Category Archives: essays

Walter Woodbury

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Entrepreneur, Inventor: Woodbury in Indonesia

I have uploaded a small essay I wrote in 2014 about Walter Woodbury in Indonesia. This essay was linked to the exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia — Garden of the East: photography in Indonesia 1850s-1940s. Click here for my essay online.

There’s also another small essay online that relates to a photograph — the one above — titled Serimpies, or dancing girls of the Sultano c.1858 . Click here for that essay.

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For the list of my essays (being updated) click here

 

George Silk

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George Silk, Photojournalist

I have several essays online relating to George Silk the photojournalist. Born in Levin, New Zealand in 1916, Silk served as a photojournalist for Life Magazine for 30 years.

He is well known as a war photographer, that part of his career began in 1939 serving for the Australian government in the Middle East, North Africa and Greece.

There are many other aspects of his achievements covered in my essays. Most of my research related to the exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia in 2000.

Here are the links to my essays:

Going to Extremes: George Silk, Photojournalist from the NGA exhibition catalogue

Going to extremes: George Silk photographer   essay in Art & Australia

George Silk,Fawn and rainbow trout, tributary of the Madison River, Montana

 

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For the list of my essays (being updated) click here

 

 

 

Tracey Moffatt

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Online essays about Tracey Moffatt

I have several essays online about Tracey Moffatt and her photography. There’s also a link to an online version of the 1995 publication Fever Pitch with essays by Tracey and myself.

Tracey Moffatt: Invocations (2001)
Published in the exhibition catalogue — Australian National University Gallery 2001

Tracey Moffatt: The memory theatre of Tracey Moffatt
An exhibition held at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, 2 February — 9 April 2000

Tracey Moffatt: See the woman with the red dress on … and on … and on
Essay in Art and Asia Pacific 1994

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Online: 1995 Fever Pitch, Tracey Moffatt & Gael Newton

Published online the now out of print publication (1995) with key essay by Gael Newton on Tracey Moffatt’s work along with two essays by Tracey Moffatt.

Click here of the link.

Fever Pitch was originally published in 1995 by Piper Press, Annadale (Sydney).

For more of Gael Newton’s papers — click here.

 

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For the list of my essays (being updated) click here

Australian Feminist Photography

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Indecent Exposures:
Twenty Years of Australian Feminist Photography

My 1994 review of Indecent Exposures: Twenty Years of Australian Feminist Photography by Catriona Moore, Allen & Unwin in association with the Power Institute of Fine Art, Sydney  — click here

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For the list of my essays (being updated) click here

Curatorland

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Writing in the Rain, FX Harsono - Still from colour video 2011  Collection National Gallery of Australia

Following my leaving the National Gallery in September 2014, I was asked by the editor of the Journal of the Asian Arts Society Australia to write about my last decade at the gallery — the decade that saw the establishment of a survey collection of Asia-Pacific photography spanning from South Asia to the west coast of the Americas.

The new collection was largely based around major collections acquired from several major private collections of Asia-Pacific photography including one of some 5000 colonial-era Indonesian photographs.

Here’s that story — click here

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For the list of my other essays (being updated) click here

 

Australian Photography since the 1970s

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Michael Riley’s Cloud (2000)

Generations: Australian Photography since the 1970s

This essay was originally published in the catalogue Photographica Australis
for the 2002 exhibition by the Australian Centre of Photography
Curated by Alasdair Foster. Click here

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For the list of my essays (being updated) click here

Celebrating photographers

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Celebrating artists — having artists parties — remains a good thing to do. A story from my history — back to 1978. enjoy!The photo below: David Moore photographing fellow photographers at the party.

Posted by The Art Museum on Monday, 23 October 2017

National Gallery Singapore

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CHARTING THOUGHTS: ESSAYS ON ART IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

A new research book has been published by the National Gallery of Singapore. It contains essays on Southeast Asian art by 25 scholars.

I was given the honour by the NGS of being one the contributing scholars.

The book is available from the NGS shop and through their website — click here.

Continue reading National Gallery Singapore →