ISSN ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 65 | October 2003
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National
Library’s Photography Collection
Seen In a New Light |
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Unknown
photographer. Escort for Amy Johnson’s landing in Sydney, 4 June 1930
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an24664499 |
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Photography’s unique ability to capture the moment is superbly illustrated in the National Library of Australia’s exhibition In a New Light: Australian Photography 1850s –1930s on display from 9 October 2003 – 26 January 2004. The exhibition is a treasure-trove of defining moments in 19th- and early-20th-century Australia including the first locomotive in 1875, Federation, Gallipoli, celebrations at the end of World War I and the Melbourne Police Strike in 1923. Many of the 300 images, drawn from over 600 000 photographs in the Pictures Collection, are on display for the first time.
Director-General Jan Fullerton said, ‘The National Library has one of the most important photographic collections in the country. In a New Light, a two-part exhibition, is the first to explore the Pictures Collection in depth and presents a wonderful opportunity to celebrate its riches. It will appeal to a great variety of people for the way it showcases the growth of our nation alongside the development of photography as a medium.’
Groups of photographs of pioneering life, portraits of Aboriginal people and the building of towns and cities tell Australia’s most compelling stories. Our distinctive landscape is well represented, spanning the commonplace to the picturesque. In a New Light will be of interest to photography professionals in its display of the full range of approaches—documentary, commercial (including portraiture, fashion, dance and theatre), art photography, photography for government agencies, and amateur photography; as well as a great diversity of techniques—ambrotype, albumen, bromoil, gelatin silver and stereograph. Exhibition curator Helen Ennis, one of Australia’s leading photographic historians, and Senior Lecturer, Australian National University, School of Art said, ‘To explore such a diverse and rich collection and turn it into an exhibition was a fantastic experience. In a New Light will extend our knowledge of photography, history and the Library’s collections, ultimately changing the way we think about photography’s role in representing Australian life.’
Australia’s best-known photographers of the period are represented—T.S. Glaister, Charles Bayliss, Captain Samuel Sweet, Charles Nettleton, Frank Hurley and Harold Cazneaux—along with a host of amateur and anonymous photographers.
A dedicated website is available at <www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/newlight>.
This exhibition is the first in a two-part survey of the National Library’s collection. In a New Light: Australian Photography 1930s – 2000, will be shown from 19 August – 14 November 2004. The exhibition is supported by |
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| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: mbrooks@nla.gov.au