The Photographers' Gallery And Workshop
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop (1973–2010) was an Australian photography gallery established in
South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a populati ...
,
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, and which ran almost continuously for nearly 40 years. Its representation, in the 1970s and 1980s, of contemporary and mid-century, mostly American and some European original fine prints from major artists was influential on Australian audiences and practitioners, while a selection of the latter's work sympathetic to the gallery ethos was shown alternately and then dominated the program.


Other uses

An unrelated space also called "The Photographers' Gallery" ran for three years from 1989–1992 in
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
; another, the Photographer's Gallery ic was operating in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
in the c.1993-2000s at 96 Reserve Road, Artarmon,; and the 2006 Head-On Portrait Prize Exhibition was held in Balmain, also in Sydney at a short-lived venue called "The Photographers Gallery".


History

Paul Cox, Ingeborg Tyssen, John F. Williams and Rod McNicol foundedAnne Latrielle 'Pictorial gallery open today,' in ''The Age'', Wed, 5 March 1975, Page 18 The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop in 1973 at 344 Punt Road,
South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a populati ...
Paul Taylor and Sebastian Costanzo, 'A Melbourne Gallery Guide,' ''The Age'', Friday 7 August 1981, p.45 in an 1888 two-storey fruiterer's shop and dwelling (originally a bootmaker's) in the 'Sharp's Buildings' terrace, rented since 1965 as a photographer's studio and accommodation by Paul Cox, who from 1969–c.1980 taught cinematography at
Prahran College The Prahran College of Advanced Education, formerly Prahran College of Technology, was a late-secondary and tertiary institution with a business school, a trade school, and a multi-disciplinary art school that dated back to the 1860s, populated ...
. It was the second gallery devoted to photography to be established in the city after Rennie Ellis' and Robert Ashton's Brummels Gallery, which was started in 1972 less than a kilometre away, and before the Church Street Photography Centre run by Joyce Evans in neighbouring
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
(1976).


Gallery

Ian Lobb, an Australian born in 1948, who had undertaken workshops with
Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his Monochrome photography, black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association ...
and
Paul Caponigro Paul John Jerome Caponigro (December 7, 1932 – November 10, 2024) was an American photographer, writer and pianist. His best known photographs are ''Running White Deer'' and ''Galaxy Apple.'' His subject matter includes landscape and still life, ...
,Geoff Strong, 'The Melbourne Movement: fashion and faction in the 1970s'. In took over the Gallery in late 1974. Also that year, Lobb was teaching photography at Coburg Technical School with
Carol Jerrems Carol Joyce Jerrems (14 March 1949 – 21 February 1980) was an Australian photographer/filmmaker whose work emerged just as her medium was beginning to regain the acceptance as an art form that it had in the Pictorial era, and in which she ne ...
, and they met American Bill Heimerman (born 13 January 1950) who was teaching English at the same institution and was renting rooms above the gallery; the two inspired Heimerman's interest in photography. Lobb mounted his first exhibition as director at the beginning of 1975. He and Heimerman became co-directors of the gallery from the beginning of 1976. Beside some government funding and sales, both financially supported their roles through teaching, Heimerman being next employed at Brighton Technical College, where he and other staff members established a photography program, and then at the Council of Adult Education. Critic and photography lecturer Tony Perry noted Heimerman's 'detached, informed view of photography'.Tony Perry, 'Striking quality from 22 top photographers.' In ''The Age'', Friday, 15 June 1979, p.2 Lobb and Heimerman showed some local work, but pursued high profile international, mainly American and some European, photographers for exhibitions.Robert Deane, 'FOREIGN INFLUENCES iN AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY 1930-80', A lecture delivered at APSCON, National Gallery of Australia 10 October 2000, Canberra The first exhibition of international photography at the gallery was that of Paul Caponigro in 1975 which sold 22 prints, after which success the gallery was closed for renovations and while Heimerman made a trip to the US to secure more shows. After the refurbishment ''Melbourne Times'' critic
Wendy Harmer Wendy Gai Harmer (born Wendy Brown, 10 October 1955) is an Australian author, children's writer, journalist, playwright, dramatist, radio show host, comedian, and television personality. Early life and education Harmer was born in Yarram, the ...
described the space as "an oasis of pristine white walls and warm, polished wood.Wendy Harmer, 'Life through the lens.' In ''The Melbourne Times'', 24 February 1982, p.11


Workshop

As well as exhibitions, and from the outset, workshops were held in the gallery building from which part of the funding for the enterprise was derived. The two floors of the terrace building accommodated a two-person
darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, make Photographic printing, prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including ...
available for film development and printing, and a demonstration room with 6-8 student capacity. Printing for exhibitions was offered. Technical instruction for beginners and in the
Zone System The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer. Adams described the Zone System as " ..not an invention of mine; it is a codification of the principle ...
for those more advanced was provided at first by Australian photographer Steven Lojewski in 1976. Evening classes ran for ten weeks. By 1977 Heimerman and Lobb had organised the first workshop to be conducted in Australia by an American photographer,
Ralph Gibson Ralph Gibson (born January 16, 1939) is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and ...
, and sponsored another, of 6 days by William Clift in May 1978 (costing participants $200), before Lobb left to pursue his own photography later that year. Jeff Busby, who also exhibited at the gallery, took over later as Heimerman's assistant. Among the more recent workshops was 'How Joshua Greene Saved Marilyn Monroe: Techniques to Rehabilitate Ageing Photographs and the Art of Digital Printing', held on 26 November 2002 by the son of Milton H. Greene who photographed
Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...
. In addition to its activities at its own premises was the Gallery's organisation and sponsorship of seminars by international photographers, which began with Ralph Gibson's on 11 August 1977 at Prahran College, then that of Harry Callahan, held on 20 November 1979 at the Prahran Recreational Centre, 147 High Street with also a workshop at the Gallery.


Ethos

By showcasing the silver gelatin 'fine print' Lobb and Heimerman hoped to improve Australian work by example, as Lobb observed,
"From 1975, every second show was an international show . .ref name=":0">Tony Perry, 'Australia: Longing for a photographic identity'. In Print Letter No.25 Jan/Feb. 1980 Vol 5 N0.1 p.8- 9 The initial philosophy was simply to let people see the physical difference between the production of prints overseas and locally."
In 1981 however, ''The Age'' newspaper listed the gallery's aims as being;


Reception

Curator Joyce Agee in 1988 noted that, with feminist photography on the ascendant, the gallery's ambitions irritated some Australian women photographers;
In the 1970s, Micky Allan, the late
Carol Jerrems Carol Joyce Jerrems (14 March 1949 – 21 February 1980) was an Australian photographer/filmmaker whose work emerged just as her medium was beginning to regain the acceptance as an art form that it had in the Pictorial era, and in which she ne ...
, Ruth Maddison, Sue Ford and Ponch Hawkes, reacting against the technocratic and patriarchal American West Coast 'fine print' tradition then being promoted by The Photographers' Gallery in Melbourne, began to use photography as an intimate expression of their individual concerns.
Nevertheless, Jerrems was amongst the first exhibitors at the Gallery, showing there four times before her premature death in 1980. Noted women's activist Beatrice Faust, who reviewed many of the gallery's shows from 1976-88 in ''The Age'' newspaper, was supportive in her critiques, and in September 1987 hosted ''Beatrice Faust Curates: From Boubat to Fereday'' at the gallery featuring male and female photographers. Certainly women exhibiting were outnumbered by men in a ratio of nearly 10:1 until the 90s, after which they appear on a more equal footing (see below). The Gallery's concentration on American photography in its early years was not in isolation and was prompted as much by interest in international photography amongst Australians as by Heimerman's own contacts in the US, and paralleled international touring exhibitions of
Bill Brandt Bill Brandt (born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt ; 2 May 1904 – 20 December 1983)Paul DelanyBill Brandt: A Life was a British photographer and photojournalism, photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his ...
in 1971, and the French Foreign Ministry's major exhibition of
Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French artist and Humanist photography, humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 135 film, 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street ...
in 1974. Joyce Evans' Church Street also presented work by American's Minor White, Jerry Uelsmann, Les Krims and others. In mid-1978, the gallery extended a call in the pages of the magazine '' Light Vision'' to Australian photographers to submit work for a survey that was to be a traveling exhibition. The final selection, featured in the journal in a double number, 6 and 7, titled 'Special Australian Edition', issued October 1978 with two samples across double-page spreads of each of 21 photographers, many represented and selected by the Photographers Gallery, among them a number who were also 'Correspondents' for Light Vision at the time. Editor Jean-Marc Le Pechoux acknowledged the cooperative nature of the venture in his editorial, and in her introduction Memory Holloway emphasised the breadth of the selection; "...a plurality of techniques, ideologies and styles; social documentary; pictorial, surreal landscapes; nudes; portraits; straight photography." Four of the 21 contributors were women, but the exercise marked a shift in the program toward a gender-inclusive representation of Australian photographers of diverse styles and often radical attitudes to picture-making and photographic printing and presentation. Tony Perry, who reviewed shows there 1978-80, was complimentary of contributions by William Heimermann and the 'Photographers Gallery' to Australian Photography in his article 'Australia: looking for a photographic identity', as was Peter Turner's interview with Paul Cox in ''Light Vision''. In 1981, ''The Age'' newspaper critic Geoff Strong, in reporting on the imminent closure of Joyce Evans' Church Street gallery, noted that The Photographers' Gallery was also facing tough times during a recession, rising unemployment and a general downturn in the fortunes of art galleries; The status and purpose of the Photographers' Gallery over its long tenure continued to evolve. Critic Beatrice Faust, a supporter of the gallery since its inception, in ''The Age'' in January 1990 observed; Nevertheless, the Gallery was to survive for another twenty years.


Closure

The gallery was closed in 2010 and sold in 2015, and after a period of failing health, Bill Heimerman died on 1 October 2017.


Legacy

In the 1970s, with the decline of the pictorial magazines and a consequent crisis in photojournalism and documentary photography, a revival of the pre-WW2 interest in photography as a fine art was a world-wide phenomenon, as it was in Australia. In 1972, Beatrice Faust, in reviewing ''Two Views of Erotica: Henry Talbot/Carol Jerrems'' at Brummels Gallery in ''
Nation Review ''Nation Review'' was an Australian Sunday newspaper, which ceased publication in 1981. It was launched in 1972 after independent publisher Gordon Barton bought out Tom Fitzgerald (economist), Tom Fitzgerald's ''Nation (Australia), Nation'' publ ...
'' urged; The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop, because of its policy of sourcing and promoting established international work of a high standard, was well placed when percipient private collectors were entering the market in fine photographic prints, and major Australian institutions were initiating collections of photography. The inaugural curator of the new photography department Jennie Boddington at the newly (1968) re-housed
National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...
; Alison Carroll and Ian North of the Art Gallery of South Australia (which had begun to collect photography as a distinct discipline from the mid-1920s, its building expanded in 1962, refurbished 1979); and David Moore and Wes Stacey at the
Australian Centre for Photography The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) was a not-for-profit photography gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia that was established in 1973 and which also provided part-time courses and community programs. One of the longest running c ...
(est. 1973); all purchased from the Photographers' Gallery, with special interest in American and European works, along with the
National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
, which though not built and opened until 1982, had started a photography collection in 1972. Its director James Mollison turned the sponsorship of the tobacco company
Philip Morris International Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) is a multinational tobacco company, with products sold in over 180 countries. Marlboro is PMI’s most recognized brand, but in the last quarter of 2023, Iqos generated the greatest revenue. Philip Mor ...
to the acquisition of Australian photography. These sales contributed significantly to the standing and survival of the Gallery, particularly in its early years of the 1970s and 1980s. An archive of The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop is maintained by Heimerman's partner, Barbara Derrick. Australian gr

Exhibitions


The Gallery under the management of Cox, Williams, McNicol and Thyssen held exhibitions including

Other solo or group exhibitions at the Gallery presented photographers Paul Hopper and Ingeborg Tyssen. In 1982 The Photographers' Gallery presented Aaron Siskind at Reconnaissance in Fitzroy in a joint venture.Geoff Strong, 'Focusing on flat planes and pinballs', ''The Age'', 1982


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Photographers' Gallery and Workshop 1973 establishments in Australia 2015 disestablishments in Australia Art museums and galleries established in 1973 Art museums and galleries disestablished in 2010 Art museums and galleries in Melbourne Photography museums and galleries in Australia