Imagining a Real Australia by Stephen Zagala

Documentary photography offers one way of looking, but this type of looking is also about feeling. It is a style of making photographs designed to draw people into the world and activate their interest in something beyond themselves.

Australian documentary photography was at its height from the 1950s to 1970s. A time of great flux social, political and cultural was reflected in the photographs of Max Dupain, Carol Jerrems, William Yang, Rennie Ellis, David Moore, Mervyn Bishop, Sue Ford and others. A time when the gritty documentary photography that emerged in the US after World War II, hand-held film cameras, instamatic colour film, Polaroid cameras and the arrival of television all pushed photography in a revolutionary new direction. Imagining a Real Australia is a stunning testament to a time when photographers turned their lenses on real people living real lives.

A captivating account of Australian documentary photography at its height including the photographs of Max Dupain, Carol Jerrems, William Yang, Rennie Ellis, David Moore, Mervyn Bishop, Sue Ford and others.

About the Author:

Stephen Zagala has curated more than 60 exhibitions including ‘Bill Henson shuffles the deck’, Museum of Australian Photography 2014; ‘Tracey Moffatt: Narratives’, Art Gallery of South Australia 2011 (with Maria Zagala) and ‘Afterglow: performance art and photography’, Museum of Australian Photography 2011. He was principle curator at the Museum of Australian Photography between 2006 and 2017, and a research fellow at the South Australian Museum between 2017 and 2024.

01 Dec 2024
 

Imagining a Real Australia by Stephen Zagala ISBN 9781742236926