‘New Documents (all true things are equal)’ was an exhibition by Sydney-based photographer Bartolomeo Celestino.

The exhibition presents formally and poetically charged sequences of abstract natural constructs as part of a larger meditative practice by the artist. The title of the show takes its cues from the 1967 MoMA exhibition of three relatively unknown (at the time) photographers Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand; that had a lasting influence on modern photography. Here, Celestino continues to redirect the techniques and aesthetics of both colour theory and landscape photography ‘to more personal ends’. This show brings together images, made in places the artist has visited and revisited over several years. As no image exists in isolation, the sum of this abstract survey details the elusive relationships and primitive responses that all we all have with discovery and the natural world.

Celestino’s work is specifically Australian. Rather than being influenced by ‘exotic’ locations, he focuses on landscapes within the immediate vicinity of his Randwick home; places he can return to again and again as part of an obsessive and endless study. He works with the light and colour of Australia’s eastern coast. Celestino shoots on film using a large format analogue camera. He handprints all images in his studio using a De Vere enlarger.

Through the presentation of his photographs in exhibition format Celestino questions ideas of value. By intentionally rejecting formal presentation methods he asks how we assign value to photographs.