The Lens and Eye: Photographs from the City of Waverley Art Collection
Dates:
18 September – 17 October 1986
Artists:
Ann Balla, Charles Bayliss, William Buckle, Oliver Burckhardt, Harold Cazneaux, Philip Cordingley, Jo Daniell, Norman Cathcart Deck, Martin Drew, Max Dupain, Peter Ellison, Sue Ford, John Gollings, Fiona Hall, Rodney Harris, Bill Henson, Merryle Johnson, Michael Kluvanek, Roderick McNicol, David Moore, Grant Mudford, Robert Owen, Wes Placek, Wolfgang Sievers, Mark Strizic, Ingeborg Tyssen, John Wilkins, Anne Zahalka
Curator:
Jenepher Duncan
Opened by:
Beatrice Faust
Location:
Monash University Gallery
Department of Visual Arts
Menzies Building Floor 7
Monash University, Clayton Campus
About the exhibition
The Lens and Eye showcased a broad selection of photographs from the City of Waverley Art Collection (Melbourne), offering a representative overview of Australian photography from 1880 to 1986. Featuring works by some of the nation’s best-known photographers, the exhibition marked the first time these images had been seen together outside of their municipal context.
Among the earliest works were those of Charles Bayliss (1850–1897), who toured the goldfields of New South Wales and Victoria and is regarded as one of Australia's finest pioneer outdoor photographers. Also included were photographs by Harold Cazneaux (1878–1953)—another key figure in Australian photography who, in 1909, staged the country’s first solo photographic exhibition and was at the forefront of the emerging Pictorialism movement.
The exhibition spanned genres from portraiture and life studies—by artists such as Max Dupain, Sue Ford, Bill Henson and Wolfgang Sievers—to more experimental and subversive approaches to the medium represented by Marian Drew, Fiona Hall, Merryle Johnson and Anne Zahalka.
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Image: Max Dupain, Meat Queue, Sydney 1946, gelatin silver photograph, 45.3 x 65.1 cm (image/sheet), 52.8 x 72.7 cm (board). Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Purchased 1976