Unveiling Fierceness: Suzanne Phoenix’s Powerful Portraits Challenge Perceptions of Womanhood
For over a decade, Yarra Valley-based photographer Suzanne Phoenix has been challenging conventional portrayals of women. Instead of the mandated smiles and pleasant demeanours often expected, Phoenix invites her subjects to embrace their fierceness, capturing raw and honest black-and-white portraits that delve into their true essence. Her distinctive approach, which sometimes begins with the unconventional instruction, “Just look at me for a moment like you don’t like me,” has become a hallmark of her artistic practice.
This month, the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre is hosting Phoenix’s annual International Women’s Day exhibition, showcasing 23 of her striking images. The collection features a diverse array of women, including Janet English of Spiderbait, singer-songwriter Candice Lorrae, Kate Dillon from Full Flower Moon Band, and Evie and Gigi of Public Figures. These monochrome portraits, stripped of distracting colours, place an intense focus on the eyes, which Phoenix believes are the windows to a person’s soul.
This marks the 15th year of Phoenix’s ongoing International Women’s Day series, a project that has now amassed 200 images. The series proudly includes cis and trans women, as well as gender-diverse individuals, reflecting a broad spectrum of experiences. Over the years, the exhibition has featured notable figures such as Casey Donovan, Kerri Simpson, and Georgia Knight, cementing its reputation as a significant platform for celebrating and documenting women’s stories.
The dynamic of a photoshoot with Phoenix varies. Some subjects are eager to get the session over with, while others find comfort and connection, engaging in conversation on the couch. However, Phoenix’s artistic vision extends beyond mere comfort in front of the lens. She actively seeks to capture a facet of her subjects that might not be readily apparent in their everyday lives.
“I don’t want to see the same person I can see everywhere else,” Phoenix explains. She often guides her subjects to contemplate their presence within the context of the project. By framing the photographs as historical documents, intended to be viewed 50 or 100 years from now, she encourages them to consider their thoughts and feelings about International Women’s Day. This reflective process, she notes, often shifts their energy and influences what they choose to express through their portrayal.
Phoenix’s passion for photography is intrinsically linked to her lifelong love for music. This synergy is evident in her consistent involvement with the annual Community Cup fundraiser, a charity event pitting the Triple R Rockdogs against 3PBS’s Megahertz. She has dedicated nearly two decades to documenting this vibrant occasion, capturing its energy and spirit.
Her early experiences with photography, particularly those of her grandmother, instilled in her a profound appreciation for the act of documentation. “My nana, she was a terrible photographer, but I actually adore her photos,” Phoenix recalls. “You couldn’t create those photos if you tried. It wasn’t just about the outcome; it was about the act of documenting people and place, and that drives my work. I had no idea back then, obviously, but I look at it now and I’m like, ‘Oh, I see now.’ That documentation is really important to me.”
The significance of her work has been formally recognised. Last year, State Library Victoria acquired her entire collection of 177 portrait prints. Additional prints are held in prestigious institutions such as the National Library of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Australian Queer Archives. Crucially, each individual photographed also contributes a personal statement reflecting their perspective on International Women’s Day, adding a layer of personal narrative to the visual record.
Phoenix finds a powerful permanence in this archival recognition, appreciating the ability to hear directly from the artist. “It resists simplification and preserves complexity,” she states, highlighting the depth and nuance her project aims to convey.
This ambitious endeavour is a true labour of love, entirely self-funded by Phoenix. The sustainability of the project, however, presents a challenge. After her first year as a full-time artist, she has acknowledged its financial unsustainability and is now seeking employment. “I never planned to be an artist; I was a maths science kid,” she admits with a laugh, revealing a path less travelled.
While Phoenix acknowledges the fundamental importance of International Women’s Day, she expresses reservations about its contemporary celebration. She views the current approach as overly corporatised and diluted in Australia. “What it should represent is extremely important but in Australia, it has become very corporatised, and it’s diluted. In a lot of workplaces, it’s soggy croissant breakfasts and high-priced dinners with people speaking,” she observes.
She believes these superficial gestures often fail to effect meaningful change for the average woman or genuinely advance equality and advocate for women’s rights. Phoenix notes that many individuals approached for her project harbour jaded or even negative feelings towards International Women’s Day, often exhibiting a real resistance to it.
“Some of those women still say yes to being part of [the exhibition], and so I think the series helps change that dynamic with them, and gives a place to express people’s individual experience based on gender, so hopefully it’s a bit more of a subversive offering around IWD.”
The imperative to photograph women, and indeed all gender-diverse individuals, is central to Phoenix’s artistic identity. “I can’t imagine doing my work without women being a huge part of it,” she asserts. Her driving motivation is to create authentic and positive portrayals that increase visibility and representation for women, trans women, and gender-diverse people.
The International Women’s Day exhibition by Suzanne Phoenix runs at the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre until April 15. Further information can be found at suzannephoenix.com/iwd.
