Like Frights

Nearly every child worries about not being liked, being different, or being alone. In Melbourne photographer Samantha Everton’s work, these fears blur with reality.

These photos will be among those shown in her new exhibition Childhood Fears, which opens at the Byron McMahon Gallery on July 17.

Taken on a medium-format film camera, then scanned and digitally manipulated, the photos were originally inspired by a primary school photography class which Everton taught last year.

“I was fascinated to find that kids’ fears today are pretty much the same as when I was a kid,” says Everton, 35.

“I thought they’d be afraid of war and terrorism. But they were more afraid of not having any friends.”

Brought up in South Australia, in a family of five children, Everton was always afraid of being left out.

“You have to be pretty loud and boisterous to get attention,” she saus. She also had trouble learning to read and write, and was scared of being different from the other children.

Meanwhile, her sister’s fears of being abandoned came true during a familyi holiday, when she was accidentally left behind at a petrol station.

“We drove about a block down the road before we realised she wasn’t there,” Everton says.

“When we got back to her, she was just standing there crying.”

Nowadays, Everton has left most of those old fears behind.

“Now I have a grasp of reality,” she says.

88 George St, Redfern. July 17 – August 18, free, 9318 0404, www.sandrabyrongallery.com.au