It was Saturday 28th March 2026 when we made that pleasurable trip across town to Gibson’s Auctions to see the latest offering of photographs, paintings and prints. Some of these auction exhibition are great opportunities to see works that may disappeared again into private hands.
Another drive through the wonderful southern suburbs of Melbourne to arrive at the Museum of Australian Photography to see the exhibition, Coded Blooms.
The best way to start a set of comments on this exhibition Familial staged by Melbourne’s Centre for Contemporary Photography (the CCP) is to make the recommendation that you should see this exhibition – and that it is open till 25th April (closed on Sundays).
One of the artists exhibiting 14th Feb – 25th April 2026 with the Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne) is (Annie) Hsiao-Ching Wang with her wonderful exhibition My Son and I at the Same Height (2002–2024). The work involved taking portraits of herself and her son every year from 2002.
Last year Gallery 275 launched an exhibition of eight Heidelberg School paintings, borrowed from the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra). The gallery is the Banyule Council gallery in the Ivanhoe library and cultural hub – in Melbourne. The eights works were generously spaced around the walls.
Richard Daintree Daintree ( 1832 – 1878) was a pioneering Australian geologist and photographer. Daintree was the first Government geologist for North Queensland discovering gold fields and coal seams for future exploitation. Then there are the special exhibition prints for the great exhibitions in England. All that and more – click here
We observed this beautiful sunset from the top of a nearby hill. Noticed others had stopped to admire it. Trouble being that the red haze was from the Victorian fires raging in the countryside around Melbourne. A view beautiful but ever so ominous!!!
Another woman photographer profile has been added to our web site. This time Dorothy Izard. Along with Ruth Hollick, a member of the artistic community of Melbourne in the early 20th century. Click here for the link
With the opening of National Gallery of Victoria’s photography exhibition, open till 3rd May 2026, comes this review. There are many other online articles but most are simply rehashing the media releases.
The National Gallery of Victoria’s photography exhibition, open till 3rd May 2026, is a highly recommended – must see – exhibition. We visited yesterday, Tuesday 9th December, and made our way through slowly. People were taking their time to take in images and to enjoy the experience.
One of the many pleasures of living in Melbourne is that when you walk around the nearby suburbs, there’s plenty of diversity to take in.
a place where I used to park for work. It had a certain atmosphere when it was empty (or near empty). There was a sign warning of ‘Danger’ – it was not so dangerous! Made for an interesting combinations of shadows and light in the mornings.
We visited Rod McNicol in mid September; he died at home on 8th October.
Gael has a post about our visit – click here
Was not too sure what to expect from the exhibition of the photo record of the guy who ran photo-booths here in Melbourne. Please to say, this was an intriguing experience on several levels. A visit is recommended.
We travelled down to Docklands to Magnet Galleries Melbourne to see the exhibition The Prahran Legacy: Beyond the Basement.
Broken Dreams” 2018 , a beautiful hand coloured black and white photograph by artist/ photographer Viki Petherbridge. We saw this today at Magnet Galleries Melbourne’s exhibition – The Prahran Legacy – Beyond The Basement
James McArdle has a new piece on his blog site, On This Day In Photography, with an extensive review and commentary on Graham Howe’s photo-book, Epoch. Click here
James McArdle has uploaded a brilliant piece on Helen Ennis’ thought provoking presentation at the Museum of Australian Photography’s launch of the book — The Basement — the photography from Prahran College. Click here.
Gael has uploaded a piece introducing Graham Howe’s new book on his student work when he was at Prahran College in Melbourne 1970-1971. Click here.
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
Today we ventured into Collingwood to see the first exhibition at the new CCP project space. They now occupy a room on the second floor at the back of the complex of the building above – The Collingwood Yards. (the photo above borrowed from their web site).
An opinion piece about photography exhibitions, the visual arts, and things.
As the title of the exhibition indicates, this is a photography prize exhibition. Maybe a third of the works are not photographs but are contemporary artworks that either use photographic processes or at least have links to photography.
The full title for this exhibition is:
Searching for Sanctuary: A journey of survival by Barat Ali Batoor
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.
Being in Melbourne, means we can get along to see art auction exhibitions. This we did last Friday and to see Wolfgang Sievers photographs and a range of prints & other material from the Julian Burnside & Kate Durham Collection (link below) . Good stuff!
Continue reading Gibson’s Auction Julian Burnside exhibition
We were visiting the National Gallery of Victoria St Kilda Road when we split up with Gael heading for the paid exhibition of African fashion and I headed in the other direction to check on a couple of 17th century Dutch paintings. A few minutes later the phone tingled with a message that there was an exhibition of great photography within the fashion exhibition. Change of plan!
This exhibition is now closed but its staging was a curious event. Before I write about the exhibition, a few words about the photography of Steve McCurry.
An opinion piece about exhibitions, the visual arts, and things.
Always up for a drive out to the Museum of Australian Photography at Wheelers Hill – in Melbourne, we drove out through the suburban streets (rather than the freeways) for the pleasure of taking in a range of suburbs on the way. The changes of architecture and the various old and new build environments make the journey worth-while.
In my spare time , I have put together a collection of early 20th century photographs from Japan – click here to see the collection (for sale)
This piece was originally published in October 2022
The National Library is staging an exhibition of 125 documentary photographs, “Viewfinder: Photography from the 1970s to Now”. Continue reading photography at the National Library of Australia
This was published originally in August 2022
It was a recent photography exhibition by Catherine Rogers (closed 14th August) that brought home to me what a great space the ANU Drill Hall Gallery is.
A Great photograph can bring about a myriad of memories as well as pose more mundane questions such as why political movements fail.
Continue reading The disconnect between passionate Peter Dombrovskis and the ACT Greens
Viewfinder: Photography from the 1970s to Now
National Library of Australia exhibition, Friday 16 September 2022 until Monday 13 March 2023 Entry is free, curated by Matthew Jones
a link to the NLA page on the exhibition – click here
a tour of the exhibition click here
the Rijksmuseum is presenting a major retrospective of 19th-century photography – click here
INFORMATION CALL-OUT: FRANK HURLEYSearching for Frank Hurley along our northern beaches
Did you know that Frank Hurley was a very keen gardener and photographer of wild flowers?
In April 2018 The Manly Art Gallery and Museum will be launching a very special exhibition titled: Frank Hurley – Sydney Harbour photographer: From Circular Quay to Collaroy.
click here for my review and comments on Tracey Moffatt’s exhibition at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
Here’s a few of the exhibitions in Canberra this month.
Exhibition of Regis Lansac’s photographs at Janet Clayton Gallery:
3-28 May 2017 – click here for more on the-ARTMUSEum.com
There’s an article in Straits Times about photographer Koh Kim Chay and his decades of photographing the ubiquitous government flats of Singapore.
This is an official white house photo (or at least a cropped version)
Nice online exhibition of photographs – from The Washington Post – click here.
Back in 1996, Philip Bentley, Melbourne historian, wrote a thesis on the history of the Melbourne photographers, Group M.
Martin Kantor Portrait Prize EntryApplications close: 31st May 2017
click on image for more….
George Bell (1920 – 2008) was member of Group M – in Melbourne.
This is an exhibition at photoaccess (Canberra) curated by Ashley Lumb and Laura McLean.
click on the image for the website – Women Photograph
A selection of photographs taken from one of Frank Hurley’s books…
Travel around Canberra and/or many cities anywhere and there is now evidence that we all love to light up our days and nights to celebrate Christmas.
Louise Grayson, Queensland University of Technology (this essay was originally published in The Conversation)
The photographer, Harold Cazneaux is an important early 20th Century artist in the history of Australia photography.
We recently heard of the death of a great Australian photographer. click on the image for more…
click on the image for the story about the exhibition of William Eggleston
click on the image for more…
Beauty In This is a wonderful photography exhibition, by Maryanne Voyazis, on for a short time at Nishi Gallery, New Acton.
Continue reading Photography at Nishi Gallery – Beauty In This
There’s something going in within photography – there’s something going within many of the centres and galleries devoted to photography.
There’s a wonderful exhibition at the NGA till 30th October 2016 – Diane Arbus: American portraits.
Here’s a couple of photographs from my recent visit to Auckland for the 2016 Auckland festival of photography.
Exhibition Review: Home, 2 June – 20 June 20162016 Auckland festival of photography – June 2016
The 2016 Auckland festival of photography like many Australian photographic festival is very dependent on the enthusiasms and the energy of a small band of people, or more often than not, just one person.
While we often celebrate wood and things made out of such ‘natural’ products – it is good to reminded just where that all that wood came from and wonder whether we will see such beauty again.
Click on the image for the link to the 2016 Auckland Photography Festival
click on the image for the new 2016 series, Stardust, by Anna Carey.
Click on the image to see the 2016 series by Michael Cook – Mother.
Photography is alive and very well –
click on the image for the story from the New York Times
While some people may enjoy the buzz of living within densely population metropolitan cities, there are definite benefits to being in Canberra and being able to head out into the country in a few minutes, rather than struggling down the crowded toll ways.
click on image for the link to the Daily Telegraph
Click on image for the exhibition details at China In The World (ANU)
click on image
Imprint – photography and the impressionable image.
Art Gallery of NSW till 18 May 2016
Open Call – Singapore International Photography Festival 2016 – click on graphic above
Helen Levitt at Laurence Miller
Reminder of this recommended exhibition at the NGA – click on the photo above.
The Auckland Festival of photography – for news on exhibitions and more – click on the image.
A new exhibition about the Australian beach – this one contains paintings and a fine mix of photographs. (click on the image above for more images)
In amongst the many changes across the National Gallery of Australia has been the opening up of a new exhibition of photographs from their own collection.
Good news from Canada about photography – click on the image above
Opening 4th December 2015: The world is beautiful
Click on the image for the link to the gallery page for the artist – and for more, see this article
click on image for the story from ArtDaily
Click on image for story about people’s daily grind – and then for more – click here.
The fight to gain equity in the recognition of women in the art world just keeps on having to be repeated. The historical biases just do not go away.
But then along comes something that is really strange.
The MGA has announced Joseph McGlennon as the winner of the 2015 Bowness prize.
There’s an online video made before the announcement – Guardian Australian photo editor Jonny Weeks and photographer Mike Bowers discuss the entires and their picks for the winners. click here.
The extraordinary story of how photography was kick started through a French Government initiative – a gift to the world. Click on the image
National Museum of Women in the Arts exhibits work by photojournalist Esther Bubley – click on photo for information
Maybe it was left behind to collect any stray mail.
There needs to be more articles such as this one from The Guardian.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In and Out of the Studio
Photographic Portraits from West Africa
August 31, 2015–January 3, 2016
Click image for link to the museum – or for ArtDaily – click here
It with great sadness that we heard that our friend Rose Farrell died recently. There’s a very good piece about Rose written by Robert Nelson — click here.
Click on image for Jeffrey Milstein’s photo essay on inequity in LA neighbourhoods
After taking up photography at fifty-eight, Julia Margaret Cameron produced a remarkable and distinctive body of work, writes Richard Johnstone (The Inside Story). Click here for Richard’s review of the exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales – click here for the gallery link.
