Influential art dealer Yossi Milo will make history later this month when he becomes the first New York gallerist to present a stand-alone exhibition in Sydney. The exhibition of works by world-renowned photographers Doug Rickard and Tim Hetherington is being brought to Australia by Milo to coincide with Australia’s largest photo festival, the Head On Photo Festival, which opens in Sydney on May 17. The venue hosting the show is Sydney’s STILLS Gallery, a leading Australian gallery with a focus on contemporary photography and multimedia art.

Though acknowledging that the two artists were very different, Milo added that he thought they complemented one another well. Hetherington's “Sleeping Soldiers” series consists of intimate portraits of American troops stationed in eastern Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Presented at their most vulnerable, the soldiers in Hetherington’s photos convey a spirituality and innocence that is at odds with their role as military personnel.

Rickard's “A New American Picture” series, on the other hand, highlights scenes of urban and rural decay from around America that the artist located using Google Street View, and then rephotographed to “present a photographic portrait of the socially disenfranchised and economically powerless, those living an inversion of the American Dream,” in Milo's words.

“I feel that Hetherington and Rickard are two extremely significant artists and that it is important for Australian audiences to see these works,” Milo says. “Additionally, this is an important time to show Hetherington’s work, as this exhibition coincides with the second anniversary of Tim’s untimely death, as well as an exhibition of his work at the gallery in New York, ‘Inner Light,’ and HBO’s launch of the documentary ‘Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington,’ directed by Sebastian Junger, which premiered on April 10, 2013.”