Public photography collections hidden from view

Recently Gibson’s Auction in Melbourne (20th August 2024) held a successful auction of photographs, paintings and prints from the Julian Burnside & Kate Durham Collection. The result highlighted a disconnect between the management of Australia’s public art museums and the viewing and collecting public.

Photography is alive and well in Australia and remains popular.

And now the bad news:

For the many who love to see photography exhibitions, if you were to visit  Australia’s  public art museums, the national gallery in Canberra and the state galleries, what you will see is that for most of the time photography has largely gone missing!

There are the occasional exhibitions (none right now that I know of) and there are a few photographs scattered among other exhibitions, usually as footnotes to an agenda set by painting. A dedicated photography exhibition is a rare event. Photo connoisseurs have to play spot the photo across exhibits over several floors.

The sad reality is that it is now highly unusual to see serious and substantial photography exhibitions in our major public galleries. This despite the enormous photography collections that public art museums have locked away out of sight of the viewing public.

The public funded art galleries are the stewards of these photographic collections that the Australian taxpayers have largely paid for and continue to pay for them to be kept in storage.

For reasons not explained, Australia’s major art galleries have decided the public does not want to see photography exhibitions from the collections held by these institutions.

By contrast, whenever there is a photography exhibition elsewhere, people show up.

And when photography goes on sale, people pay for it as they have just done with the Gibson’s auction and other auctions before it.

There is a serious disconnect between the mindset of the people who run our national art galleries and the aspirations of the many  who enjoy photography – including those who collect and pay good money for it.

Photography remains popular with the public but the public’s access to photography collections is now being denied.

This begs the questions.

If these public photography collections are to be kept in storage and rarely seen, why have them at all?

Given the size of the state and national collections of photography and that decisions have been made to keep them largely in storage, what does this say about the current  management of our public art galleries.

These are questions for another piece or two another time.