HENSON, Bill. Mnemosyne.

(Zurich): Scalo Verlag AG, 2005.  First edition.  Quarto.  501 pages.  Includes essays from Judy Annear, Jennie Boddington, David Malouf, Bernice Murphy, Peter Schjeldahl, Dennis Cooper, Sebastian Smee and others.  Published to accompany an exhibition assembled by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney in 2005. The volume is a sumptuous collection of 30 years of work by an artist whose images have been variously described as obsessive, provocative, unsettling, opulent, and luminous. The photographer’s broad subject matter includes dark portraits that evoke the work of old master painters, shifting between intensely black shadows and glowing light; controversial nude studies of adolescent models; and landscape and cloudscape. His portraits and figure studies raise questions about identity and the various selves – public and private – that his subjects assume; some of the most fascinating photographs feature individuals isolated amid crowded city streets.  A near fine copy in dust jacket.