Candid Camera (Australian photographic exhibition)
Encyclopedia
Candid Camera: Australian Photography 1950s–1970s was a group retrospective exhibition of social documentary photography held at the Art Gallery of South Australia
from 28 May to 1 August 2010.
Candid Camera had its roots in Six Photographers, a groundbreaking exhibition held in Sydney in May 1955, which concentrated on what was still a relatively new development in Australian photography and featured the work of Max Dupain
, David Potts, Axel Poignant, Gordon Andrews, Kerry Dundas and Hal Missingham
. The work of the first three of these was also represented in Candid Camera. Six Photographers, an artist-initiated show that showed 200 images at a time when exhibitions of personal photographic work were rare, was regarded as sufficiently influential for the Art Gallery of New South Wales
to commemorate it with a show of the same title featuring the same six photographers, more than 50 years after it had first been presented. This second version of Six Photographers featured 29 images, many of them shown in 1955, and concentrated on works from the same period (the late forties through to the mid-fifties).
Candid Camera, while about half the size of the 1955 Sydney exhibition, covered a significantly wider range of artists and looked not just at the foundations of Australian social documentary photography but at the era that curator Julie Robinson
clearly regards as its golden age – the fifties, sixties and seventies.
In line with the statements issued by the six photographers group, Candid Camera featured “images which appear unposed, spontaneous, or with their subjects captured unaware”. Though the majority of the photos in the exhibition (more than 80 in total) were taken in Australia, images by Australian photographers working overseas were also included. Subjects included youth subcultures, newly arrived migrants, nuns, a number of prime ministers (not all of whom were in office when photographed), musicians such as Bon Scott of AC/DC, and ordinary people in everyday settings: at work, at the beach and at bus stops.
Photographers represented in Candid Camera included Max Dupain
, David Moore
, Jeff Carter
, Max Pam
, Robert McFarlane
, Mervyn Bishop
, Rennie Ellis
, Carol Jerrems
, and Roger Scott
. Of these, all have work held in the permanent collection of National Gallery of Australia. Mervyn Bishop is the only Aboriginal Australian included, and though his work has primarily been in New South Wales, Robert McFarlane was the only photographer to be born in South Australia. In this last regard, Candid Camera was very different to Century in Focus, an earlier large-scale photographic survey curated by Robinson, which dealt only with images taken in South Australia.
The Candid Camera exhibition and catalog both identified a number of different strands within Australian social documentary photography after the first generation – new photojournalism in the sixties, and the more personal approaches taken in the seventies – along with a number of themes in the subject matter: everyday life, the protest movements of the sixties, street photography and Australia’s increasing engagement with Asia.
Though Robert McFarlane
, formerly photographic critic on the Sydney Morning Herald and one of the photographers included in the exhibition, agrees that the exhibition’s time frame was "the great period of photo-journalism
internationally," he also believes that "the importance of documentary photography
has never been greater, because Australia is changing dramatically in terms of its work habits and its racial make-up, and politically it is changing as well." In this, he echoes the original six photographers and their statement "Our manners, mode of living and appearance are changing more rapidly from year to year, and we feel the camera can and should be used to record this constant flux."
Candid Camera was accompanied by a series of talks, a program of Australian films from the same era, and screenings of Girl in a Mirror, a Rose d'Or
–winning documentary about Carol Jerrems
, who died in 1980 at the age of 30.
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia , located on the cultural boulevard of North Terrace in Adelaide, is the premier visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of over 35,000 works of art, making it, after the National Gallery of Victoria, the largest state...
from 28 May to 1 August 2010.
Candid Camera had its roots in Six Photographers, a groundbreaking exhibition held in Sydney in May 1955, which concentrated on what was still a relatively new development in Australian photography and featured the work of Max Dupain
Max Dupain
Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC was a renowned Australian modernist photographer.-Early life:Dupain received his first camera as a gift in 1924, spurring his interest in photography He later joined the Photographic Society of NSW, and when he left school, he worked for Cecil Bostock in Sydney.-Early...
, David Potts, Axel Poignant, Gordon Andrews, Kerry Dundas and Hal Missingham
Hal Missingham
Harold "Hal" Missingham AO was an Australian artist, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1945 to 1971,. and president of the Australian Watercolour Institute from 1952 to 1955.-Biography:...
. The work of the first three of these was also represented in Candid Camera. Six Photographers, an artist-initiated show that showed 200 images at a time when exhibitions of personal photographic work were rare, was regarded as sufficiently influential for the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
to commemorate it with a show of the same title featuring the same six photographers, more than 50 years after it had first been presented. This second version of Six Photographers featured 29 images, many of them shown in 1955, and concentrated on works from the same period (the late forties through to the mid-fifties).
Candid Camera, while about half the size of the 1955 Sydney exhibition, covered a significantly wider range of artists and looked not just at the foundations of Australian social documentary photography but at the era that curator Julie Robinson
Julie Robinson (curator)
Julie Robinson is Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs at the Art Gallery of South Australia, where she has worked since 1988, and is also on the teaching staff at the University of Adelaide, where she offers supervision in Art History...
clearly regards as its golden age – the fifties, sixties and seventies.
In line with the statements issued by the six photographers group, Candid Camera featured “images which appear unposed, spontaneous, or with their subjects captured unaware”. Though the majority of the photos in the exhibition (more than 80 in total) were taken in Australia, images by Australian photographers working overseas were also included. Subjects included youth subcultures, newly arrived migrants, nuns, a number of prime ministers (not all of whom were in office when photographed), musicians such as Bon Scott of AC/DC, and ordinary people in everyday settings: at work, at the beach and at bus stops.
Photographers represented in Candid Camera included Max Dupain
Max Dupain
Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC was a renowned Australian modernist photographer.-Early life:Dupain received his first camera as a gift in 1924, spurring his interest in photography He later joined the Photographic Society of NSW, and when he left school, he worked for Cecil Bostock in Sydney.-Early...
, David Moore
David Moore (photographer)
David Moore was an Australian photojournalist.Moore was educated at Geelong Grammar School. He began his career in the studio of Russell Roberts in Sydney, moving on to work with Max Dupain soon after...
, Jeff Carter
Jeff Carter (photographer)
Jeff Carter was an Australian photographer and author.-Early life:Carter was born to Percy and Doris Carter in Melbourne in August 1928 in Victoria and attended Melbourne Boys High School. By the time he matriculated in 1946, his three major passions were clear – photography, writing and travel....
, Max Pam
Max Pam
Max Pam, is a contemporary Australian photographer.As a teenager Pam found post-war suburban Melbourne grim, oppressive and culturally isolated...
, Robert McFarlane
Robert McFarlane (photographer)
Robert McFarlane is an Australian photographer and photographic critic.-Early life:Born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1942, he was given a Kodak Box Brownie at the age of 9 by his parents, Bill and Poppy McFarlane...
, Mervyn Bishop
Mervyn Bishop
Mervyn Bishop is an Australian news and documentary photographer. Joining the Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet in 1962 or 1963, he was the first Aboriginal Australian to work on a metropolitan daily newspaper and one of the first Aboriginal Australians to become a professional photographer...
, Rennie Ellis
Rennie Ellis
Reynolds Mark "Rennie" Ellis was an Australian social and social documentary photographer who also worked, at various stages of his life, as an advertising copywriter, seaman, lecturer, and television presenter...
, Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems was an Australian photographer who produced the image Vale Street. She documented the counter-culture spirit of Melbourne in the 1970s...
, and Roger Scott
Roger Scott (photographer)
Roger Scott is an Australian social documentary photographer and photographic printer.In December 2001 he published a retrospective of his work, Roger Scott: From the Street, with a foreword by Gael Newton, senior curator of photography at the Australian National Gallery...
. Of these, all have work held in the permanent collection of National Gallery of Australia. Mervyn Bishop is the only Aboriginal Australian included, and though his work has primarily been in New South Wales, Robert McFarlane was the only photographer to be born in South Australia. In this last regard, Candid Camera was very different to Century in Focus, an earlier large-scale photographic survey curated by Robinson, which dealt only with images taken in South Australia.
The Candid Camera exhibition and catalog both identified a number of different strands within Australian social documentary photography after the first generation – new photojournalism in the sixties, and the more personal approaches taken in the seventies – along with a number of themes in the subject matter: everyday life, the protest movements of the sixties, street photography and Australia’s increasing engagement with Asia.
Though Robert McFarlane
Robert McFarlane (photographer)
Robert McFarlane is an Australian photographer and photographic critic.-Early life:Born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1942, he was given a Kodak Box Brownie at the age of 9 by his parents, Bill and Poppy McFarlane...
, formerly photographic critic on the Sydney Morning Herald and one of the photographers included in the exhibition, agrees that the exhibition’s time frame was "the great period of photo-journalism
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
internationally," he also believes that "the importance of documentary photography
Documentary photography
Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit...
has never been greater, because Australia is changing dramatically in terms of its work habits and its racial make-up, and politically it is changing as well." In this, he echoes the original six photographers and their statement "Our manners, mode of living and appearance are changing more rapidly from year to year, and we feel the camera can and should be used to record this constant flux."
Candid Camera was accompanied by a series of talks, a program of Australian films from the same era, and screenings of Girl in a Mirror, a Rose d'Or
Rose d'Or
The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...
–winning documentary about Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems was an Australian photographer who produced the image Vale Street. She documented the counter-culture spirit of Melbourne in the 1970s...
, who died in 1980 at the age of 30.