Women Photographers 1853-2018

Visual art exhibition review | Brian Rope

Women Photographers 1853-2018 | Various Artists

National Gallery of Australia | 11 October 2025 – 1 March 2026

Women photographers 1853–2018 is presented as highlighting “the transformative impact of women artists on the history of photography.” It is another Know My Name project, the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) initiative celebrating the work of all women artists to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia’s cultural life.

I confess expecting to see many more images covering the full period from 1853 to 2018. It actually is a modest selection from the NGA photography collection which, since its inception, has reflected the vital place of women in the medium’s history. Indeed, some of its earliest acquisitions were major works by women.

Highlights from the Australian and International collections have been identified to explore ways in which women artists have used photography to relate stories about themselves and other women. Their works created new ways of seeing how women were shaped by their relationships with the world in which they lived, negotiating its challenges, celebrating its beauty or whatever.

As a result, the NGA most certainly and validly is able to state it is “uniquely placed to consider how photography has changed the worlds in which women live, and how women have changed photography.” For women artists, making photographs arguably has always been an act of resistance. Photography certainly has given women access to spaces of knowledge, artistic practices and technology from which they once were excluded.

In the 1840s, English pioneer botanist Anna Atkins advanced botanical illustration and natural history. She assisted to steward new levels of scientific accuracy with her cyanotypes of algae. Here we see an example of her work from 1853 using what is one of today’s popular mediums. 

Anna Atkins - Heraclium Lanatum, America 1853

from Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns

cyanotype, printed image 35.3 (h) x 24.8 (w) cm

sheet 47.8 (h) x 37.5 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Purchased 1986

In 1874 the famous poet Alfred Tennyson asked the Indian-born British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron to make photographic illustrations for a new edition of his Idylls of the King, a recasting of the Arthurian legends. Responding that both knew that “it is immortality to me to be bound up with you,” Cameron willingly accepted the assignment.

Julia Margaret Cameron - 'Elaine the Lily Maid of Astolat' 1874

albumen silver photograph, image 34.8 (h) x 28.2 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Purchased 1979

During the 1920s and 1930s, entrepreneurial women ran successful photography studios that brought tremendous innovation to photography’s place in fashion and advertising.

By 1940-41, Austrian-born American photographer Lisette Model was producing very different images. She is primarily known for the frank humanism of her street photography. After relocating to America to escape Hitler, she soon created two innovative series of photographs inspired by the energy of the city. In one, an ankle-high perspective and stylistic blurring powerfully reveal the hurried pace of the metropolis at rush hour. 

Lisette Model - Running legs, Fifth Avenue, New York 1940-41

gelatin silver photograph, image 49.5 (h) x 39.6 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Purchased 1981

In the 1970s, women photographers influenced by feminism and environmentalism produced personal, political and communal works. In the 1980s and 1990s, various Australian First Nations artists began to reclaim the medium that had played a part in subjecting their ancestors to colonial scrutiny by white settlers. 

In 1976, Australian photographer Ponch Hawkes photographed herself and her friends with their mothers in a series Our Mums and us, revealing the rhythms and patterns of intimacy in those families. 

Ponch Hawkes - Rosa and Ruth 1976 - from Our Mums and us

gelatin silver photograph

printed image 17.7 (h) x 12.7 (w) cm, sheet 25.4 (h) x 20.2 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of the Philip Morris Arts Grant 1982

 

American photographer Cindy Sherman’s 1977 Untitled Film Stills is a suite of black-and-white images in which she posed in the guises of various generic female film characters, contributing to a needed conversation about oversimplified representations of women.

Cindy Sherman - Untitled film still # 3 1977 - from Untitled Film Stills

gelatin silver photograph

printed image 16.1 (h) x 24.0 (w) cm, sheet 30.4 (h) x 35.4 (w) cm

Frame 43.2 (h) x 58.5 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Purchased 1983

Annette Messager was born into a family of atheists who took a particular pleasure in their local Catholic church. Her work draws on religious iconography, with unholy intentions. In her 1989 piece, My Vows, tiny photos of body parts are hung in a cluster. Genitals, mouths and eyes hint at eroticism rather than spirituality. 

Annette Messager - Mes voeux [My vows] 1989

gelatin silver photographs, colour pencil on paper, string

installation variable 350.0 (h) x 90.0 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Purchased 1993

© Annette Messager. ADAGP/Copyright Agency

Patricia Piccinini (born in Sierra Leone) is an Australian artist who works in a variety of media. She is well-known for The Skywhale, a hot air balloon work, and also for investigating relationships between nature, science and technology. In Psychogeography 1996 she explores the genetic engineering debate. It examines reality and fantasy, by featuring Australian actress Sophie Lee cradling a LUMP™ (Lifeform with Unevolved Mutant Properties), evoking curiosity about a future with malleable human bodies.

Psychogeography 1996 - from The Mutant Genome Project (TMGP)

chromogenic photograph

printed image 120.7 (h) x 243.7 (w) cm, sheet 129.2 (h) x 271.2 (w) cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Purchased with Funds from the Moet & Chandon Australian Art Foundation

© Patricia Piccinini

Nowadays, numerous women make artworks testing the limits of photography and its relationship to the world.

This review is also available on the author's blog.

 

A CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR - 2025. The Canberra Theatre.

Produced and directed by Michael Boyd – Choreographed by Matt Browning

Costumes designed by Cathie Costello – Stage management by Journey Malone

Lighting designed by Alex Fox – Sound designed by Tom Hawker

Canberra Theatre 22^nd, 23^rd December 2025.

Performance on 22^nd December reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Prinnie Stevens and her boys.

Canberra was the final stop for The Christmas Spectacular   in a world-wind, six-city tour during December which also took in Melbourne, Newcastle, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney.

Substantially the same production as presented in 2024, this year’s iteration was again helmed by vocalist, Prinnie Stevens, who delighted as the glamorous leading lady during   the many spectacular Parisian-cabaret-style production numbers. Stevens also charmed with her engaging storytelling while linking the various specialty acts.

Able to effortlessly produce sweet head voice or aggressive rock sounds at will, Stevens’ interpretations of favourite Christmas songs, “All I Want For Christmas is You”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, and “Jingle Bell Rock”, proved a perfect salve for an audience harried from hectic Christmas preparations.    

When she is paying attention to her lyrics, Stevens has few peers as a vocalist in the Whitney Houston/Mariah Carey mould. However, her tendency to wander the stage waving to audience members during her renditions of “Silent Night” and “White Christmas” indicated a disinterest in the lyrics of these two Christmas favourites, spoiling what could have been magic moments.

Aleisha Manion performing on the Aerial Hoop.

Ballet-trained acrobat, Aleisha Manion, captivated with her virtuosity with hula hoops. However, it was the grace and power of her presentation on the aerial hoop, for which she was supported by two dancers dressed as angels, which remains an indelible memory.

For many, it is the superb team of dancers, six statuesque showgirls and two accomplished male dancers, who are the outstanding feature of The Christmas Spectacular.  

Most are former Moulin Rouge or Lido dancers, skilled in the art of displaying Cathie Costello’s spectacular rhinestone and feather creations, while executing Matt Brownings intricately choreographed production numbers in perfect unison.

The Christmas Spectacular dancers performing the Toy Soldiers ballet.

Stand-outs among these clever routines, were a toy-soldier ballet for which the dancers wore stylish red and gold toy soldier outfits, and another in which the troupe, elegant in silver and black, spectacularly manipulated huge white ostrich feather fans around Prinnie Stevens as she sang “Joy to the World”.

Prinnie Stevens and The Christmas Spectacular dancers performing "Joy to the World"

But the clear favourite with the younger audience members, who shrieked with delight as they entered, was the dazzling routine for which the eight dancers, costumed as athletic reindeer, towed a sleigh carrying a very merry Santa Claus.

The Christmas Spectacular dancers perform "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer:

In 2024, The Christmas Spectacular was presented in the Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse.  While it too attracted capacity houses, the Canberra Theatre has almost twice the seating capacity as the Playhouse.  

Michael Boyd’s ability to attract near-capacity audiences for the two performances of The Christmas Spectacular this year in the much larger Canberra Theatre, is as much a testament to his abilities as an entrepreneur with high production values, as it is his talents as a world-class magician.   

Michael Boyd and ballerina perform the Nutcracker illusion.

 

But, while it’s always a joy to revisit his beautifully staged ‘Nutcracker’ illusion featuring a ballerina emerging magically from a huge velvet-lined jewel-box; or delight in the wonder of a tot from the audience, as he recounts the story of how he became a magician, his finale illusion at this performance was a disappointment.

Last year it was a snowstorm that filled the theatre with snowflakes. But whether it misfired this year, or was just not possible in the larger theatre, whatever the reason, those who thrilled to it last year were left wondering by this year’s effort.

During this performance, Prinnie Stevens mentioned the hope that The Christmas Spectacular would become an annual event. It is a hope fervently echoed by his loyal audience who each year look forward to the next Michael Boyd extravaganza.

                                                               Photos provided.

 

 

 

Black, White + Colour

Photography/Biography Book Review: Brian Rope

Black, White + Colour - A Biography of Mervyn Bishop

Text © Tim Dobbyn 2025

Publisher: Ginninderra Press

ISBN Standard edition: 9781761097089

ISBN International edition: 979-8-9921572-0-8

207 pp

Book cover (featuring School Bus Yarrabah, 1974 – Mervyn Bishop)

This illustrated biography of Mervyn Bishop - Australia’s first indigenous professional photographer and treasured artist - provides an intimate portrait. Well researched and clearly written, it has many examples of his fine images as well as other relevant illustrations.

Mervyn on the old Brewarrina bridge, 2019, Tim Dobbyn

Bishop fell in love with photography as a boy of 12 in his hometown of Brewarrina. Serendipitous contact with some white journalists led to a job at the Sydney Morning Herald when just 17. He says his photography is based in the newspaper world.

Closing of pub, Glebe, 1967, Mervyn Bishop

Lionel Rose, world champion bantam weight boxer before departing to the USA to defend his title, Sydney, 1968, Mervyn Bishop

One of his best-known images is Life and Death Dash which caught the anxiety and haste of a religious sister carrying a tearful boy into hospital. He hurried back to the Herald-Sun offices after taking this image to process it. However, their tabloid - the Sun - did not use it. But it is in this book.

Life and Death Dash, Sydney, 1971, Mervyn Bishop

Later, Bishop entered it in the 1971 Australian Press Photographer of the Year Award and won, receiving a medallion and AUD$2,000. But he never received the customary pay increase the Herald had given to other Award winners. This book provides a lot more information, including Bishop’s own view that he had faced a glass ceiling in that workplace.

Disillusioned, Bishop moved to Canberra as a government photographer. In that role, he took an iconic photo of Gough Whitlam pouring earth into the hands of traditional owner Vincent Lingiari. All adult Australians well know the story, the image and an equally iconic song which refers to the event. Again it is in the book.

A further well-known image, Cousins, Ralph and Jim, shows the universal joy of skipping school. Wearing school uniforms, the boys are rowing a boat on the Barwon River. They had decided it would be better to be with Mervyn who was visiting Brewarrina than to go to school. This delightful photo is accompanied here by a detailed story, revealing just how thoroughly the book’s author, Tim Dobbyn, has explored his subject’s life story.

Woman in wheelchair, Wilcannia, 1988, Mervyn Bishop

Dobbyn is a former journalist who started at Australian Associated Press in 1981 before moving to the United States in 1987 to work for Reuters. After taking a break from daily journalism, he worked freelance jobs before starting work on this biography in 2018.

NADOC 86 Exhibition of Aboriginal and Islander Photographers, Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Sydney, 1986, William Yang

 

In 1993, significant Australian-Chinese photographer William Yang set off with Bishop to explore the relationship of Aboriginal people with the Barwon River but decided Bishop’s personal story was of greater interest. In 2003 the Sydney Opera House arranged for these two photographers to create a show for its annual showcase of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and artists. The book provides a detailed description of difficulties experienced and overcome as they created the exhibition.

After returning to Sydney, Bishop was eventually befriended by the arts scene, leading to his first solo exhibition in 1991. Sadly this victory was clouded by the death of his wife on the day of the opening. Dobbyn tells us that Bishop enjoys his current status in the art world but is irritated by artistic analysis of his work.

While often celebrated for chronicling the rising visibility of Indigenous Australians, Bishop is also proud of what he calls his “Whitefella pictures”. He carved his own path, deftly navigating the Black and White worlds of post-war Australia. The book says he has had an unadorned approach to portraiture, with no subject losing any dignity “in the presence of the humble man from Brewarrina.”

Body painting for the Marayarr Murrukundja ceremony, Indonesia, 1993, Mervyn Bishop

Bungaree: The Showman, 2012, Mervyn Bishop

 
The book is dedicated to the first inhabitants of Australia, stating their knowledge and art should be a source of pride and wonder to all Australians. This white Australian couldn’t agree more. Anyone thinking otherwise should, if possible, take a look at the superb indigenous artworks in the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain, the Artistic Director of which is Tony Albert, Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji peoples, one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists. It’s at the National Gallery of Australia until 26 April 2026, then will tour nationally.

This review is also available on the author's blog.

HAND TO GOD by Robert Askins. Directed by Jarrad West. ACT Hub. To December 20. 

Photos Janelle McMenamin and Michael Moore

Here’s a wild pre Christmas revival of this somewhat mad play that is a kind of dark Sesame Street. It will be very much to some people’s off-beat festive season tastes.

Awkwardly trendy Pastor Greg (Lachlan Ruffy) has a puppet workshop running at the church, where harried divorcee Margery (Amy Kowalczuk ) is training a few young people in the art of using puppetry to tell religious stories. These include the self assured Jessica (Meaghan Stewart) and the rather feral Timmy (William Allington). Her son Jason (Michael Cooper) is working with a puppet called Tyrone. 

And Tyrone is the one to watch as he changes gradually from mild and meek to savage with a mouth full of teeth and an attitude and  vocabulary to match. Cooper is both increasingly deranged puppet and increasingly cowed puppeteer with an admirable dexterity in switching from one to another. 

It’s certainly an adult horror play with some drive and humour and a heap of sexuality. 

But apart from Cooper, this is a revival with a different cast and it could use a little more certainty and a little less thrashing around. I seem to remember the 2022 production as having more clarity and a less frenetic approach. 

Nonetheless it’s a piece to see. The whole notion of puppets who are maybe more than wood and cloth is always a haunting one. 

ALANNA MACLEAN

A HANDEL CELEBRATION

Canberra Choral Society

Erin Helyard, director

Myriam Arbouz, soprano

Llewellyn Hall, December 13

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

Promising arias and choruses from the greatest works of Georg Frideric Handel, the Canberra Choral Society provided a huge choir to sing the many choruses and French soprano, Myriam Arbouz to sing the arias. It was all directed by Sydney’s Erin Helyard.

Myriam Arbouz has established herself as one of the most compelling interpreters of baroque and early classical repertoire. She has performed across Europe, Australia and beyond.

Erin Helyard is artistic director and co-founder of Pinchgut Opera and the Orchestra of the Antipodes (Sydney). He is also Associate Professor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

For this Come & Sing event, the 160-member choir, prepared by Canberra based composer, conductor and performer, Dan Walker, included 80 guest singers from the Canberra community.

Canberra Choral Society, guest singers and orchestra with Erin Helyard, director

Helyard addressed the audience at the beginning of the concert, saying that, in his opinion, Handel’s music and his works were Theatre of the Mind, conjuring up colourful ancient stories and characters. To open the program, Sinfonia from Handel’s early opera Agripinna was played by the orchestra, taking us deep into Handel’s world.

A large program of choruses was presented. Many were familiar and the huge choir impressed with the depth and accuracy of their singing. The words in English were very clear and easily understood.

It was all so well performed by the choir. Particularly outstanding were Jealously! from Hercules with its contrasting soft and dramatic passages and Funeral Anthem For Queen Caroline with its beautiful, sombre beginning. The very well-known Zadok the Priest was given a rousing performance, with trumpeters Zach Raffan and Sam Hutchinson playing superbly. Two choruses from the oratorio Theodora were also memorably sung as was the moving finale of Handel’s Messiah.

Myriam Arbouz, soprano, with Erin Helyard, director

Soprano, Myriam Arbouz, sang four arias. Her beautiful, clear soprano, and the depth of feeling she presented in each item to bring her characters to life, showed why she is so renowned as a performer. Each aria she sang was a highlight of the program. The well-known Lascia ch’io pianga (Let me weep) from Rinaldo was given a refreshing new depth in her interpretation and the emotional Ombre pallide from Alcina was also memorably sung.

The orchestra gave a fine performance throughout and the thoughtfully chosen items of the program produced a true celebration of Handel’s music, ending the year on a high note.

 

Photos by Peter Hislop

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 14 December 2025.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

EMERGING CHOREOGRAPHERS PROGRAM 2025 - Quantum Leap Australia

Choreographers L - R:         Chloe Curtis - Akira Byrne - Maya Wille-Bellchambers - Jahna Lugnan        Gigi Rohrlach - Lucia Morabito.

Mentors: Alice Lee Holland, Emma Batchelor

Costume co-ordination: Natalie Wade, Linda Uzubalis

Sound mastering Kimmo Vennonen – Lighting support: Owen Davies, Sidestage.

A Block Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, 13^th, 14^th December 2025.

Performance on 13^th December reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Introducing this year’s edition of the Emerging Choreographer’s Program, Artistic Director and CEO, Alice Lee Holland revealed that QL2 Dance would undergo a name change to Quantum Leap Australia, with this program being the first under its new name. 

Holland also mentioned later, that in her mentoring, she had encouraged the choreographers, who’s ages ranged from 16 to 19 years, not to concentrate on producing a polished final work, but rather to use the opportunity to test their ability to express complex ideas through dance.

The Emerging Choreographer’s Program is an annual program that provides young Quantum Leap artists with the opportunity to create their own original short dance work.

They are guided through the process by professional mentors, this year Alice Lee Holland and Emma Batchelor, provided with rehearsal space and access to dancers, but all decisions regarding concepts, costuming, lighting, music and direction of their dancers are their own.   

This year, all the emerging choreographers participated as dancers in at least one other work by another of the choreographers. One explaining in the Q & A following the performances, that this had proved a helpful strategy with her own problem solving.

For interested audiences, how the aspiring choreographers’ embrace this opportunity, and the topics chosen for their dance work, can be fascinating.

Quantum Leap Australia dancers perform METAMORPHOSIS by Maya Wille-Bellchambers

18-year-old Maya Willie-Bellchambers has already been accepted into VCA for study next year. Although she has participated in the ECP previously, “Metamorphosis” is the first work she has created alone.

Inspired by her interest in mental illness, she drew her inspiration from the transformation of caterpillar to butterfly, to express feelings of entrapment.

For her ambitious work, five dancers, costumed in semi-business attire, remained expressionless as they worked closely together to create unsettling visuals, during which their fingers were constantly wriggling. 

Quantum Leap Australian dancers perform "MIRAGE OF MEMORIES" by Lucia Morabito

 First time participant in the ECP, Lucia Morabito also utilised five dancers for her work intitled “Mirage of Memories” with which she explored notions around personal and collective perceptions of memory. 

Created in four distinct chapters, her dancers languidly paraded, formed graceful groups, or simply sat as if sunbaking, as they watched one or more of their number scrawl words on the wall behind them.

 Indefinite and undimmed – Crossroads/Naïve Desperations – In Grievance Of Its Shape – Comicality Of My Recollections, began to cover the wall.  And while the words meant little to this viewer, it was difficult not to be captivated by the lyrical mood created by the movement and soundtrack which included a lovely version of the song “Stairway to the Stars”.

Quan

Quantum Leap Australia dancers performing BREATHING STATUES by Gigi Rohrlach.

A similar mood was evoked by Gigi Rohrlach’s lovely creation,” Breathing Statues”. To the music of nature sounds mixed with Masakatsu Takagi and Rosalia, Rohrlach joined dancers, Akira Byrne, Anna Maksimova, and Coral Onn to perform a graceful work featuring gentle unison movement and poses to elicit visions of forgotten statues in an overgrown forest.

While the choreography may not have been groundbreaking, it was certainly lovely to watch and perfectly chosen for its purpose.

 

Quantum Leap Australia dancers perform "CHOROPHOBIA" by Chloe Curtis

Although 16-year-old Chloe Curtis has been participating as a dancer in ECP’s since 2022, this is the first time she has been involved as a choreographer.

Challenging herself with a difficult subject, fear of phobia, she worked with six dancers to create, “Chorophobia” exploring six different psychological reactions to fear.

Very well performed by the dancers, to a nervy, well-chosen soundtrack mix, the work had the dancers reacting to flashing lights while performing slithering movements, spasms, twitches and at times, simply rocking gently to evoke their responses to the various criteria.

Jahna Lugnam performing in "THE SHAPE OF ME IS CHANGING by Akira Byrne

18- year-old Akira Byrne was awarded a Canberra Critics Circle Award for the extraordinary solo work she created and performed during the 2024 ECP.

This year she challenged herself further by joining dancers Jahna Lugnan, Coral Onn, Marlon Clode, Juliette Feerick and Reuben Reynolds to deliver her own original poetry in her work exploring physical confines and living with pain, “the shape of me is shifting”.

Performed to Harland Rust’s, “I’m Sending Conrad Away”, the work was remarkable for its imagery and an extraordinary performance by Jahna Lugnan. Already a charismatic dancer, Byrne is exhibiting the potential to become an extraordinary dance creator.

Quantum Leap Australia dancers perform "THE DOG SHOWS NO CONCERN" by Jahna Lugnan

The final work of the program, intriguingly entitled, “The Dog Shows No Concern” was created by Jahna Lugnan, participating in her fourth ECP, and her third time as a choreographer.

Setting out to resist audience expectations and inspired by the David Byrne book “American Utopia”, this work featured a surprise at every turn.

At its heart is a very funny choreography performed to a version of Bizet’s “Habanera” written for his opera “Carmen”, but in this version, performed po-faced by the dancers, with inventive, and very funny choreography that resisted any reference to the opera.

Delightfully entertaining, it proved a perfect way to end the program, leaving this reviewer looking forward to seeing more work from this choreographer.

Throughout, the Emerging Choreographers Program 2025 proved impressive for the attention to the production elements, costuming, lighting and sound, for the commitment and skill of the dancers, and for the ingenuity and imagination of the fledgling choreographers.

 

Quantum Leap Australia dancer performing in "MIRAGE OF MEMORIES" by Lucia Morabito.



Photos by Olivier Wikner, O & J Wikner Photography.

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

LOVING - Photographs of men in Love, 1850s to 1950s & A loving City - Queerberra Revisited

LOVING - Photographs of men in Love, 1850s to 1950s

A loving City - Queerberra Revisited

Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG), Gallery 2 | 6 December 2025 to 5 April 2026

Whilst most certainly being complementary, these two exhibitions in adjoining spaces are also very different to each other. LOVING – Photographs of men in Love, 1850s to 1950s is, obviously, only about men. The large number of photographs in the display is essentially monochromatic.

Installation image - LOVING – Photographs of men in Love, 1850s to 1950s © Brian Rope

But, when visitors walk through into the next space to A loving City – Queerberra Revisited they will immediately see colour images hung against a background of vivid rainbow colours.

Installation image - A loving City – Queerberra Revisited © Brian Rope

The content of LOVING was created by collectors and arts professionals Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell. That married couple discovered an old photograph of two other men in a tender loving embrace at an antique store in Dallas, Texas, 25 years ago. The image sparked a passion which resulted in a global journey searching for other photographs capturing men in love. They searched flea markets, auction houses, family albums and online collections, gradually gathering from all over the world over 4,000 tender images of male couples taken between the 1850s and 1950s - 100 years of social history and the development of photography.

In 2020, they published a book internationally, showing hundreds of the previously unpublished vernacular photographs depicting romantic love between men that powerfully and movingly reasserted both that love is love and that there had always been men who loved each other. It and this exhibition tenderly portray romantic love between men. There are snapshots, portraits, and group photos taken in the most varied places and situations. Often taken when male partnerships were illegal, the collectors identified the men in the images as couples by what they have described as the unmistakable look in the eyes of two people in love, by their body language, and even by coded inscriptions. There is a diversity of image formats - ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, and more.

Three years later, the collection was exhibited for the first time at the Musée Rath in Geneva. Now, it is being displayed in Australia, co-presented by CMAG and the Delegation of the European Union to Australia. The photographs on display have been digitised. They tell stories which have a considerable impact when we consider them. They speak to spirit and resilience. LOVING brings to light the lives and stories of male couples from around the world - giving voice to their courage, intimacy and enduring love for their “other halves”.

Unknown subject, Loving: Photographs of Men in Love 1850s-1950s © The Nini-Treadwell collection

Unknown subject, Loving: Photographs of Men in Love 1850s-1950s
© The Nini-Treadwell collection

Unknown subject, Loving: Photographs of Men in Love 1850s-1950s

© The Nini-Treadwell collection

The second exhibition, A Loving City: Queerberra Revisited, is a return to a 2017 portrait series - Queerberra by photographer Jane Duong and producer Victoria Firth-Smith.

Created between 2015 and 2017, in the lead-up to Australia’s same-sex marriage postal vote, the original project captured over 100 portraits of LGBTQIA+ Canberrans in their homes, workplaces and everyday spaces. Over weekends spent in bedrooms, workplaces, and on the streets, portraits of pride, exhaustion, defiance, love, and hope were captured with grace and honesty. Some subjects were already out. Others came out for the first time. This unique art project set out to portray the beauty of Canberra’s rich array of local identities from LGBTIQ, asexual and cisgender peoples, to drag queens and kings, and beyond. Everyday lives were captured and shared with pride - some had not been ‘out’ publicly, others were very much in the public eye.

On 15 November 2017, Canberra’s voters delivered Australia’s strongest "Yes" vote in support of marriage equality. The Queerberra book was launched the very next day. Eight years later, this revisiting of the book and original exhibition showcases 99 of the original 100 portraits from that book and invites audiences to consider how much things have changed in that time.

Caitlin and Jill, Queerberra - photography by Jane Duong and produced by Victoria Firth-Smith

 

James, Queerberra - photography by Jane Duong and produced by Victoria Firth-Smith

These two exhibitions are simultaneously intensely intimate and deeply political. Each one stands alone in its story and tone; together they form a larger narrative about connection across generations, time periods and other things that often divide us.

This review is also available on the author's blog. And a shorter version is on a Canberra City News webpage.