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Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Polly Borland. The Australian photographer and artist, 66, is based in the US and exhibits her work across the world. She photographed the late Queen for her Golden Jubilee and has won major awards.
Photographer and artist Polly Borland: “I’ve never really felt comfortable in my own skin, but the older you get, the less you care.”Credit: Simon Schluter
BODIES
The human body is central to much of your work, isn’t it? Yes, it is.
Where does that fascination with the body come from? Well, I haven’t really analysed it, but even when I first started taking photos in high school of my sisters, invariably we’d end up with them taking their clothes off. People say there’s a lot of political intention about the female gaze but, for me, it’s never been conscious.
Your art offers us something besides conventional female nudity. How did your nude portrait of Germaine Greer come about? It was her idea to take her clothes off. I couldn’t believe my luck. Oh, my god, I was so excited! Later, she disowned the photograph and said I’d manipulated her into taking them off, which I never did. But she was 60, beautiful and, obviously, a feminist icon.
You’ve also put images of your own flesh into your work. Why was that important to you? Currently in the world, we see people who lack courage, leaders with no backbone. Some of them are insane, others are going against their own principles. The most important thing for me is to put myself in positions where I’m not only challenging myself, but the viewer, too.
What do you like about your body currently? Well, I’ve got back into exercise. I love moving – dancing, for instance – and I’ve started hiking. I’ve never really felt comfortable in my own skin, but the older you get, the less you care.
What are you disliking? Oh, the ageing process isn’t fun. I’m tired a lot. But I feel that I’m tired a lot because I’m so depressed at the state of the world.
MONEY
You were one of seven children growing up. What was the money situation like? Well, we either had it or we didn’t. My father was a really incredible architect, but he wasn’t very good at managing money, so it was feast or famine. We all got our school fees paid for because he designed the buildings at Preshil [an independent, co-ed school in Melbourne’s Kew]; we got an incredible education. But my father had a very difficult relationship with money and my mother liked spending it. Then, in the ’80s, there was a housing crash and he hadn’t put aside the money that he needed for tax and, all of a sudden, there was no work …
Oh, no. So that created huge stress.
Do you remember feeling that stress as a child? Yes, because he’d get really upset whenever we asked for money. When we left home, our father didn’t give us any money; we had to figure it out ourselves. I’ve had moments in my life where money has been scarce, but I’ve also been good at earning it and being independent.
How have you made your work financially sustainable? Well, I went into portraiture and magazine work. It kind of took me on a tangent that kept me away from my main interest, which was exhibiting my own work. But I was working for Vogue Australia and earning a good living.
What have been your best and worst financial decisions? I don’t know that I’ve ever really made any good financial decisions. It’s all been emotional, really. I don’t really save or plan for the future and I think that’s probably a mistake.
It’s gotten you this far, though. It’s gotten me this far, but the older you get, the less ability you have – eventually – to work. My husband [filmmaker John Hillcoat] is more worried about our old age than I am. I’ve just bought some beautiful art that I love: I don’t buy for investment reasons. And I like to put back into the community by buying friends’ work.
Say I give you $100 and you have to spend it on yourself in the next hour. What are you going to buy? Maybe some food? Maybe some flowers? But everything’s so expensive!
RELIGION
Were you raised with religion? My father was a renounced Catholic and atheist; my mother was agnostic.
Is there any kind of label that you feel comfortable with? Well, I’ve recently been going to a Buddhist temple, but I don’t feel like a Buddhist.
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Why have you been going there? My husband and my son were already going and I was sort of, “Oh, I don’t want to do it.” Then they came back one day and I realised they were doing a meditation course to help overcome anxiety. It was early this year and my anxiety about the situation here [in the United States] was through the roof. So we went every Sunday for six weeks and it really helped. I’d say that I’m a humanitarian: I just want the best for all human beings. Unfortunately, it feels as if we’re living through a very dark period in history.
What are your commandments for making good art? Personally, I like simplicity.
Other people go to church, the synagogue, the mosque, the temple. Where do you go? The sad thing is I don’t go anywhere because I’m so depressed! But I try to exercise. I go to my friends, I go to my family. And I try to help other people.
Polly Borland’s latest exhibition, Puffs, will be at Sullivan+Strumpf Melbourne from November 27 to December 20.
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