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Carol Jerrems
Side Gallery
Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems (1949–80) was born in Melbourne and studied photography at Prahran Technical College under Paul Cox and Athol Shmith between 1967 and 1970. Although she practised as an artist for only a decade, Jerrems has acquired a celebrated place in the annals of Australian photography. Her reputation is based on her compassionate, formally striking pictures, her intimate connection with the people involved in social movements of the day, and her role in the promotion of ‘art photography’ in this country.
Carol JERREMS
Boys 1973
gelatin silver print
16.3 x 22.2 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2015
MGA 2015.031
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Carol Jerrems
Ron Johnson 1974
gelatin silver print
19.9 x 25.5 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2015
MGA 2015.033
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Carol JERREMS
Caroline Slade 1973
gelatin silver print
26.1 x 18.6 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2015
MGA 2015.032
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Carol JERREMS
Mirror with a memory: motel room 1977
chromogenic print
24.9 x 19.3 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2015
MGA 2015.034
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Carol JERREMS
Juliet holding 'Vale Street' at Murray Road 1976
gelatin silver print
20.2 x 30.3 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
acquired with assistance of the MGA Foundation 2012
MGA 2012.112
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Carol Jerrems's "Juliet holding 'Vale Street' at Murray Road" (1976) shows Juliet Bacskai (then Cox) looking directly at the camera and holding a print of Jerrems’s 'Vale Street' (1975).
One year after taking 'Vale Street', Jerrems photographed her friend Bacskai holding a print of the picture outside a house in Murray Road, Prahran. This photograph alludes to the growing level of interest in 'Vale Street' at the time and reflects Jerrems’s notion of the photograph as a social agent. For Jerrems, photography was a means of both bringing people together and creating active and engaged social relationships. As she stated:
I really like people ... I try to reveal something about people, because they are so separate, so isolated; maybe it’s a way of bringing people together ... I care about [people], I’d like to help them if I could, through my photographs...
Carol JERREMS
Vale Street 1975
gelatin silver print
20.2 x 30.3 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Susan Hesse 2012
MGA 2012.030
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
In March 1975, Carol Jerrems made what would become her most famous photograph. ‘Vale Street’ shows Jerrems’s friend Catriona Brown standing in front of Mark Lean and Jon Bourke, teenage boys from Heidelberg Technical School where Jerrems was teaching at the time. The photograph, taken in the backyard of a house at 52 Vale Street, St Kilda, comes from a series of pictures that show the three subjects socialising, smoking and, under the direction of Jerrems, gradually disrobing. Jerrems carefully set up and managed this now-iconic image, which quickly came to personify the optimism and ambitions of countercultural and feminist politics of the time.
‘Vale Street’ is one of the most iconic photographs in Australian photography and extremely rare. MGA holds one of eight known prints from the edition of nine. Other prints from the edition are held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Horsham Regional Art Gallery.
Carol JERREMS
Juliet 'Girl amongst leaves' 1976
gelatin silver print
20.2 x 30.3 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
acquired with assistance of the MGA Foundation 2012
MGA 2012.113
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Jerrems was primarily a portrait photographer. She had an interest in people and wanted to reveal something about them through her photographs, using her camera to capture and encourage interpersonal relationships. She actively collaborated with her subjects who were often her students, friends and associates. This intimate connection with her subject shines through in this work, which is a portrait of her friend Juliet Bacskai (then Cox).
Carol JERREMS
Magda and John at Home 1975
gelatin silver print
14.5 x 22.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Gary Singer and Geoffrey Smith 2018
MGA 2018.05
Carol JERREMS
Untitled [Diana Richardson contact sheet] 1968
gelatin silver print
22.9 x 20.1 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2013
MGA 2013.164
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Carol JERREMS
Lynn Gailey 1976
gelatin silver print
30.3 x 20.2 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by William Donald Bowness 2013
MGA 2013.116
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Carol JERREMS
Untitled [Diana Richardson] 1968
gelatin silver print
18.6 x 23.1 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2013
MGA 2013.156
courtesy of Ken Jerrems and the Estate of Lance Jerrems
Paul COX
Age of Aquarius (Carol Jerrems, Jan Hurrell) 1970
gelatin silver print
42.2 x 40.6 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2000
MGA 2000.85
courtesy of the artist's estate and Monash Gallery of Art
Rennie ELLIS
Carol Jerrems 1970
gelatin silver print
24.6 x 16.7 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
acquired with assistance from the Robert Salzer Foundation and the Public Galleries Association of Victoria 2008
MGA 2008.275
courtesy of Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive (Melbourne)
Rennie Ellis (1940–2003) was a photojournalist who chronicled Australian culture in the late twentieth century. He had a particular interest in the social life of Melbourne, and often documented celebrations, political protests and other public events. Ellis was also a driving force in the push to have photography recognised as a contemporary art form, and in 1972 he established Brummels Gallery of Photography, the first gallery dedicated to showing photography in Australia. During the course of his life Ellis rarely staged exhibitions, but his images were widely circulated in publications including a range of books authored by Ellis.
This photograph is from a series of images collectively titled Carol Jerrems, Mozart Street (1970). The series constitutes an informal portrait of Jerrems posing in her bedroom. While Ellis is well known for his social documentary work and his profile as a street photographer, he also produced a significant archive of nude photography and intimate portraits. This aspect of his practice provides further evidence of Ellis’s ability to establish an amicable report with his subjects. Ellis and Jerrems were both part of the same social scene in Prahran during the 1970s, and worked together on a range of projects.
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