Black and White: documenting Indigenous Australia
A Monash Gallery of Art Travelling Exhibition
27 November 2010 – 23 January 2011

Drawing primarily on material in the MGA Collection, and featuring work by some of Australia’s best-known photographers, Black & White: documenting Indigenous Australia examines the representation of Indigenous Australians in black-and-white photography from the nineteenth century through to present.

Aboriginal people have featured in the photographic history of Australia since the earliest days of the camera. They have also been keen collectors and producers of photography since the late nineteenth century. And, over recent years, Indigenous photographers have been among the most celebrated figures in contemporary Australian art.

This exhibition includes images produced by Indigenous and non-Indigenous photographers, working in a range of different historical and professional contexts. In a variety of ways, all the photographers in this exhibition demonstrate an interest in using the camera to document Aboriginal Australia. From the commercial photography of European immigrants in the 1870s, through to the conceptually driven work of contemporary Aboriginal artists, black-and-white photography provides a vehicle for recording, remembering and re-negotiating cross-cultural relations.

Image: Philip J. PIKE Untitled [portrait of Robert Tudawali as Marbuck from Jedda] c.1954
gelatin silver print Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
Donated by Richard King through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2008