A playful series reflecting on themes of childhood and human fragility by photographer Emmaline Zanelli. Zanelli lives in Tarntanya/Adelaide on the unceded lands of Kaurna Country. Her work often combines photography, video, set building, costume and performance to create scenes both humorous and surreal. The title, “Semaphore,” alludes to the seaside suburb in which Zanelli spent her childhood and formative years:

“This was where I conducted my very first experiments facilitated by my mum, where weekends were spent building worlds on the living room floor with the furniture pushed back, blankets laid down, trays of dried legumes and bubbly dishwater, growing crystals and laying marble tracks.”

Semaphore is also a reference to the marine visual communication system that uses flags to convey information between distant points. The pictures in this series similarly function as an idiosyncratic language, with their own syntax of gesture, scale and colour. The assembled objects draw on associations to convey ideas around fertility, eroticism, uncertainty, illusion, and collectively reflect the play and experimentation of childhood. More images below.