If only we could take the time: contemporary Australian photography

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

If only we could take the time: contemporary Australian photography

Ying Ang, Katrin Koenning and Anu Kumar

National Portrait Gallery I 30 November 2024 – 1 June 2025 

This show is being staged alongside the major exhibition Carol Jerrems: Portraits. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG)’s website says that it spotlights the work of three contemporary Australian artists whose work sits in dialogue with Jerrems’ legacy.

The exhibition title is taken from Jerrems’ preface to her 1974 publication, A book about Australian women. ‘There is so much beauty around us if only we could take the time to open our eyes and perceive it. And then share it.’ The NPG correctly suggests that contemporary Australian photography considers how the impulse to observe, to record and to share continues to propel photographic practice in Australia.

The images by each artist have been arranged in groups and each arrangement is an artwork in itself contributing to the narrative. There is also a display case containing three books – one by each artist – adding further to the overall experience.

Ying Ang is an acclaimed photographer and author with an extensive exhibition history. Like Jerrems she also produces photobooks. Her 2021 self-published illustrated book The Quickening: a memoir on matrescence is being exhibited here – both on the walls and in the display case.

Installation view featuring The Quickening, 2022 by Ying Ang

The term matrescence refers to the life-changing experiences of new mothers. These artworks chronicle pregnancy and the first months of motherhood which follow. In order to portray the transition into motherhood, eerie images taken on baby monitors are contrasted with gentle photographic studies that capture emotions of joy and tenderness as well as anxiety, depression, and claustrophobia. On the reverse side of the large panel where the works are installed is a considerable volume of excellent text which should not be missed.

Sample of the text on reverse side of Ying Ang’s installation The Quickening, 2022

The Quickening, 2022 (detail) Ying Ang. Courtesy of the artist. © Ying Ang

The Quickening, 2022 (detail) Ying Ang. Courtesy of the artist. © Ying Ang

Katren Koenning is an artist who carefully considers colours, textures, and tones. She also produces photobooks as well as exhibiting. She groups images, using works possibly created decades apart to reveal a portrait of family, friends and kinship. In her exhibit titled where will the story take us, 2002-24, we see a tattered book and its shadow on a dusty surface, a cat at a window, people, and more. A trawl through her Instagram account reveals the diversity of her imagery and her passionate approach. The individual pieces in this installation do not disappoint. Her illustrated 2024 book between the skin and the sea is in the previously mentioned display case.

Installation view featuring where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) by Katren Koenning

where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) (detail) Katrin Koenning. Courtesy of the artist. © Katrin Koenning

where will the story take us, 2002-2024 (printed 2024) (detail) Katrin Koenning. Courtesy of the artist. © Katrin Koenning 

I met the third artist, Anu Kumar, at the exhibition launch party whilst exploring her Untitled images. I had asked another viewer of the artworks if he knew where a named place, Ghaziabad, was in India. He said it could be described as an outer suburb of New Delhi. Then he introduced me to his cousin – the artist. She told me Ghaziabad definitely wasn’t a place that tourists would want to visit.

And yes, like Jerrems, Ang and Koenning, Kumar also produces photobooks as well as exhibiting. Some of the works here are from two of her books – Ghar (meaning home in Hindi) which is displayed features images from her birthplace - Ghaziabad, and After the Havan (a prayer ritual). We see an excellent visual articulation of her exploration of family and place that she had left when just one year old. There are images of everyday objects and people - including an aged, framed photo in an unused sink and the worn feet of (probably) a family member. The totality of the displayed work is very much a portrait.

 

Installation view featuring Untitled, 2024 (detail) by Anu Kumar

Untitled, 2024 (detail) Anu Kumar. Courtesy of the artist. © Anu Kumar

Untitled, 2024 (detail) Anu Kumar. Courtesy of the artist. © Anu Kumar 

So have these three photographers taken the time to see the beauty around them? I certainly saw beauty in their varied imagery. Have they chronicled intimate relationships and used their cameras to connect us emotionally with the things they experienced? I believe they have, but emotional responses must be your own.

This review is also available on the author's blog here. It has also been published on pp 12-15 of the February 2025 issue of The Printer here.

Carol Jerrems – Portraits

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

Carol Jerrems – Portraits I Carol Jerrems

National Portrait Gallery I 30 November 2024 - 2 March 2025

Carol Jerrems: Portraits is a major exhibition of images by one of Australia’s most influential photographers. Jerrems’ intimate portraits of friends, lovers and artistic peers have shaped Australian visual culture. Against the backdrop of social change in the 1970s, her practice charted the women’s movement, documented First Nations activism, put a spotlight on youth subcultures and explored the music and arts scenes of the era.

What were you doing in the ‘70s? Some visitors to this exhibition will not have been born then. Others spent those years “wasting their youth”. My wife and I were raising two young children. Some are well past the age that Jerrems was when she was documenting the ‘70s.

Her career spanned only twelve years before a tragic death at the age of 30. Jerrems captured the world around her with curiosity and courage. She photographed her world - a voracious observer yet also intentional in her approach to narrative and composition. Her images play with tension and dramatic impact. They are candid but at times purposefully theatrical, tough and yet vulnerable, revealing both melancholy and joy.

The exhibition showcases 144 photographs Is that a little overwhelming. And why are they all displayed before wide strips of pink paint? Regardless, this show should be seen. It traverses the journey from Jerrems’ lesser-known early work to her iconic Vale Street 1975 and coincides with the 50th anniversary of her landmark publication A book about Australian women. Featuring portraits of cultural figures like Anne Summers, Bobbi Sykes, Evonne Goolagong and Linda Jackson the exhibition examines how the author’s work defined a decade and continues to shape our views of photography today.

But there’s no need to write about her best-known works here. Instead, I want to mention some less-known images. Firstly, Marilyn Monroe, the only portrait of a non-Australian. Is it really a portrait or rather part of a non-descript building on which hangs a framed Richard Avedon print of Monroe?

Carol Jerrems - Marilyn Monroe 1972

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

Then there is Empty Corridor, which is not quite that. There are small silhouettes of unknown people at the corridor’s far end in this most interesting image.

Carol Jerrems - Empty corridor 1979

National Library of Australia

Manuscript collection (MS 10718)

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

Much more significant is the inclusion of contact sheets providing valuable insights into the artist’s ways of working. Some show empty frames where images have been cut from the negative strips. Jerrems was very interested in the sequential nature of photography and often created contact sheets using strips of images taken on different film rolls, then exhibited those sheets as artworks alongside individual image prints.

Carol Jerrems - Contact sheet (Linda Piper) 1974

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

Jerrems made her name during a time of significant social change. She explored activism by First Nations people, the women's movement, youth subcultures, other artists and musicians. Many of the latter were household names and those who were then young adult Australians will be reminded of times in their lives. There are images of loved actresses Enid Lorimer and Kate Fitzpatrick, of a pioneer of modernist painting in Australia, Grace Cossington Smith, of Aboriginal people including Rosslyn Johnson and David Gulpilil (with a bucket), of youths who became known as Sharpies, and of young friends simply enjoying each other’s company when school was out.

Carol Jerrems - Enid Lorimer and Kate Fitzpatrick 1974

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

Carol Jerrems - Rosslyn Johnson 1973

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

Carol Jerrems - Edols seeing Gulpilil with a bucket 1974

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

Carol Jerrems - Sharpie couple, Melbourne 1976

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems 

Carol Jerrems - School's out 1975

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

One image stands out for a number of reasons. Mirror with a memory: Motel room is the only colour image in the exhibition. Along with a shot of Grace Cossington-Smith, it is an example of the artist’s effective use of mirrors. And it is a revealing self-portrait of her and her lifestyle.

Carol Jerrems - Mirror with a memory: Motel room 1977
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981
© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

Carol Jerrems - Grace Cossington Smith, OBE 1974

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981

© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

The exhibition's last section is a collection of works that Jerrems photographed in hospital whilst battling the rare liver disease which led to her premature death.

This review is also available on the author's blog here. It has also been published on pp 8-11 of the February 2025 issue of The Printer here.

An abbreviated version has been published online by Canberra City News here.