The Hijacked series from Big City Press has come to Adelaide in the form of an exhibition of Hijacked 2: Australia/Germany showing at the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum, University of South Australia.

One of the Australian photographers is Andrew Cowen who has produced a self-published book entitled “Adelaide 1966 - 1999”. Cowen sees Adelaide as a quiet, conservative city where not much happens on the surface.

Cowen's thesis is that behind this peaceful façade there is a darker reputation: one of a macabre place where strange crimes routinely occur.

The photographs in this series are of places relating to the abductions and murders which have contributed to Adelaide’s infamy. The project covers a period of time commencing with the abduction of the Beaumont children in 1966 through to the discovery of barrels containing bodies in a bank vault in Snowtown in 1999.

I was disappointed in Hijacked 2 in terms of its claim to delineate the important artistic and socio-cultural relationship that exists between Australia and Germany. I couldn't see any from the way the exhibition was hung. It did not stimulate conversation, suggest connection and invite deconstruction.