The Australian Chamber Orchestra has announced a wide-ranging 2019 season, with the centrepiece the return of the orchestra’s collaboration with photographer Bill Henson, Luminous.

“We’ve done quite a run of bespoke projects, we could put a whole festival together just with them, so I’ve been urged to relook at Luminous for years. A lot of people thought we hit the ground running with that,” Tognetti tells Limelight. “Bill Henson simply is one of the great artists on the planet – I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that – and incredibly musical.”

Richard Tognetti. Photo © Jason Capobianco

Luminous premiered in 2005 and the orchestra last performed it ten years ago. “There are some images in there that are incredible,” Tognetti says. “They take you to a place with the music that is very hard to affect and build. I think even though it was [Henson’s] first foray, he really understood the space that is required for the brain to process image and music.”

“I think Bill Henson stands as the quintessential opposite to agenda-driven post-modern bullshit,” Tognetti says. “There’s...