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MGA: the Australian home of photography
Portraits
Central Gallery
Portraiture has been an enduring subject matter across all artists mediums. Photography has taken centre stage in the genre through its ability to capture fleeting moments in a sitter's life with an immediacy, poignancy and intimacy often not felt by other art forms. These works are so powerful because the viewer feels something of the soul of the subject – somehow the photographer captures the essence of the sitter.
Francis REISS
Albert Tucker 1993
gelatin silver print
40.8 x 40.25 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Dr Joseph Brown 1998
MGA 1998.03
courtesy of the artist
Mark Ivan HINDERAKER
Fiona Hall 1984
gelatin silver print
14.5 x 10.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Janice Hinderaker through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2003
MGA 2003.03
David M THOMAS
Untitled 1992–96
from the series Every day I am a day older
ink-jet print
25 x 17.7 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist 2011
MGA 2011.064.3
courtesy of the artist
Henry TALBOT
Henry Talbot (1920–1999) studied graphic design in Berlin before escaping to England in 1939. In 1940 he was transported to Australia on the Dunera. In 1947, his trip to Bolivia revived his life-long interest in photography. Upon his return, he worked for various Melbourne photographic studios and in 1956 joined Helmut Newton’s studio, which he took over in 1961. Throughout his career, Talbot produced award-winning photographs for Australian fashion and advertising clients. He also photographed cars for General Motors Holden, and his other projects included portraits and nudes. Talbot was Head of the Photography Department at the School of Art and Design in Preston from 1973 to 1985.
Jean Newington in Nina Ricci dress, Paris 1960
gelatin silver print
19.3 x 20.8 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Neil Murray 2003
MGA 2003.35
courtesy Lynette Anne Talbot
Henry TALBOT
Spike Milligan and Jill Stinchcomb, Sydney 1962
gelatin silver print
25.0 x 19.7 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Neil Murray 2003
MGA 2003.37
courtesy Lynette Anne Talbot
Francis REISS
Portrait of Rick Amor 1994
gelatin silver print
46.5 x 38.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Ben Aitken in honour of the Nicholas Foundation 2016
MGA 2017.22
Rod STEWART
Untitled (portrait of Athol Shmith) 1985
gelatin silver print
63.0 x 43.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Mary Anne Hartley 1999
MGA 1999.04.1
courtesy of the artist
Greg WEIGHT
Brett Whiteley 1976
gelatin silver print
29.0 x 42.8 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Tom Lowenstein through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2008
MGA 2008.046
courtesy of the artist
Robert WHITAKER
Germaine Greer 1968
chromogenic print
30.5 x 47.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist 2004
MGA 2004.09
Sean DAVEY
Eden, NSW 2007
from the series Limousines & hearses (part one) 2006–08
chromogenic print
40.6 x 30.5 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Sean Davey 2014
MGA 2014.099.2
Sue FORD
Sue Ford (1943–2009) studied photography at RMIT and was the first Australian photographer to be given a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1974. Over the course of her artistic career Ford worked with still photography and moving images, beginning with traditional analogue film and then embracing the possibilities offered by photomedia and digital technologies. In this respect, Ford is a key figure in the history of avant-garde photographic experimentation. Ford’s artworks are also remarkable for their critical engagement with contemporary social issues, while also expressing deeply personal perspectives on the world.
Janine Burke 1981
from the series Portraits of women 1961–82
gelatin silver print
33.9 x 33.9 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Janine Burke in memory of Sue Ford 2013
MGA 2013.028
courtesy of Sue Ford Archive (Melbourne)
Albert TUCKER
John and Sunday Reed birdwatching c. 1946
gelatin silver print
40.0 x 30.3 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Barbara Tucker 2001
MGA 2001.10
Peter MILNE
Peter Milne spent six weeks with the Australian band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds when they toured Europe in 1992 promoting their latest album Henry’s Dream. This photograph shows Cave holding court in Ghent, Belgium, and has been widely published. It was first published in the 1992 Rolling Stone yearbook, and appeared again in that publication’s 2002 anniversary Issue. It is included in Milne's book of photographs Fish in a barrel: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on tour (1993). Milne and Cave share a long history: Milne photographed some of Cave’s earliest performance.
Darshan, (band-room, Ghent) 1992
from the series Fish in a barrel - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on tour
gelatin silver print
31.3 x 46.6 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist 2004
MGA 2004.10
courtesy of the artist and M.33 (Melbourne)
Jacqueline MITELMAN
Chibi (New York dog) 1993
gelatin silver print
50.8 x 40.6 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist 1999
MGA 1999.01
courtesy of the artist
Tracey MOFFATT
Up in the sky consists of 25 images, making it one of Moffatt’s largest photographic series. The wide range of characters, captured in different scenarios, suggests a narrative of epic proportions, but there is no beginning, middle and end to lead the viewer through this story. Moffatt’s photographs function like film stills, highlighting poignant scenes in a larger drama that is never fully disclosed.
Up in the sky 2 1997
off-set print
61.0 x 76.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Simon Rosenthal through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2008
MGA 2008.062
courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (Sydney)
Kathy MACKEY
Reliquary 1 2006
pigment ink-jet print
45.0 x 75.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist 2011
MGA 2012.002
courtesy of the artist
Kathy Mackey is a Brisbane-based artist working with photography and installation art. She completed a Diploma of Education at Queensland University of Technology in 1981, a Bachelor of Education at QUT in 1989 and a Master of Arts Education at Griffi th University in 1998. In 2011 Mackey completed a Doctor of Philosophy: Visual Arts Practice at Griffi th University. Since then, Mackey has developed and exhibited several bodies of work that explore photography as a performative act. She has also worked as a visual arts teacher and is currently the Manager of the Queensland Academies Brand Division. In 2015, Mackey completed a three month Fellowship with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
This work won the Bowness Photography Prize in 2006 and is from a series of portraits of young women, juxtaposing the potential vulnerability and liminal nature of human skin with metallic objects and reflective surfaces. The mirroring action that is intentionally set up takes us back to the ‘gaze’ and to the status of the actor versus the spectator. Studies of medieval reliquary extend the notion of portraiture as to include objects associated with the subject, further informing the position of the self in terms of how one sees the image as a representation of the artist, the sitter or the viewer.
Sonia PAYES
Sonia Payes (1956– ) is a Melbourne-based artist. Payes’s art practice is grounded in her training as a photographer, which includes a Master Photographer qualification from the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (2001). She has been exhibiting her work since the mid-1990s, and has regularly staged solo exhibitions in art galleries since 2003. Payes is well known for her photographic portraits of artists and other public figures, but her creative work has increasingly focused on the landscape as a subject. Payes is an avid traveller, and takes particular inspiration from terrains that foreground geological and atmospheric extremes.
John Mawurndjul 2006
chromogenic print
127.0 x 127.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by the Bowness Family 2010
MGA 2010.003
courtesy of the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery (Melbourne)
Louise WHELAN
Louise Whelan is a Sydney-based photographer. She completed an Advanced Certificate III in Photography at Ultimo TAFE and has since practiced a wide range of photography including documentary, commercial and fine art. Her work has been exhibited widely both in Australia and overseas. She has worked on major photographic projects for Australia’s State and National Libraries, documenting the various migrant communities within Australia. A monograph of her work, New Settlers, was published in 2013.
Clement 2013
from the series Australians all
chromogenic print
59.9 x 40.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Louise Whelan 2015
MGA 2015.055
courtesy of the artist
Anne ZAHALKA
Anne Zahalka (1957– ) completed an Art Certificate at East Sydney Technical College in 1976, a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts in 1979, a Post Graduate Diploma at Sydney College of the Arts in 1989 and a Master Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales in 1994. Zahalka has developed a significant reputation for staging photographic compositions that reference and critique visual culture, particularly Australian visual culture and the history of art. Her work has been collected by most major museums in Australia and she has held numerous exhibitions in Australia and overseas.
Pat Corrigan AM 2007
chromogenic print
46.5 x 50.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Patrick Corrigan through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2007
MGA 2008.005
courtesy of the artist
Richard STONE
Gothic rules 1985
gelatin silver print
20.0 x 22.0 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by Richard Stone 2016
MGA 2017.21
Polly BORLAND
Polly Borland’s Bunny series consists of more than 50 images, printed in various sizes and published as a photobook. The subject of Bunny is an extraordinarily tall model, Gwendoline Christie, who has subsequently become well-known as a character in the television series Game of Thrones. Bunny reflects Borland’s broader interest in role-playing and the public expression of an individual’s fantasy life. Borland’s approach to portraiture has increasingly focused on the paraphernalia of costumes and the physicality of body parts in order to emphasise her interest in the inner life of her subjects.
Untitled XIII 2004–05
from the series Bunny
chromogenic print
25.3 x 17.1 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist 2008
MGA 2008.354
courtesy of the artist and Murray White Room (Melbourne)
Nathan MILLER
T-Model Ford, New Year at Ground Zero Blues Club, Clarksdale 2004
pigment ink-jet print
74.0 x 50.4 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2008
MGA 2008.230
courtesy of the artist
Micky ALLAN
Micky Allan (1944– ) studied Fine Art at the University of Melbourne, and painting at the National Gallery School in the 1960s. Allan began taking photographs in 1974 after joining the loosely formed feminist collective at Melbourne’s experimental arts and theatre space the Pram Factory. During this time Allan was part of a vibrant community of feminist artists that included Virginia Coventry, who taught her how to take and print photographs. Allan returned to painting as her primary medium in the early 1980s.
Old age 1976
from the series Old age 1976–78
watercolour and coloured pencil on gelatin silver print
18.6 x 12.8 cm
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
donated by the artist 2012
MGA 2012.110
courtesy of the artist
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