Dimbola Lodge is the former home of pioneering Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, so is an apt venue to be showing the work of another female photographer. Cameron also photographed and mixed in illustrious circles that included the poet Lord Tennyson and other celebrities of the time.
Mary’s large photos are composed in ways that create movement and tension. Heads and bodies are sometimes cropped, and big gaps are often left in the shots, which gives the feeling of action, as if an off-duty dancer has just left the space or is about to move into it.
The viewer certainly gets an intimate impression of the behind-the-scenes life of a ballet dancer, with the highs and lows that it brings. Nevertheless, even photographs that are supposed to be harshly realistic end up seeming glamorous.
Shots like one of a lonely dancer climbing stairs at the end of a hard performance or a tired dancer being comforted, may still make some viewers wish they had never given up those ballet lessons when they were young.
Dubbed as Mary McCartney Donald’s coming-of-age work, this exhibition proves that she is not successful just because of her name, but for her confident photographs that contain more insight that most.
