Harold David

Since 2001 Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest has undertaken a number of exhibition and residency projects aiming to engage contemporary artists and targeted communities in the development of new bodies of work. One such project was Tracksuits of St Marys by acclaimed US born Australian fashion photographer Harold David.

Tracksuits of St Marys series is a collection of 71 photographic portraits documenting the community of St Marys (near Penrith in western Sydney). Using the “tracksuit’ as artistic focus the series is a detailed examination of a working community and their apparel. Importantly, the series is a celebration and valorization of ordinary working people (and their families). Equally significant, the series is a unique semiotic examination of a universal and highly symbolic vernacular fashion ‘costume’ – the tracksuit.

Exhibited in Australia and Japan Tracksuits of St Marys is an extraordinary body of work resonant both in terms of contemporary photographic practice, but also popular with exhibition audiences (both in Australia and Japan). Given the high aesthetic calibre of the work and its direct connection (and basis) the Gallery’s community the inclusion of the series in the Gallery’s Collection is welcome (particularly as the work was created in the Gallery’s locale and in collaboration with important sectors of our exhibition (and education program) audiences.

Harold David is one of Australia’s leading fashion and portrait photographers. He has worked extensively with leading magazines including Instyle, Yen, Vogue Australia, Harpers Bazaar, Marie Claire, Sunday Magazine, Australian Financial Review Magazine, Summer Winter, Oyster, Grazia and Russh. His editorial clients abroad include The Face (UK), Elle (UK), Man (Netherlands) and B Magazine (UK).

Harold David’s photographic art frequently collapses the orthodoxies of fashion photography and political photo-documentation to show functional, everyday items in a fresh and startlingly different light. David’s aesthetic democracy explores matters of class, gender, economic position and beauty.

Harold David exhibitions include Surface, Sydney Fringe Festival; Texas Trailer Park, Rubyayre Gallery; Rapture, Rubyayre Gallery; Runway, Australian Centre for Photography; Others, Art Gallery of NSW; Tracksuits of St Marys: Penrith Regional Art Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Matto City History Museum (Japan), Fujieda City History Museum (Japan), CarriageWorks, Sydney; Still, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest; Uniform: Japan Photos by Harold David , Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest.