Eaton's passports to parallel lives

In a stranger-than-fiction love story, artist Jackson Eaton says he once thought his father "hijacked his life".

Better Half, his series of 34 photographs in the Art Gallery of WA's latest exhibition, New Passports, New Photographs, pairs images of Eaton's intimate relationship with his former South Korean girlfriend, with images of his father and his South Korean wife.

Eaton says he uses the camera as an extension of his life. Born in Denmark, WA but now based in Melbourne, Eaton initially studied psychology at the University of WA and is undertaking a master of fine arts at Monash University.

Back in Perth for a residency at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Eaton explains the extraordinary events leading to the creation of Better Half.

After his parents separated in 2006, Eaton went to live in South Korea and photographed the moments he shared with his girlfriend in her homeland. Heartbreak followed when the two split but the series emerging from the photographs, We Were Never Married, was shown at the Perth Centre for Photography in 2009.

"I had ideas of moving back to Australia and marrying her but it didn't work out that way," he says. "Then my dad decided he needed a change and came and lived in South Korea as well. It got even stranger when he decided to stay after I left. Then there was news he was coming back to Australia, but not alone. He'd met a lady there. He ended up marrying her and they now live together in Perth.

"I'm happy for my dad but I was dealing with someone almost taking my existence. That person being my father made it all the stranger.

"I decided a way to resolve this would be to explore the issues in a therapeutic kind of way by reshooting the photographs, using my dad and my stepmother as the protagonists."

Considering many of Eaton's original series of Type C prints show him and his girlfriend often without clothes, or barely clothed, how did his father and new stepmother react?

"The idea was to recreate the original series using my dad and stepmother but also in the context of their life and relationship, so none of the photos are exactly the same," says Eaton.

His father, John Eaton, a teacher of photography at Belmont City College, says he thought it was an opportunity to do something really nice with his son.

"Every father looks forward to that, and to involve my wife Jeong Sook as well, it just seemed like a really fun thing to do," Mr Eaton says. "As it turned out, it took quite a bit of time and effort and commitment to make it all work but we really enjoyed ourselves. We kept seeing the photos as they were produced up against the originals and saying 'Wow.' Each image seemed to have enough of the essence of the first one and yet to have its own special quality as well."

His wife was initially a little more hesitant, saying she finally decided to do it because she thought the idea was fantastic.

"The most important thing was I wanted to help Jackson," she says. "I was very nervous. I'm very old and suddenly I have to take off my clothes! But it was an amazing experience. I never thought the photographs would be up at AGWA and at first I didn't want to see them. But now I love all of them and I'm very proud of Jackson."

Better Half was first shown in Primavera, a nationwide showcase of young artists, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney last year.

Eaton's series is among 100 recent acquisitions of contemporary photography on show at AGWA. Both exhibitions were curated by Robert Cook, curator of contemporary international art at AGWA, who says most of the works in New Passports, New Photography haven't been shown before.

"We have been populating our holdings of contemporary photography quite seriously, so I think people will be surprised at the scope of the exhibition," he says.

Cook says seeing Eaton's work unfold was thrilling. "It isn't hard, smart-arse conceptual stuff but generous and open. It's innovative and exciting but also really warm and tender. You can sense the closeness between everybody."

Short two-minute videos featuring local photographers Max Pam, Connie Petrillo, Toni Wilkinson and Graham Miller are integrated into the exhibition space alongside works by artists such as Brad Rimmer, duo Pilar Mata Dupont and Tarryn Gill, Pat Brassington and Anne Ferran. But getting back to Eaton, there's an obvious question - has his mother seen the work? "Unfortunately, it's not a pleasant work for my mother to experience," he says. "She's obviously been very supportive, both my parents have all my life. My mother put in a chunk of money when I was crowd-funding to produce a book about the series but she doesn't necessarily want to see it.

"When you're making personal and vulnerable work there can be potentially problematic areas. The other thing is what the work does to my relationship with my ex as well. We didn't talk for a long time after the breakup and then it was with the express purpose of asking her about using the work in this context. It was quite emotional but also a turning point in us becoming friends again."

'The idea was to recreate the original series using my dad and stepmother but also in the context of their life and relationship.'