Based on text from the original book: Shades of Light: Photography and Australia 1839-1988
Gael Newton, 1988 Australian National Gallery Chapter 13 Footnotes return to Chapter 13 | contents -
Statements in the catalogues for the first and second exhibitions at David Jones' Gallery, Sydney 1949 and 1950. A third exhibition was held in 1954 at Farmers' Gallery. -
The use of colour materials from the 1930s has yet to be integrated into art histories of Australian photography. An exception is Jennie Boddington's exhibition and publication of the colour photography of Australian painter Russell Drysdale (1912-1981), one of her last projects as curator of photography at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, in 1987. -
Gordon Andrews is a designer by profession and Hal Missingham had been director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales since 1945. -
See James Cook, 'Photos by six in show', Daily Telegraph, 30 May 1955. -
H. Tatlock Miller, 'Cameramen glamorise their wares', press clipping from unidentified newspaper review, 23 March 1949. -
H. Tatlock Miller, 'Alec Murray, Photographer', introduction in Alec Murray's Album; Personalities ofAustralia (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1949). -
Murray was part of the Merioola group of artists before moving to England where he has enjoyed a long career as a fashion photographer. See biography in Chris France, Merioola and After (Sydney: S.H. Ervin Museum and Art Gallery, National Trust of Australia (NSW, 1986), pp.7-8.
A group of Murray's photographs is held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra. -
Letter from Max Dupain to Helmut Newton 14 August 1954. Typescript held by Max Dupain, Sydney. Other letters held by Dupain show that it was planned to exchange prints for criticism between the Melbourne and Sydney groups. Some prints were exchanged and criticised. -
Le Guay resumed similar publishing activities in the 1970s as editor for Australian Photography 1976 (Sydney: James H. Coleman/Globe, 1976) and Australian Photography - A Contemporary View (Sydney: James H. Coleman/Globe, 1978). -
See James H. Coleman, 'Selected Highlights and Landmarks from Australia's Photographic Past as Recorded in the Pages of its Leading Magazine', Special 400th issue Australian Photography (April 1984): pp.43-71. Colour reproductions were introduced in 1954. -
On the cover of the exhibition publication (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1955). For the political background to the tour of the exhibition to countries like Australia see Allan Sekula 'The Traffic in Photographs' in his Photography Against the Crain: Essays and Photoworks 1973-1983 (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1984), pp.77-101. [Sekula's critical examination of the notions of globalising and universal photographic discourse had been forgotten at the time 'A Global Picture' (Introduction) was written. However Sekula's essay extends far beyond the scope of my accounts]. -
Figures cited by Harold Cazneaux in his report on Pictorial photography in Australia during 1939, Photograms of the Year 1940, p. 14. -
Communication with the author 1986, -
See McFarlane's photograph of his grandfather, Amos Chaplin, c. 1960, held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. -
See biographical notes in the catalogue for McFarlane's retrospective at the Print Room, Sydney 1985, curated by Gael Newton. -
Statement by McCarter accompanying an illustration on his work in Graham Howe, ed. New Photography Australia (Sydney: Australian Centre for Photography, 1974), p. 16. -
Interviews with the main participants and Dacre Stubbs have not entirely clarified the structure or nomenclature of Group M - named for Moggs Creek, Lorne - also known as the United Moggs Organisation. There were also the Moggs Creek Clickers.
Research into the Urban Woman exhibition led to Group M but at a late stage of the Bicentennial Photography Project and to date few photographs by members have been located. -
Indeed in early salons Australian work submitted was deemed not ready for exhibition. A sheet on the Photovision 1963 exhibition announced that future shows would be exclusively Australian photography. Group M were actively supported by John Reed (1901-1981) founderdirector of the Museum of Modern Art and Design, Melbourne. Exhibitions were held at his Gallery A. -
The Urban Woman exhibition was displayed at the Town Hall and subsequently toured Mexico where it was evidently destroyed. -
Information from John Cato, Melbourne. Jack Cato was nevertheless invited to open the Photovision 1961 exhibition. -
Statement in the catalogue for Photovision 1966. Photographer H. Dacre Stubbs was a consistent critic of the approach of Group M finding it misguided. In a review in Professional Photography Uune 1962), pp.24-5 Stubbs sought an art in photography which avoided the sterility of technically perfect prints as in the older salons and the mediocrity and technical incompetence of the Photovision salons. A recent article in the Age newspaper, Melbourne by Tom Gilhooley on the Moggs Creek Clickers prompted a letter to the editor of the News Diary section from Albert W. Brown. Brown pointed to the positive achievements of the group not only in mounting exhibitions but in bringing to Australia The Photographer's Eye exhibition from the Museum of Modern Art, New York but also in their arguing for the establishment of a photography department at the National Gallery of Victoria. -
Produced and photographed by Robert B. Goodman, text by George Johnston, TheAustralians (Adelaide: Rigby, 1966). return to Chapter 13 | contents
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