In recognition of the dwindling space and opportunity for arts criticism, Kill Your Darlings is delighted to announce two new series of essays on Australian film and photography.

‘Wake in Light: On Australian Film’ by Lauren Carroll Harris is a collection of four essays exploring contemporary Australian cinema. Lauren is a contributing editor to Metro and the author of Not at a Cinema Near You: Australia’s Film Distribution Problem (2013).

On her series, Lauren says:

‘Film criticism is a vital and sometimes overlooked part of screen culture. It’s an essential way that we all engage with film, and the dwindling of arts journalism and film critics’ positions for major news organisations has left a gaping space for critical, nuanced discussion of new Australian cinema. I’m really happy Kill Your Darlings is filling part of that space.’

 ‘The Haze: On Australian Photography’ by Sam Twyford-Moore is a series of four essays on contemporary Australian photography. Sam is a former director and CEO of the Emerging Writers Festival, and the founding host of the Rereaders podcast.

Sam says:

‘Despite some home-grown success stories such as Trent Parke – the first and only Australian member of the infamous Magnum collective – there aren’t too many Australian critics dedicated to photography. It strikes me too that photographs, in and of themselves, have an inherently literary quality – which may go some way to explaining why the best writers on this particular artform tend to be fiction or non-fiction practitioners (Teju Cole, Susan Sontag, Janet Malcolm, Geoff Dyer, John Berger). For me, that makes KYD an ideal home for such an extended project.’

This initiative comes a week after the announcement of the KYD New Critic Award, which seeks to address the shrinking space for emerging Australian critics.

The first essays in the ‘Wake in Light’ and ‘The Haze’ series will appear in March.