial truck in three London locations.

Niven’s fascination with ballet dancers is featured in two works on display based on Swan Lake. The dancers are posed in classic ballet poses, yet are wearing fashion by New York designer Norma Kamali.

The theme of the show is whatever people conceive about moving around, Niven says, speaking from the London home she shares with her partner, actress Sarah Winman.

I chose these pics as these dancers look like they have been moving and I have frozen them in a pose.

I loved taking these photos, and they made me wonder if I had taken ballet and danced myself, whether I would have a different approach to it.

Stop Moving is being staged by the Photodebut artists collective Niven belongs to, which promotes the work of young photographers.

Niven, who also contributes to such publications as Diva and NME, says she plans to return home to Australia in February.

I have not been to Mardi Gras for 10 years, and I miss it. I would like to see if I could do a show in the future, and connect with it again.

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Stop Moving opens Tuesday 21 November in London. Details at www.photodebut.org.