Rachel Main is an educator, photographer and filmmaker based in Melbourne. For the past eight years she has been teaching Photography, Art, Media, Graphics and Drama at Lilydale High School. Her educational outlook is very much informed by her work as a practicing artist and she strives to create an engaging and inclusive classroom where students are encouraged to develop their creative and critical thinking skills. She has worked with a number of diverse communities through a range of arts projects and also facilitates photography and filmmaking workshops for young people.
Her art practice is documentary in nature and for the past seven years she has been working closely with the Australian Krump community. Starting out as a krumper first, her role soon shifted to solely focus on documenting the culture and the lives of the krump dancers through photography and video.
In 2015, BUCK was launched- the world's first Krump exhibition- comprising of both photographic and video works. The exhibition was part of a larger program called The Art of Buck where she partnered with Signal (Arts space for young people) and the Melbourne Krump community to produce a series of documentary media and Krump workshops for young people and an all styles dance event. BUCK is set to travel to Sydney next year as an associate exhibition for the Head On Photography Festival.
In 2009, she produced the first and only Australian documentary on Krump, ‘Burncity: A Journey into Melburn and Australian Krump’ which won Best Documentary at Melbourne Underground Film Festival. Rachel’s Krump photographs have also been collected by the State Library of Victoria and featured in their 2012 exhibition ‘The Changing Face of Victoria’. Her video collaboration with Alia Gabres titled 'Summer Cotton Dresses' was a finalist for the Blake Prize in 2013. Other video work has also been screened as part of ACMI's 'Spectacle: The music video exhibition' and at the Australian Literary Festival.
Rachel has a strong interest in Hip Hop culture and in 2013, directed, produced, filmed and edited a five part documentary series titled ‘Melbourne: The Hip Hop Era’. This involved interviews with 39 Melbourne-based MCs, DJs and producers and each episode dealt with a different issue including ‘Women in Hip Hop’ and ‘Melbourne’s Cultural Diversity in Hip Hop’. Rachel has been an artist in Residence at the Footscray Community Arts Centre and the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Her art practice is documentary in nature and for the past seven years she has been working closely with the Australian Krump community. Starting out as a krumper first, her role soon shifted to solely focus on documenting the culture and the lives of the krump dancers through photography and video.
In 2015, BUCK was launched- the world's first Krump exhibition- comprising of both photographic and video works. The exhibition was part of a larger program called The Art of Buck where she partnered with Signal (Arts space for young people) and the Melbourne Krump community to produce a series of documentary media and Krump workshops for young people and an all styles dance event. BUCK is set to travel to Sydney next year as an associate exhibition for the Head On Photography Festival.
In 2009, she produced the first and only Australian documentary on Krump, ‘Burncity: A Journey into Melburn and Australian Krump’ which won Best Documentary at Melbourne Underground Film Festival. Rachel’s Krump photographs have also been collected by the State Library of Victoria and featured in their 2012 exhibition ‘The Changing Face of Victoria’. Her video collaboration with Alia Gabres titled 'Summer Cotton Dresses' was a finalist for the Blake Prize in 2013. Other video work has also been screened as part of ACMI's 'Spectacle: The music video exhibition' and at the Australian Literary Festival.
Rachel has a strong interest in Hip Hop culture and in 2013, directed, produced, filmed and edited a five part documentary series titled ‘Melbourne: The Hip Hop Era’. This involved interviews with 39 Melbourne-based MCs, DJs and producers and each episode dealt with a different issue including ‘Women in Hip Hop’ and ‘Melbourne’s Cultural Diversity in Hip Hop’. Rachel has been an artist in Residence at the Footscray Community Arts Centre and the Melbourne Fringe Festival.