As a nation abundant in mineral resources and spectacular landscapes, Australia has earned a reputation as a ‘lucky country’. Playing with the notion of luck, Chris Hoare’s The Worst Poem in the Universe is an open-ended enquiry into the meaning of luck – both good and bad. The result is a series of meditative images and street portraits, which prompt more questions than answers.
Chris, tell us about this series and how it began…
The Worst Poem in the Universe started in 2014 when I heard a podcast about Aboriginal Hip-Hop, I became fascinated with the topic and its potential to be a story that could be told through pictures. Soon after I became obsessed with all things Australia. In 2015, I made a trip there for one month and attempted to tell a photojournalistic story about the Aboriginal Hip-Hop scene.
I made a trip there for one month and attempted to tell a photojournalistic story about the Aboriginal Hip-Hop scene.
Whilst there, I was photographing Australia more generally, mostly questioning my own outsider perspective on the country. I came across a book on Australia by Donald Horne called The Lucky Country and this led me to start questioning whether the country was indeed a ‘lucky country’ and I took the notion of ‘luck’ as a starting point on the street.
What’s the meaning behind the title?
A name that kept coming up when researching Australia and its wealth/luck, was Gina Rinehart, who is by far the wealthiest person in the Australia and probably the single biggest benefactor of mining exports in the country. I became fascinated in her story – especially the way the word ‘luck’ could be applied to her particular situation.
She inherited her father’s company and the vast wealth and influence that came with it. Her father had become rich by discovering vast iron deposits in Western Australia by sheer chance whilst flying over the Pilbara region. He was forced to fly low and in the process discovered the deposits where Gina’s company still mines today.
Through reading the many awful and contradictory things she had said over the years, I discovered she had written a poem called ‘Our Future’. A journalist had described this poem as “the worst poem in the universe” and I would probably have to agree.
A journalist had described this poem as “the worst poem in the universe” and I would probably have to agree.
What really interested me though, was how her thoughts on the country were so at odds with reality, the reality I was seeing and documenting, and as one of the luckiest Australian’s around (financially speaking) she fitted in nicely to the story I was telling.
Who are the people in your images – are they mostly strangers or people you know personally?
Almost everyone in the work I met at the time of photographing them, some encounters briefer than others. They are people who I am drawn to for one reason or another, often finding them deeply fascinating. Luck would always be in my consciousness when making work, but not always at the front of my mind when approaching someone.
Luck would always be in my consciousness when making work, but not always at the front of my mind when approaching someone.
Often it would reveal itself after a conversation with them, for example, when photographing Candy outside Cash Converters on the Gold Coast, it was only after talking to her that I found out she was spending money she had won on slot machines. But I was drawn to her through the energy she exerted and a gaze across a car park.
Throughout the the years that I spent making the work, I consciously altered the way I wanted to make images and made a gradual decision to listen to my feelings more when making images, or conceiving of ideas. At the beginning I had an urge to make a reportage story and I guess this changed, as my taste in photography changed.
I consciously altered the way I wanted to make images and made a gradual decision to listen to my feelings more when making images, or conceiving of ideas.
I became much more interested in making more speculative work, which is more open-ended and allows me to express myself more. To me, it feels much more appropriate to work in this way when dealing with a set ideas which are based on notions, particularly one as open-ended as ‘luck’.
This work speculates and plays with that notion, rather than attempting to tell a specific story. My goal with it is to pose a set of questions as opposed to giving answers; I want the viewer to question whether Australia is or isn’t ‘lucky’, but just as much contemplate what ‘luck’ even is anyway.
If it feels like it’s documentary, it’s because I still believe in the principles of the genre and I’m not interested in orchestrating situations behind how I find them (too much).
Can you choose one image from this series and tell us the story behind it?
Sure, I’m going to talk about the photograph I have of an Indigenous man holding a pack of $50 notes. I don’t always include it my edits, however the story behind it is quite telling of a narrative in Australia.
The photograph was made in Alice Springs, which is the closest town to Uluru – the scared rock of the Aṉangu people. I made the photograph after crossing a dry creek towards the town’s casino. I spotted a man tucking a wad of cash in to his sock.
Naturally intrigued to know more, I approached the guy, who told me he had just won it at the casino, to which he explained he’d just escaped from an alcohol rehabilitation centre the other side of the creek. This was two weeks before Christmas, and he said it came at a perfect time. My regret is that I didn’t take portrait of the man, or an image of him walking away. It was a pretty crazy situation in many ways.
Lastly, you say you started out questioning the idea of whether Australia is a ‘lucky country’. After completing this project, what’s your response to this statement? Do you believe it’s a lucky country, or has your perspective changed?
As a nation it has much to be thankful for, such as its position as the second wealthiest median country in the world and a nation which holds 19% of the world’s total known mineral resources. It is of course also a beautiful country, due to its sheer size, variety of habitats and its distinctly unique fauna.
…a nation which holds 19% of the world’s total known mineral resources.
But I feel much the same as I did at the beginning of the project, which is that however ‘lucky’ Australia is in this regard, like anywhere else, ‘luck’ (which is of course a manmade unquantifiable notion) isn’t afforded to everyone anyway, so it’s like anywhere else in that sense – rich get richer, the poor stay poor.
Although, one area where the country still does hold true to its reputation as ‘lucky’, would be that the country still has a sense of being a ‘land of opportunity’ for people arriving, due to it being a country which needs workers from overseas. I say this because I worked all sorts of jobs whilst there and have met many people who have emigrated there and carved out a more than decent living (surprisingly fast) – which I don’t think you can do in quite the same way in the UK, for the most part.
Even with all this said, it’s important to remember the history of Australia and its Indigenous populations’ relationship with the country that was taken away from them. Many parts of Australia are still dealing with this dispossession now, so I could never say that the country was a ‘lucky country’, because that would be to ignore its dark history.
