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. And in the April 2026 issue of the Australian Photographic Society's online magazine 'The Printer'.

Mervyn Bishop, the exhibition

 

Photography | Brian Rope

Mervyn Bishop | Mervyn Bishop, the exhibition

National Film and Sound Archives | Until 1 August 2021

This exhibition is drawn from the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) collection and Mervyn Bishop’s private archive; and enriched by sound and moving images from the NFSA. It features iconic photographs that derive from his career as a photojournalist, alongside personal images of family and friends and intimate portraits of members of the Aboriginal community.

H. Thomas, C. Dixon, K. Smith ACT from the Mervyn Bishop archive 1976 35mm colour slide 2.5 x 3.5 cm National Art Archive|Art Gallery of New South Wales © Mervyn Bishop Photo: AGNSW

There are also images of Bishop by other photographers, cameras from his personal collection, sound and moving image about him, and other videos providing context. So, it is not simply an exhibition of the artist’s imagery. It is an exhibition about the artist, one of Australia's most prolific and influential photographers, who has significantly influenced our collective understanding of Australia’s history.

Bishop himself has said: ‘Photography has been my life, my passion for 60 years: the art and technique, the stories I’ve witnessed and captured. I’m glad to be able to share my life’s work with the public’.

Born and raised in Brewarrina, Bishop was encouraged by his mother to take his first photograph. After witnessing the ‘magic’ of the developing process, he became passionate about photography. In 1963 he successfully applied for a four-year cadetship at The Sydney Morning Herald and became Australia’s first Aboriginal press photographer. In 1971 he won the News Photographer of the Year Award with his front-page photograph, Life and Death Dash, 1971.

There is no need for me to assess the quality of Bishop’s images; others have recognised his skills many times over many years. I will simply say that his body of work is amongst the most significant by any Australian photographer.

Inevitably displayed is the iconic image from 1975 when the (then) Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, poured a handful of earth back into the hand of Vincent Lingiari, Gurindji elder and traditional landowner. This image became an icon of the land rights movement and Australian photography.

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hands of traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari, Northern Territory 1975, printed 1999 type R3 photograph 30.5 x 30.5 cm image; 33.9 x 33.9 cm sheet Art Gallery of New South Wales Hallmark Cards Australian Photography Collection Fund 1991 © Mervyn Bishop/ Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Photo: AGNSW

But there is so much more. A wonderful shot of womenfolk at Bowraville includes Aunty Elaine Kelly wearing a cloth nappy around her face to ease toothache pain. Women attending a home management course at Yuendumu are portrayed sensitively in a fine moody image. Another of a woman balancing precariously on a wooden plank, holding a pot of water over a submerged cord supplying electricity to neighbours is a moving portrayal of living conditions for Aboriginal people in 1988.

There are important documentary images of well-known and important people, including Lois O’Donoghue and Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Other featured people include Roslyn Watson, one of the first Aboriginal ballerinas, and June Barker, an Aboriginal educator and story keeper.

Lois O’Donoghue CBA, AM, and Oodgeroo Noonuccal 1974, printed 2008 gelatin silver photograph 30 x 30.4 cm image; 40.4 x 50.6 cm sheet Art Gallery of New South Wales Purchased under the terms of the Florence Turner Blake Bequest 2008 © Mervyn Bishop Photo: AGNSW

Roslyn Watson 1973, printed 2008 gelatin silver photograph 40 x 30 cm sheet Art Gallery of New South Wales Purchased under the terms of the Florence Turner Blake Bequest 2008 © Mervyn Bishop Photo: AGNSW

And there are other more simple or gentle portrayals, such as Bob with his tiny catch at Shoalhaven Heads. An early work from 1966 portrays two of the photographer’s cousins when he visited Gundawera, a property near Brewarrina, where his grandfather, father and uncle once worked. It tenderly portrays a special and fun moment on a boat. It is a precious memory for Bishop, just as our old family photos are precious for each of us.

Cousins, Ralph and Jim, Brewarrina 1966, printed 2008 gelatin silver photograph 30 x 40 cm sheet Art Gallery of New South Wales Purchased under the terms of the Florence Turner Blake Bequest 2008 © Mervyn Bishop Photo: AGNSW

We are shown an excellent film about Bishop, directed by Warwick Thornton. And a home movie dating from c1957-8 of Bishop with fellow altar boys and Brothers at Brewarrina’s Christchurch, Church of England.

And when you have explored and taken in all of that, you can sit down and watch a curated slideshow of images from Bishop’s personal archive of over 8000 photos, taken during his 60 years of taking them. Like most photographers of his generation, he liked to host ‘slide nights’ for family, friends and neighbours. They were most fortunate people.

This review was first published by the Canberra Times here. It is also published on the author's own blog here.