A Legacy of Love: The Heart Behind Kyle Archie Knight’s Photography

A profile I wrote about photographer Kyle Archie Knight in 2023.

Artists tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves. For Kyle Archie Knight, his is tattooed on his forearm, around the word ‘DAD’. 

We meet for lunch on a chilly Thursday afternoon. This is the sort of free time that Kyle relishes in, having dedicated his last four years to his studies, and leaving very little time for anything other than his work.

He completed his Bachelor of Arts (Photography) at RMIT in 2021, going on to Honours in his fourth year. Like all the other art students, in order to get by he has to work a day job, but he always finds time for his passion. He carries one of his many cameras in his bag with him to lunch, telling me about the 2022 Ballarat International GradFoto Biennale. An excerpt of one his series was entered in, receiving a High Commendation from the judges.

They called his work ‘a fresh and inquisitive approach that comments on a rich and layered history of Australian suburbia’. But Kyle wasn’t focusing on Australia’s history, just his own. 

‘I wasn’t trying to make a big statement about queer people in general, it was more about my suburban experience.’

Kyle is a storyteller, describing himself as a ‘creative at heart’. He’s dabbled in poetry, fiction writing, videography, even trying to learn piano back when we were 17 and determined to start a band together, but Kyle has never considered anything other than photography as his one true calling. 

‘I've always been fascinated by photography. I just think it’s the best invention ever. To have access to these photographs that are thirty, forty years old, to be able to look back and see what people looked like, especially your own family, it’s just so fascinating.’

Throughout his work, Kyle’s enchantment with the historical aspects of photography is clear. His series Cruising for a Bruising was born in 2021, following Victoria’s lockdowns. Initially a fashion magazine, he intended to juxtapose queer fashion against the hum-drum surroundings of the suburban neighbourhood that he had been confined to for 262 days. But as he worked and dipped into his family’s archival photographs, the series began to shift. 

‘I was looking at photos of myself and my family, and being quite flamboyant. I was seeing what stories I could draw from them.’

Growing up gay in the suburbs wasn’t an easy thing for him, stating that he was bullied relentlessly for his effeminate traits in his early schooling. It’s his family he thanks for getting him through those years mostly unscathed, and his series is a testament to that. 

‘I’m very privileged to come from a family who care deeply about me and just wanted me to be happy. It’s sort of funny growing up, the adults have this knowledge of you that you don’t even fully understand. But I didn’t really have to guess it or think about it much because they just let me be who I wanted to be.’

As he takes a sip of his coffee, I can clearly see how devoted to his loved ones he is. Wrapped around his mug, his hands display the names of his late grandparents, and further up his arms are tattoos of family heirlooms, important dates, people, and place names. He has chosen to immortalise his lineage on his body, so it makes complete sense that his art does as well. 

We talk about legacy in art, about if it’s important to have an emotional connection to the work you're producing. After graduating, he has been working in more commercial settings; assisting on editorial shoots, photographing backstage at 2022’s Melbourne Fashion Festival with Mob in Fashion, and being hired freelance to shoot at events. Working in the industry in any capacity is a source of pride for him, but his own work is where he really begins to shine.

‘If you want it to be successful and translate to a bunch of different people who may not have the same experiences; if you want them to understand it, and what you're trying to say then you need to sort of have a tie to it.’

After the passing of his grandfather, Jimmy Angus, in 2017, Kyle began to create for himself, in the hopes of processing his grief in a meaningful way. 

‘I began to use photography as a form of catharsis. I was creating as a way of healing.’

It was this series, The Family Jewels, where he first started noticing people connecting deeply with his work. 

‘It’s like a big statement in a way, in creating my personal bodies of work I’m saying, these people existed, and they matter, they’re important to me and this is why. I want people who look at my personal work to think about their own memories and times with their loved ones. To care for and to honour them.’

As we wrap up our meal, and head out into the lingering autumn sun, I think about my own legacy as a writer. About my family, and my own grandmother’s death. It’s something that we’ve bonded over; the shared grief over the end of a life, but not the end of their impact on yours. 

I think about something he said earlier, ‘It’s scary. You don’t just lose a loved one, you lose their thoughts, feelings and stories. I know in some form or another this is why everyone feels the urge to preserve and document their family, it’s kind of a universal feeling, I would say. Everyone thinks that their family story is worthy of telling.’

Kyle’s work makes you reflect, it helps you remember your own childhood, it makes you want to call your parents and tell them you love them. 

And this is what he wants. 

‘I think at the end of the day what my personal work says is to hold onto your loved ones. As I have known and lived myself, our time on earth is precious and none of us really know how long we have left. Life is fragile.’

When Kyle first came into my life in our early high school years, he won me over with his passion. Passion for his work, for music, for pop culture, and for the people he loved. In the time I’ve spent watching him grow, watching him work behind the camera so diligently to capture seemingly benign moments of his life, he taught me something.

We have a very limited time on earth, in the grand scheme of things. We watch people come in and out of our lives, sometimes in ways that scar us so deeply we may not ever truly recover. So we owe it to them, and to ourselves, to leave behind something that we can be proud of. To everyone it’s something different; helping the sick, starting a family, writing a novel, or taking as many photos as you can. 

Kyle leaves behind a legacy of love with everything he creates. Those lucky enough to love and be loved by him will have no trouble remembering their time with him, because he will be right there with a camera, making sure he gets the perfect shot.