Great Australian photographs: Trent Parke – an audio essay

Trent Parke composite Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

Click on the audio buttons to hear conversations between the Guardian Australia picture editor, Jonny Weeks, the Guardian Australia photographer, Mike Bowers, the senior curator of photography at the National Gallery of Australia, Shaune Lakin, and the curator at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Pippa Milne.

Audio 1

Audio 1

Untitled (Cat6), 2001, from Dream Life and Beyond Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

• (above) Untitled (Cat6), 2001, from the series Dream Life and Beyond; (below) Untitled (Cat16) and Untitled (Cat15), 2001, from Dream Life and Beyond.
  

Untitled (Cat16), 2001, from Dream Life and Beyond Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

Untitled (Cat15), 2001, from Dream Life and Beyond Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

He's like farmer who is watching his field: he waits until the right moment, then he harvests the light

Mike Bowers

White Man, 2001, from Minutes to Midnight Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

• (above) White Man, 2001, and Moving bus, Sydney CBD, 2003, from the series Minutes to Midnight

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Audio 2

Audio 2

My son ‘Jem’ is born, 2004, from Minutes to Midnight Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

• (above) My son ‘Jem’ is born, 2004, from Minutes to Midnight

Slippery Dip, Gundagai, New South Wales, 2007, from the series Black Rose Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

There's trauma sitting behind these photographs and that's from witnessing his mother pass away in a really terrible way

Shaune Lakin

Shattered Portrait, Newcastle, New South Wales, from the series Black Rose Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

Dirt swirl 77, 2010, from the series Black Rose Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

• (above) Slippery Dip, Gundagai, New South Wales, 2007; Shattered Portrait, Newcastle, New South Wales; Dirt swirl 77, 2010. All from the series Black Rose.
  

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Audio 3

Audio 3

Moving bus, Sydney CBD, 2003, from Minutes to Midnight Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

• Moving bus, Sydney CBD, 2003, from Minutes to Midnight

He's mastering the light and using shadows to block out the visual detritus

Jonny Weeks

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Audio 4

Audio 4

(left) Peace After War and Memories; (right) Arch of Steel Photograph: Harold Cazneaux/National Gallery of Australia

• (left) Peace After War and Memories; (right) Arch of Steel. By Harold Cazneaux / National Gallery of Australia

Trent Parke is part of a great tradition of pictorialist photography in this country, in the same way as Harold Cazneaux

Shaune Lakin

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Audio 5

Audio 5

Plague of Flying Foxes, Mataranka, NT, 2003, from the series Minutes to Midnight Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

• (above) Plague of Flying Foxes, Mataranka, NT, 2003; (below) New Year’s Eve, Gunnedah NSW, 2003, and Caravan park, Queensland, Australia, 2003. All from the series Minutes to Midnight
  

Minutes to Midnight is a masterpiece from go to whoa – it's a seamless photographic experience of Australia

Shaune Lakin

New Year’s Eve, Gunnedah NSW, 2003, from the series Minutes to Midnight Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos

Caravan park, Queensland, Australia, 2003 Photograph: Trent Parke/Stills Gallery/Magnum Photos