This education kit was produced for the exhibition The photograph and Australia (Art Gallery of NSW, 21 March – 8 June 2015). It presents a selection of focus works from the exhibition along with issues for consideration for students in Years 7-12.
Click on an image for more information (including medium and dimensions) and to view the work in the Gallery collection
Mervyn Bishop was the first Aboriginal photographer employed on a metropolitan daily newspaper. In 1975 he covered the moment at Daguragu (Wattie Creek) when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam poured a handful of soil into the hand of Gurindji leader Vincent Lingiari to signify the restoration of ancestral land rights.
Bishop asked Whitlam and Lingiari to re-enact the moment outside in the brilliant sunshine. The two hands, the mound of soil and the white paper underneath form a sequence of motifs that symbolise the return of country and its formalisation in legislation.
Bishop asked Whitlam and Lingiari to re-enact this moment. Suggest the opportunities this may have given Bishop to arrange or manipulate the final image to maximise its effect. Debate the issues this raises in relation to fact and fiction, subjectivity and objectivity, and the role of photography itself.
Comment on the composition of this image. Where has Bishop placed the two men in the photograph? What is the significance of Whitlam’s gesture in passing soil to Lingiari? Describe the techniques Bishop has used to amplify this act; consider, in particular, the sight lines, framing and angle.
Carefully consider Sue Ford’s approach to self-portraiture and the way she has captured and presented the 47 images in her work Self-portrait with camera (1960-2006). How does she document the passing of time? List the dates and changing elements in each photograph – clothing, hair, setting, background etc. What impact do these 47 images have on an audience? How does an audience make a connection with Ford and her world? How has she achieved this?
Describe the mood of these images. Does it change across the photographs in this work? How has Ford created this atmosphere? Consider, in particular, lighting, tone, composition, colour, cropping.
What is useful about using sequences or multiple images? Create your own sequence of photographic portraits based on the passing of time.
Chatelaine is a magisterial still life of objects once owned by Sarah Wentworth, wife of New South Wales politician and explorer William Charles Wentworth. As the daughter of convict parents, Sarah was scorned by high society. To compensate, she invested deeply in luxury objects that conveyed her taste and cultivation, such as the porcelain vase and chatelaine on the table.
This intimate jumble of objects is photographed with almost overwhelming clarity. The scene evokes the nature of domesticity in a remote colonial outpost, where imported social customs and hierarchies sat uncomfortably with convict histories and the realities of the local environment.
Compare Robyn Stacey’s Chatelaine with a still-life painting that you know. Describe the similarities and differences.
Stacey has not recreated history, she has reimagined it. Consider how she has selected, framed and constructed this view? List the objects she has chosen to represent. What is she telling us about the time as well as the people and place involved? How has the world changed since then?
Research the meaning of the word 'chatelaine'. Why do you think Stacey has selected this for her title?
Create your own photographic still life. Consider the objects you will include, the setting and composition and the photographic technique you will employ. Display your artwork and ask people to write a description of your subject.
In the series Portrait of a distant land, Ricky Maynard addresses the evolution and adaptation of Aboriginal culture in the Bass Strait Islands in response to European colonisation.
The series combines images of elders, sacred places and cultural practices with sites of massacre, oppression and violence. Maynard’s photographs affirm the Ben Lomond and Cape Portland people’s deep spiritual connection to place. They also highlight the necessity of rethinking Australian history from Indigenous perspectives.
Research Ricky Maynard’s body of work and its role in documenting and representing Indigenous Tasmanian history.
What can you infer from the title Portrait of a distant land about the meaning of this series? Consider the history and meaning of the places depicted, the residue of presence and activity, memory and time presented in these works. How does knowledge of the history of these sites affect your experience of the works? Is it important that this series depicts particular places with a particular history? Discuss.
Remember an experience when you felt connected to a particular place. Try to recall the physical sensations - sights, smells, sounds, touch - and write a description of these. Create a visual account of the experience.
Ferns were loved for their graceful weeping foliage and their evocation of the beginnings of time and the Garden of Eden. Why do you think a mania for ferns gripped Britain and Australia in the second half of the 19th century?
Describe your eye’s journey across this photograph. Where was your eye first drawn? Explain which elements attracted you and in what order. Make a structural analysis of the image. Focus on scale, perspective, texture, tone and composition.
Compare this scene to Nicholas Caire’s Fairy scene at the Landship, Blacks’ Spur c1878 from the National Gallery of Victoria, which is also in this exhibition. Describe the similarities and differences.
Imagine walking through this forest. Describe what you see, hear, feel and smell. What impact do you think these images had on audiences of the time? How do they make you feel today? Create a body of work that conveys this experience.
Describe the formal composition of this image. Consider the way Max Dupain conveys both the freedom and naturalness of being at the beach as well as the camera’s ability to select a moment in time and confine the subject. Analyse how he presents the human body as a sculptural form.
What does this image suggest about an Australian identity and beach culture? Is it still a true depiction of Australia today? Is there any specific evidence in the image that the beach or the figure is Australian? Why do you think this image has been embraced as an iconic Australian photograph? How do audiences read this image?
Do we see in this image what we want to see? Is it realistic or an idealised version of who we are? What elevates an image to a level where it is considered iconic?
Research the Dupain’s wider photographic practice. Use this research to create a series of photographs that reflect your own perception of Australian identity.
Why do you think Simryn Gill photographed this scene from a light plane? Despite this elevation, can you still maintain a connection to the landscape?
What is Gill referencing in her title Eyes and storms? Describe the impact of human intervention on this landscape. Is the scene depicted as a scar on the landscape or as something beautiful? Consider the connection of this image with technology and time. Compare how long it would have taken for this geological history to have been created, compared with the time it takes to excavate.
Make a photographic study of an environment that means something to you. Focus on atmosphere, texture, light and composition. Select the images that best communicate your feelings about the place, and display them in class. Consider the size of the prints, their sequence and their arrangement on the wall.
Consider the date of this photograph. Research its historical context. Who are the people in this scene and what are they doing? Examine their posture, body language and clothing. Does the image reflect a certain attitude of its time?
Research the photographic practice of Charles Bayliss. He used heavy, cumbersome and slow photographic equipment. Imagine how this would have made landscape photography in 19th-century Australia difficult. What impact do you think this had on his photographic practice?
Analyse the decisions that David Moore has made in creating this work, such as the use of black and white, the cropped figures and horizontal emphasis. Describe the emotional impact of the people’s faces as well as the woman raising her hand. Why do you think Moore has presented a generational mix?
Research the story of Australia’s migrant history. Consider how this image has been interpreted as symbolic of national identity. How does the title of this work activate the image? Does it contribute to your understanding of it?
The original title of this now-iconic image was European Migrants. The public success meant that the photograph was widely disseminated. As a result, four of the passengers depicted came forward saying they were Sydneysiders returning from holiday. Although the image is now ‘historical fiction’, do you think the passengers continue to represent an evolving Australian identity in relation to immigration. Discuss.
This is an example of a carte de visite, which was a popular form during the 19th century. Research the carte de visite phenomenon. What do you think made them so popular? How were they distributed throughout the world?
Consider the scale of the cartes de visite. How does scale affect your physical response to a photograph? How would your response change if the scale was very different?
Analyse this photograph in terms of mood, posture, lighting and composition. Does the personal relationship between the photographer and subject contribute to the sense of intimacy and stillness in this work?
What role does memory play in reading photographs? Find an image from your past and discuss how it informs the viewer about who you are today. Develop a photographic body of work using a historical influence in a contemporary context.
