By Sarah McCrea
Content warning: this article includes references to sexual assault and violent conflicts.
The Observer speaks with Oskah Dunnin (known online as Oscar Hugo) to discuss his ANU-focused ‘Still Here’ series, his international work as a photo-journalist, and the impact of photo-journalism on how we perceive the world and others.
Dunnin is a recent ANU graduate and a prominent photo-journalist within the community, specialising in street portraiture. Speaking on his process behind each photo, he explained, “I’ll see someone on the street, they might be wearing something fashionable or quirky. They might be at an event. I’ll go up, introduce myself, ask if I can take their photo, and from there I get to ask them about their livelihood.”
He commented that, in contrast to purely written work, photo-journalism “really forces you to sit with the subject. You capture not only their story at that moment in time but also their visual essence.”
Although he began his work in Canberra, Dunnin’s collaborative series with ANU saw him travel across Asia last year, documenting photos and stories in locations ranging from Penang to Tokyo. Regarding what he wanted an audience to take away from the series, he stated, “I hope the series brings together a way to explain Asia, its culture, history and lived experiences. In some small way, I hope it reminds people that there is a lot more that unifies us than divides us as people.”
“Everyone loves a feel-good story, no fault there. But really, it’s about how people deal with various crises in life. As young people, we often don’t appreciate all that we don’t know about life until we’re hit in the face by it.”
Dunnin is currently collaborating with the ANU School of Culture, History & Language (CHL), releasing a series of articles about topical issues in Asia. These centre around community-based individual interviews, the most recent, ‘After the Body’, focuses on the ongoing sexual assault crisis in India.
“After the rape and murder of a student in Kolkata’s leading medical campus, I spoke with students who feared the same thing could happen to them in their workplace.
“While reviewing my interviews for ‘After the Body’, a frighteningly similar tragedy had occurred at another Kolkata institution nearly a year to the day later. It filled me with an absolute sadness to see history repeat itself in such an undeniably senseless way.”
He also discussed the role of academia in journalism and media, referencing his own experience collaborating with ANU.
“ANU’s founding mission is to make sense of Australia’s place in the world…academia already does play that role when it comes to talking about the ‘what’ aspect.”
But what can we expect from the future of this collaboration?
“We have two more parts lined up. The next will likely focus on how communal identity has changed in Hong Kong and Taiwan. After that, we’ll be looking at the protests surrounding the impeachment of former South Korean President Yoon.”
“As far as where the series goes after that, I’m not too sure. There might be some room to do a mini part on Japan. Potentially, there might be, instead, a gallery of sorts of photos that weren’t published in the series. Everything’s got to end somewhere.”
When talking about potential follow-ups to past series and stories, Dunnin commented, “The point of these stories is they are moments in time. I hope to still be in a position where I can tell stories in some shape or form, whether that be through a camera or some other lens…these stories, they come, you tell them, and you’ve got to move on to the next.”
Upcoming articles from the collaboration can be found on the ANU School of Culture, History & Language website.
Dunnin is currently producing another ANU-focused series: ‘Still Here.’ The series – which has received strong support and attention from the ANU community – centres the experiences of ANU staff impacted by Renew ANU.
On why he started the series, he remarked, “I felt there was something there. I think there are a lot of questions that the university has yet to satisfactorily answer about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it the way they’re doing it…so I had an interest in seeing the actual tangible impacts of these decisions.”
ANU has been highly present in the media recently, particularly around Renew ANU. The focus of this mainstream media coverage, however, is starkly different from Dunnin’s work on ‘Still Here.’ Regarding this, he said,“A lot of the stories we’ll see coming out of the Canberra Times and even other student media organisations, they kind of focus more on the bigger picture things. And I think the person is kind of reduced in that.“
Elaborating on the strengths of the series’ format, he said, “it forces you to sit in that moment with someone. [The article] might be a hundred words, it might be a couple thousand words, but you know, hopefully after reading it, you’ve gained a good understanding of not only what something is, but what it actually means.
“It’s about understanding ‘what is the human element here?’’ Really, the broadest series, which all this fits into, is called ‘Faces of Today’, because the idea is that you’re seeing someone’s face and then you’re hearing their story.”
Articles, interviews, and photos from Oskah Dunnin’s series can be found on Instagram at @oscarhugo and on Facebook under the name Oscar Hugo.
Know something we don’t know? Email news@anuobserver.org or use our anonymous tip submission.
If you have an issue with this article, or a correction to make, you can contact us at news@anuobserver.org, submit a formal dispute, or angry react the Facebook post.
If you don’t have an issue with this article and want to hear more from us, we’re in the process of making a newsletter! Sign up here, and have the latest news delivered directly to you.
Want to get involved? You can write articles, photograph, livestream or do web support. We’re also looking for someone to yell “extra!” outside Davey Lodge at 1AM. Apply today!
ANU Observer 