A huge transit zone, the ocean is barely visible in the young photographer’s images. She prefers to focus on the industrial port zones. Again, so no trace of the human figure can be visible to the naked eye. Kate Ballis reveals a universe in which over 15 000 people hasten to organise the transport of goods in 2.5 million containers each year. Taken from a helicopter, the frontal images present a succession of silent sites in which these saturated containers await shipment in oversized parking lots. To ward off their monotony, she does not hesitate to touch up the shots by colouring certain details to guide our eye with lively and contrasting tones. With their abstract quality, these photographs thus provide an impression of a graphic composition in which the lines and geometric shapes intersect, in an arrangement oscillating between optical pleasure and visual reality.

**The artist: Kate Ballis**

Australian photographer Kate Ballis is only in her thirties and yet has a wealth of experience behind her. Hailing from Melbourne, this former lawyer specialising in media and entertainment became passionate about photography in 2010 before devoting herself to it completely in 2013. Her work is recent but the young woman has already travelled to many countries, testifying to her curiosity and wonder for the world. Although most of her images are shot at the seaside, with a range of colours and light that only the Australian coasts can still boast of offering their residents, the Aerial Pink series stands out, with its aerial views of Melbourne’s industrial port. Playing with colours, forms and graphic lines, she transforms the dark platforms of the most frequented container port in the southern hemisphere in a style that is reminiscent of geometric abstraction in painting.