Doug Spowart (born 1953) is a

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

photographer who has a Master of Photography and is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP). His work has been exhibited in Australia and internationally. He is the author of numerous photography books and artist books. His artist books are held in gallery collections throughout Australia.

Early life

Spowart was born in 1953 in

Numurkah Numurkah ( ) is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Goulburn Valley Highway, north of Shepparton, in the Shire of Moira. At the , Numurkah had a population of 4,768. History The area was occupied by the Yorta Yorta people prior to ...

, Victoria, the son of Mervyn and

Ruby Spowart Ruby Spowart (born 1928) is an Australian photographer whose award-winning images of outback landscapes are based on some 40 safari tours in Australia and New Zealand. Ruby is a triple Master of Photography, Fellow and Honorary Fellow of the Aust ...

. His mother Ruby is an art photographer. Spowart completed his initial photographic training at the Queensland College of Art in the early 1970s. He has continued with his education throughout the years he has worked as a professional photographer. In 1995 he completed an Associate Diploma of Arts at the Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE. He followed this with a Graduate Diploma, Visual Art (Photography) at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

. In 2013 he was awarded a PhD in Visual Art from

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

Career

Spowart worked for

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

Australasia Pty Ltd for nine years where in the role of Literature and Technical Officer, he controlled the technical documents from motion picture X-ray through to graphic arts and consumer products. From 1980 to 1995, Ruby and Doug Spowart established the Imagery Gallery in

South Brisbane South Brisbane is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 7,196 people. Geography The suburb is on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, bounded to the north-west, ...

, which focussed on exhibitions of photography, conducting photographic workshops and tours, and the supply of specialised photographic products, such as Leica,

Sinar Sinar Photography AG is a Swiss company based in Zurich manufacturing specialized high-resolution view cameras for studio, reproduction, landscape and architecture photography. Sinar's view-cameras allow both the lens and the film back or sens ...

and

Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMo ...

NECO Superscan murals. Fromm 1980 to 1982, the Imagery Gallery was located in the heritage-listed former

Queensland National Bank The Queensland National Bank is a former bank in Queensland, Australia. History In 1872, the bank was established in Brisbane. In December 1914, the bank had its head office in Brisbane with branches throughout Queensland at Allora, Aramac, A ...

on the corner of Grey and Melbourne Streets. From 1985 to 1995, the gallery operated from the heritage-listed former Commonwealth Bank at 149 Melbourne Street. From 1995 to 2013, Spowart taught photography at the Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE while concurrently conducting a professional partnership with Victoria Cooper creating

artists' books Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

, exhibitions and place-making project. ''Nocturne Grafton'' was a project connecting the community of Grafton, their stories contributed via social media, responding to photos of Grafton taken in dusk lighting conditions. Similar place-making projects have taken place in

Muswellbrook Muswellbrook ( ) is a town in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle. Geologically, Muswellbrook is situated in the northern parts of the Sydney basin, bordering the New Englan ...

Bundaberg Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's regional area has a population of 70,921, and is a major centre of the Wide Bay–Burnett geographical region. The Bun ...

, and

Miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

. Since 2013, Spowart has been an independent researcher in photo books and artists' books as a Siganto Foundation Artists' Book Research Fellow based at the

State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...

Selected works

*''Toowoomba water'' 2011. *''Fuzzy bookish images: a photobookwork'' 2006. *''Me & my shadow : putting one's self in the tourist picture / concepts and photo-images'' 2003. *''Sun Painting'' 1990.

Awards

*Winner AIPP Queensland Photographic Book Photographer of the Year (2010 & 2011). *Finalist Libris Awards: The Australian Artists Book Prize (2006) *Winner AIPP Queensland Professional Photographer of the Year (5 times: 1995, 1994, 1992, 1991 & 1990). *Winner AIPP Queensland Landscape Photographer of the Year (4 times: 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spowart, Doug 1953 births Living people 20th-century Australian photographers 21st-century Australian photographers Monash University alumni James Cook University alumni Photographers from Queensland Artists from Victoria (Australia)