Contemporary Life
In this section of the exhibition, contemporary life is interpreted very broadly. It ranges from events of national significance–such as the arrival in Australia of the 10 000th British migrant, and the visit of American President L.B. Johnson–to the curious or mundane.
The subject matter of these photographs is extraordinarily diverse, but they have in common a documentary approach. The photographs are taken in good faith, as visual documents or records of aspects of Australian life.
In the documentary photography from the 1930s-70s there is a shared desire to define and represent what was ‘‘typically’ Australian. More recent documentary work is less national in orientation and more specifically local. Photographers such as Ruth Maddison and Philip Gostelow base their practice in their own communities, photographing what they know well—their own friends, family and milieu.