Collection
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Title
Albert Namatjira and his wife Rubina, Macdonnell Ranges, Northern Territory
1946
printed 1981
Artist
Axel Poignant
England, Australia, England
12 Dec 1906 - 05 Feb 1986
About
Though not born in Australia, Axel Poignant's work is largely about the 'Outback', its flora and fauna and the traditions of Australian and Indigenous identity. Poignant was born in Yorkshire in 1906 to a Swedish father and English mother, and arrived in Australia in 1926 seeking work and adventure. After tough early years of unemployment and homelessness, he eventually settled in Perth and found work as a portrait photographer, before taking to the road and the bush in search of new subjects. Poignant became fascinated with the photo-essay as a means of adding real humanity to the medium, and much of his work is in this form. The close relationships he developed with Aboriginal people on his travels are recorded in compassionate portraits of these people and their lives - the low angles and closely cropped frames appear more natural and relaxed than the stark compositions of earlier ethnographic photography.
Details
Dates
1946
printed 1981
Materials used
gelatin silver photograph
Dimensions
45.4 x 35.3 cm image; 50.6 x 40.4 cm sheet
Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
Credit
Purchased 1984
Location
Not on display
Accession number
42.1984
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Exhibition history
Axel Poignant: photographs 1922-1980, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 Jul 1982–29 Aug 1982
Critic's Choice, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Apr 1994–10 Jul 1994
Referenced in 2 publications
Bibliography
Robert McFarlane, Critic's Choice, Sydney, 1994.
Gael Newton, Edmund Capon AM, OBE and Hal Missingham, Axel Poignant retrospective, Sydney, 1982. cat.no. 31