The Photograph and Australia

Arts Monday’s Jane Raffan talks in-depth with Judy Annear, Senior Curator of Photography at the AGNSW about their major exhibition The Photograph and Australia.

The exhibition “explores the crucial role photography has played in shaping our understandings of the nation … Weaving together the multiple threads of Australia’s photographic history, The photograph and Australia investigates how photography invented modern Australia. It poses questions about how the medium has shaped our view of the world, ourselves and each other.”

Tracing the evolution of the medium and its many uses from the 1840s until today, this is the largest exhibition of Australian photography held since 1988 that borrows from collections nationwide (more than 400 photographs by more than 120 artists). Iconic images are shown alongside works by unknown and amateur photographers, including photographic objects such as cartes de visite, domestic albums and the earliest Australian X-rays.

Interview I

Interview II

Interview III

More on the exhibition and the gallery here:

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/the-photograph-and-australia/

Book: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/shop/item/9781741741162/

Program blog: https://eastsidefm.org/arts-monday-the-photograph-and-australia/

Unknown photographer, Australian scenery, Middle Harbour, Port Jackson, c1865, carte de visite, Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of Josef and Jeanne Lebovic, Sydney 2014