Tony Kearney had been toiling away as an industrial designer until tragedy struck. ‘I gave that up about six or seven years ago when my partner got very ill with cancer,’ he remembers. ‘I decided to have a less stressful job and so I worked in a photography lab for three or four years.’ That role sparked a keen interest in fine art photography. So, when work at the lab dwindled, he decided to change focus again with the aim of making a living as an analogue photographer specialising in portraits.

Now, in conjunction with South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA), Kearney has embarked on a hugely ambitious project to photograph 75 artists from South Australia; and he has a novel theme to unite the images. ‘We ask the artist to bring along a talisman of some sort,’ he told us. ‘Something they cherish, something they prize, something that inspires them. And that is part of the portrait.’ Intriguingly, Kearney doesn’t know what objects the artists will bring until they turn up for their portrait: ‘I just say, “You bring it, I'll photograph it.”’

The things they’ve brought include a four-metre fishing buoy rope, a toy Yoda and a decorative glass diving helmet with a plant on top. While each object is a personal choice for the subjects, Kearney says their arrangement within each portrait is decided as a collaboration. ‘It might be two or three things,’ he explains. ‘And then I see how those finished images talk to each other. Some might be inferior to the best photograph of that person but it's how they talk along the wall to each other that I'm interested in. And it becomes a community because people are playing.’

SALA is the biggest festival of its kind in the world and it supports living artists such as Kearney and his dozens of subjects in many ways. Throughout August, SALA displays the work of around 8000 artists to more than 850,000 people in more than 500 venues, from the tiniest of unlikely spaces to the biggest art galleries. Its watchwords are inclusivity and community, and it aims to make art accessible to all, while supporting living artists of all genders, ages and backgrounds. Kearney’s project came to fruition after he won a ‘photographic opportunity’ organised by SALA last year. It’s now supporting him financially and by promoting his upcoming exhibition. He fondly remembers filling in his application with a gin and tonic in hand: ‘I just thought, what better way to celebrate South Australian artists?’

South Australian Living Artists Festival, various venues, South Australia, Friday 1–Sunday 31 August.