Hands
By Talhy Stotzer
Artist Bio
Talhy Stotzer is a photographer based in Boorloo, Perth Western Australia, whose interests include technology and magic, identity and place, the ethics of representation, and mixed-media storytelling.
  
 She is a lecturer at Murdoch University, and her PhD research investigated spirit-mediumship in China. It explored photography's capacity to facilitate dialogue during fieldwork, as well as some of the relationships and intersection between mediumship practices and the photographic medium.
  
 Talhy is also interested in photography’s potential to empower and ‘give voice’ to vulnerable populations through their participation. She was involved in The Hand Up project, funded by the Australian Research Council, and developed ‘Photovoice’ workshops for St Vincent de Paul WA’s children.
  
 She is the picture editor for the internationally recognised Q1 journal, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Artist Statement / Description of artwork
This series explores photography’s history as a tool for visual classification. Since its beginnings, the camera has been used as a tool for witnessing and cataloguing in various disciplines such as anthropology, medicine, geography and criminology. This typology of hands comments on the use of photography as evidence, and questions the validity and reliability of photography as an objective record-, particularly in our digital era. This work continues Talhy’s long-term exploration into photography, power and representation.