I have written and uploaded a brief essay on an aspect of Jack Cato’s character portraits. This has been added to the special pages on Cato we have online (link below).
This task reminded me that there are other aspects of Cato’s photography that I have talked about and maybe need to also put down into another short essay or two.
Here’s a link to the ‘characters’ piece — click here
and also the link to our Jack Cato set of online resources.
I have uploaded a piece about a painting I bought in 2024. It is a self portrait c1941 by Dorothy Bradford 1920 — 2016. Click here for my piece on this artist.
I have uploaded a piece, written from our new home in Melbourne in May 2025, about life on the beach in Sydney 1964. click here
I have revisited, revised and uploaded a piece I wrote about Max Dupain in 1993.
Click here for that essay.
Hanging on our wall are two photographs taken by Wesley Stacey at The Hermitage — located north east of Melbourne. This was J.W. Lindt’s property with a guesthouse and extensive gardens. I have uploaded a piece about these two works. Click here.
With the new interest in 1970s Australian photography, I remembered this exhibition that went to San Diego in 1995. Click here for my piece on this.
I have written a piece online to introduce Graham Howe’s new book, EPOCH, that features Graham Howe’s photography from his Prahran College years 1970–1971. Click here for the review.
IWD 2025 — searching for peace. The image above by Daisy Wu. In these troubles times, we need to be positive and seek peace and harmony. Caption for the photograph: All quiet on the western front, 1955. Click here for more
Last Saturday (1st March 2024) the Museum of Australian Photography staged a very crowded (that is well attended) exhibition opening of the photography of students of Prahran College (in Melbourne) with works dating from 1968–1981.
Continue reading Exhibition of photography from Prahran College
I have uploaded to our web site a piece on Carol Eyerman, a woman photographer who may have been overlooked in our photo histories despite her significant body of work with LIFE and others. Click here.
Always looking for reasons to travel around Melbourne, we spotted a closing down sale at a hat shop on Gertrude Street Fitzroy. This being just down the street from Gabriel Cafe, 187 Gertrude St, Fitzroy VIC. Off we went!
I have uploaded a piece about one of my most cherished photographs, Ruth Bernhard’s 1946 Dead Sparrow — click here
This afternoon (Saturday 7 Dec) I had the pleasure of launching at the Museum of Australian Photography Stephen Zagala’s beautiful photography book — Imaging A Real Australia — about Australian documentary photography 1950 — 1980.
We have updated the information on our website on Carol Jerrems. Loads of links.
Being in Melbourne has brought about a few pleasant surprises. Who would have thought that we would be researching early 20th century Australia women painters — who were not photographers.
I have uploaded a copy of a review I did in 2021 for the Theatre Heritage website on the 2019 book: The Falk Studios: The Theatrical Portrait Photography of H. Walter Barnett.
Click here for that article.
There are some beautiful places to visit and Victoria’s State Library is definitely one of them. Continue reading Research in the State Library of Victoria
On a very typical Melbourne day of varying weather, we took ourselves for a slightly early birthday lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant in Fairfield — on the Yarra Bend.
Since moving to Melbourne Paul and I have visited exhibitions of photography and other media. The list includes:
We had a fun day today doing some research. We headed across Melbourne to Monash University Clayton Campus to view a document for a colleague. This is what we like doing now that we are in Melbourne — doing research favours for colleagues.
A much loved work by Elaine Campaner (1969–2020) that has just taken pride of place on our walls in our new home in Melbourne. More on this work — click here.
A wonderful photograph by New York photographer, John Albok (1894–1982)
Another cherished photograph that sits on our walls in our Melbourne home.
More on this photograph — click here.
This piece was a difficult piece to write. The requirement was to survey 19th century photography across the Pacific in a few hundred words. Many hours were spent reducing the entry and making decisions on what to leave out — reluctantly! If I ever find the time I may revisit this and make it a much longer piece with all the extras inserted back in. Wishful thinking maybe? Here’s the original piece.
Have revisited a previous article looking at the aesthetic connections to other mediums and how image makers respond to their era. I may follow up with some thoughts on how this applies in contemporary practice — today. Click here for my 1990s piece.
I have uploaded a piece on the iconic George Silk 1942 photograph of the Papuan carrier Raphael Oimbari assisting Private George Whittington. I have also included research “After The Photograph” using a selection of memorial sculptures that have been influenced by the Silk photograph. Click here for the online essays.
When we moved, we dispersed some of our collections and said to ourselves that we should not buy any more. Then we saw this wonderful new work by Rod McNicol.
A previous notice for this was posted on Facebook — but their algorithm removed it. We have a theory. Click here for the original piece on our website
A much loved work by Elaine Campaner (1969–2020) that has just taken pride of place on our walls in our new home in Melbourne. More on this work — click here.
Photography collections can be fun! I love good ‘table top’ works and we have a number in our collection. This is one — and I have written a small piece about it — click here
Have uploaded information about this early 20th century woman photographer
with links to a special photo-web presentation/translation on a 1983 book originally published in Dutch. Have also included links to research on Thilly.
Click here.
I have uploaded a piece about our visit to see the Anzac Days, the Colin Abbott exhibition at Magnet Galleries in Docklands, Melbourne.
Click here for the piece on our web site.
An update on the previous article: Canberra colleagues have identified that the girl in the centre of the photograph is holding a Kodak Brownie Starlet — ‘Made in Australia’.
Now if only we knew who she was and does she have a photo of Robert McFarlane taking her photograph!
I have uploaded a short piece about a Robert McFarlane photograph in our collection, Crowd lining the street on Anzac Day at Martin Place, Sydney, 1964.
Click here for the piece on our web site
Following my research, collection acquisitions and exhibition on Southeast Asian photography while at the National Gallery of Australia, in 2014 I wrote a piece about Hélène Hoppenot and 1930s women modernist photographers in Southeast Asia. Till now this essay has been unpublished. It is now online — click here — more or less unchanged from the 2014 version with a few notes and links added.
Merry Christmas from Melbourne, our new home city.
The sale of our Canberra home has happened!
Following our decision to move to Melbourne, we have packed up and cleaned out — and now have our home up for auction — this Saturday 4th November.
Click here for more on this.
We have been extra busy! A couple of months ago the decision was made to move to Melbourne this year. Maybe this was far too optimistic — but we are going for it!
The current national and international attention on women artists prompted me to plumb my archive where I found this 1994 commentary on the status of women in photography.
In a previous post I talked ‘gender, journeys and genres (1994).
Another find was The Movement of Women 1996.
Enjoying a morning cuppa in a quiet place in our garden — wearing suffragette colours to celebrate International Women’s Day and the legion of awesome women photographers past and present I have encountered in my curatorial career.
The theme this year is #EmbraceEquity. There are so many gains but still so stubborn a gap in equity, is it time for militancy???
Here’s to all of you — enjoy the day wherever you are…
Wesley Stacey died Bega Hospital 9 February 2023. My first meeting with photographer Wesley Stacey was at his Annandale home in Sydney 1974. He was already well known and recognised as one of the most tuned in figures of the new art photography scene.
Have uploaded a few stories and comments on recycling — sort of connected with my blog stories on Parting With Your Art. Click here for the latest.
I have uploaded a page about the Women:s Art Register and their very handy publication Leaving Your Legacy: A Guide for Australian Artists.
The guide is a comprehensive starting point — and the organisation is definitely worth supporting. Click here.
I have unearthed an essay from 1976 which was a commentary about photo-history books available at the time.
Over the recent years I have been searching through my archives for articles and essays that we have since published on our web-site. I had overlooked one exhibition. That was the 1981 Project Gallery exhibition Re-constructed Vision: Contemporary work with photography at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
It is now uploaded to our web site.
In 2017 The Asia Art Society of Australia (TAASA) hosted a seminar of East West Chic.
I presented a talk on Camera Chic based on a collection we had put together – with fun pictures from Asian studio portraiture. The collection highlighted the fusion of East and West evident in dress, accessories, and studio backdrops. Click here for more
Make sure you see the link to the powerpoint slides with loads of photographs to enjoy.
Have uploaded some comments (not legal advice) about the complex topic of copyright and Australian photography — click here
I have uploaded some comments on Peter Adams’ 2021 book
A Few of The Legends — click here
A new upload to my blog about Parting With Your Art.
This time about a friend’s experience of parting with her library plus a tale from me about all those plastic folders. Click here.
Comments and observations on the work of the photographer,
Dorothy Warner of Adelaide 1890 — 1969 — click here
Comments and observations on a CVD of a nanny and two children — click here
Comments and observations on a striking portrait by the E.B. Mowll Studio — click here
The 1999 reader contains 33 essays selected by Blair French, who was then program manager for the Australian Centre for Photography.
The texts had been previously published in the Centre of Photography’s journal — Photofile — that had been published since 1983. I wrote the preface to this publication. There’s a table of contents below my online essay along with links to information about photofile and the ACP. Click here for my essay.
cover image: Tracey Moffatt, Up In The Sky #3 1997 (detail)
Have uploaded a page about my collection of photographer’s greeting cards that has been placed with the AGNSW Library — click here
Updated November 2021
Have uploaded more to Parting with Your Art — click here.
This new page is an update on my most recent experiences on parting with my own archive as well as some thoughts that may be useful to others dealing with these downsizing matters
For the full list of pages so far: Click here
Have uploaded to our photo-web site a special section on the first photography curators — Australian that is. We have listed four: Jennie Boddington, Ian North, Gael Newton (me!), and Alan Davies. The listings for Jennie and myself include 1983 interviews by the Australian Centre of Photography. These are very long! (you have been warned)
If you know of any other useful online material on these people, please make contact.
In searching out my archive of essays, I came upon a draft of one about a technology tool that served me well… The Typewriter. Now updated — Click here.
This essay was originally published in the 2008 catalogue for the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition — click here.
For people interested in Australian CDVs, it is highly recommended that you get hold of the book that accompanied the 2018–1019 exhibition. Click here for a sample of the book
I was approached by Penny Grist of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra to advise on the 2017 exhibition — Starstruck. I then had the great experience of working with the co-curators Penny from the Portrait Gallery and Jenny Coombes of National Film and Sound Archive. This was a fun collaborative research experience — with my essay published in their book for the exhibition. Click here for the essay now online.
The wonders of looking through your own archive. I realised I had not uploaded an essay from 2006 on Michael Riley. Have now — so here’s the link — click here.
Updated June 2021 Have uploaded more to Parting with Your Art — click here.
This page is about managing expectations, large collections, institutional collection policies, points for collectors approaching art museums and archives, recommended first steps — and more..
For the full list of pages so far: Click here
Contributed an essay for Melita Dahl’s June 2021 exhibition at PhotoAcccess in Canberra. The exhibition is open until 10 July 2021.
As I said in a previous post — I have been uploading my writings to my essay pages.
There is now an updated portal page for John Kauffmann — click here; that includes a link to my 1996 essay for the exhibition John Kauffmann Art Photographer
I have been uploading more of my writings to my essay pages.
Today I have uploaded a 1980 essay on John Kauffmann. Click here for this essay
Updated April 2021
topics: Downsizing Collections; More on Capital Gains Tax; Finding new homes for my library. Have uploaded these new pages to Parting with Your Art — click here.
Collection of photographs by William Henry Fox Talbot sells for nearly $2M.
PHOTORIA, a new website that sheds light on the role of women in the history of Australian photography between 1850 and 1950. There is, overall, a broad disparity in the breadth of knowledge in favour of men in contrast to that of the women who populated the industry. This website is a resource to redress that disparity. Click on image for the website.
Updated 12 August 2020
Have uploaded new pages on Parting with Your Art — click here.
Will be writing up some experiences and thoughts about parting with your art. This will be based on my own experiences as well as many stories heard in recent years.
Paris Musées, the public institution that manages all of the museums in Paris, has launched a new Collections portal with the public access to more than 100,000 high-resolution digital reproductions of classic artwork and photography.
Click here for the article on DP Review — or here for the portal
above image: 61 rue Saint-Louis-en-l’Ile, enseigne “Au petit Bacchus”. Paris (IVème arrondissement). Photographie d’Eugène Atget (1857–1927). Paris, musée Carnavalet.
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
Highway 61 revisited — photographs of this historic route. Click here
Great looking exhibition — get me to Canada
An exhibition organized by the Yokohama Museum of Art in collaboration with the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
Michael Riley’s Cloud (2000)
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
I have uploaded an online version of the catalogue for the 1982 retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW — Axel Poignant, photographs 1922–1980. Click here.
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For the list of my essays (being updated) click here
Now online — my essay published in the 2006 book on Peter Dombrovskis:
Simply by Liz Dombrovskis. Click here for the link
There was also an exhibition in 2018 at the National Library of Australia, reviewed by Sasha Grishin — click here
Exhibition at GAGProjects (Adelaide) till 18 November 2018.
Click here for my essay and links to the exhibition page.
Wonderful day in the National Library of Australia. A chance to see some photographs by Charles Bayliss.
I have many people to thank for their support over a career that I continue to enjoy.
Opening on 12 October 2018
Bill Henson at the Tolarno Galleries 104 Exhibition Street Melbourne
till 2 June 2018.
https://www.facebook.com/gael.newton/posts/10156457600544551
An exhibition notice for an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Click here for the link…
And for more on Harold Edgerton — see my 1999 paper for the catalogue at the National Gallery of Australia — click here.
https://www.facebook.com/theARTMUSEum.PaulCostigan/posts/635188293479667
Click on the image for more on this exhibition
Celebrating IWD — 8th March 2018
Adelie Hurley (1919–2010) - The first Australian female commercial photojournalist
Frank Hurley: From Circular Quay to Collaroy Plateau.
https://www.facebook.com/theARTMUSEum.PaulCostigan/posts/564288583902972
We have uploaded a new page on photo-web that provides a link to my essays on Max Dupain as well as links to other articles and resources. Click here.
https://www.facebook.com/theARTMUSEum.PaulCostigan/posts/561296737535490
https://www.facebook.com/gael.newton/posts/10155960821949551