Photographer Bill Henson has been exhibiting work in Australia for almost five decades, but he can count the number of commissions he’s taken on one hand.

“If someone asks [me] to do something, it usually puts me off immediately,” he says. “It’s why I never went to art school.”

But when Arts Centre Melbourne’s State Theatre re-opens in 2027 after a significant renovation, a large commissioned work from the acclaimed – and famously controversial – artist will hold pride of place in the foyer.

Measuring approximately two metres by three metres, Untitled 2024 is the first work in what Arts Centre chief executive Karen Quinlan has called “a new contemporary artist commissioning program” for the building.

But the program is entirely dependent on philanthropic contributions, and no other works have yet been commissioned. Much, then, depends on the Henson work making a splash.

The photograph features the artistic director of The Australian Ballet, David Hallberg, styled as Dante (complete with a wreath of bay leaves taken from Henson’s garden), hovering in the theatre as it undergoes renovation.

The idea, Henson says, “popped into my head when I was staring at this gutted auditorium”. He had been listening to composer Franz Liszt, particularly Dante Symphony, and this is the reason he decided to take on the work.

Henson enlisted the help of architectural photographer John Gollings to capture the space via drone, and then shot Hallberg in his studio with “big, old-fashioned Hollywood film lights”.