Associate Professor Nikki Sullivan, Critical and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University, will officially open the exhibition. Nikki and partner, Kelly, and their grandson, Levi, 11, feature among 16 black-and-white photographs celebrating the lives of eight different families.
An Australian with a Peruvian mother, Isabella Moore’s interests lie in documenting diverse and unique cultures. She makes strong ties with her subjects, taking care to establish and maintain trust and rapport. Rainbow Parents emphasises the quality of parenting a couple can give.
“These photographs are an insight into the lives of loving parents and their beautiful families,” Miss Moore said. “I respected and admired them for wanting to have families with their loved ones, and caring for their children so much. It was inspiring to see such loving parents,” she said, “and the lengths they go to in order to have their families.”
That same-sex parents do not receive the acknowledgement and support they deserve is cause for lament and a spur to action. “I want to put out the message that marriage evolves the way our culture evolves,” Miss Moore said. “If it didn’t, marriage would still make the woman the property of the man and interracial marriage would still be forbidden.”
Rainbow Parents is open to the public from August 1-30. It will also show at Customs House in Circular Quay early next year.
Isabella Moore’s distinctive work is attracting attention, widely praised for its warmth and boldness. A photograph entitled “Bib’s Hotel” (2010) sparked controversy for its nudity content and triggered debate over censorship in art. The story featured on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald.
In 2011, she worked under a cadetship contract for the local newspapers of News Ltd, reporting on social issues and on-the-spot news. In January 2011 she flew to Queensland to cover the floods crisis for the Courier Mail.
In June 2011, she entered her image “Bondi is in her eyes” into the Moran Photographic Prize (the richest photographic prize in the world) and was chosen as a top 40 finalist. The work was shown in the State Gallery of NSW and toured as part of a national one-year exhibition.
In March 2012 a photograph she took at a protest “mock marriage ceremony” in the Blue Mountains was the only same-sex couple image to be printed in The Australian Wedding Book published by Penguin Books.
