Mervyn Bishop
Encyclopedia
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. In 1971, four years after completing his cadetship, he was named Australian Press Photographer of the Year
. He has continued to work as a photographer and lecturer. Bishop is a member of the Murri people.
. His father, "Minty" Bishop, had been a soldier and shearer, and was himself born to an Aboriginal mother and a Punjabi
Indian father. In 1950, "Minty" gained an "official exemption certificate which permitted 'more advanced' Aborigines to live apart from mission blackfellas in post-war Australia". This enabled the family to live among "ordinary" people in Brewarrina. The catch to this certificate was that the exempt Aborigines were expected to "sever their ties with their old culture".
By high school he had started "chronicling the family with a camera - first his mother's Kodak 620 and, then a 35mm Japanese camera he bought for ₤15". He moved to Dubbo when he was 14 to finish his high school at the Dubbo High School.
His wife, Elizabeth, died of cancer in 1991, and he was left to care for their teenage son, Tim, and six-year-old daughter, Rosemary.
in 1962, the first Aboriginal photographer ever hired by the paper. In 2004, he remained the only indigenous photographer to have been employed by the paper.
From 1974 to 1980, he worked as the Department of Aboriginal Affairs
staff photographer. Some of his most enduring work came from this period, as he visited indigenous communities and documented "the first flush of an idealistic era when land rights, equal wages and government-funded aid seemed to presage a new dawn for Aboriginal Australians".
It was during this time, in 1975, that he shot the iconic photograph of Gough Whitlam
pouring soil into the hand of Gurindji
traditional owner, Vincent Lingiari
, at the handover of the deeds to Gurindji country at Wattie Creek. This photograph has been seen as capturing "the symbolic birth of landrights".
Through his photographs of the 1960s to 1980s, he captured the spirit of the times, whether it was documenting Sydney
's anti-Vietnam War
demonstrations in 1969, or exposing the Third World
living conditions in Aboriginal communities as Australia celebrated its Bicentenary
in 1988.
He returned to the Herald in 1979, before becoming a freelance photographer in 1986, working for such agencies as the National Geographic Society
.
Bishop completed further studies and lectured in photography at Tranby Aboriginal College, the Eora
College and at the Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney
.
In 1991 he had his first solo exhibition, In Dreams: Mervyn, Thirty Years of Photography 1960 to 1990, at the Australian Centre for Photography. Originally curated
by Tracey Moffatt
, it went on to tour for over 10 years. A book titled In Dreams was published to accompany the exhibition.
He produced a one-man performance piece, Flash Blak, in the vein of a William Yang slide show to music and written and directed by Yang, for the 2004 Message Sticks Festival at the Sydney Opera House
. His aim in the show was to delve "into his family's history to illuminate a wider story about Aboriginal life in the latter half of the 20th century". He also worked as a stills photographer on Phillip Noyce
's Rabbit-Proof Fence
.
Bishop's work was included in Candid Camera: Australian Photography 1950s–1970s
at the Art Gallery Of South Australia
(May to August 2010) a group retrospective of social documentary photography which also featured the work of key Australian photographers Max Dupain
, David Moore
, Jeff Carter
, Robert McFarlane
, Rennie Ellis
, Carol Jerrems
and Roger Scott
. A number of Bishops photographs are held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Australia
.
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
to become a professional photographer. In 1971, four years after completing his cadetship, he was named Australian Press Photographer of the Year
Nikon-Walkley Australian Press Photographer of the Year
The Nikon-Walkley Australian Press Photographer of the Year Award recognises newsworthiness, impact, technical superiority, creativity and originality in news photography. It was first awarded in 1969 as a separate award, but in 2000 merged with the Walkley Awards to create the current prize...
. He has continued to work as a photographer and lecturer. Bishop is a member of the Murri people.
Early life
Bishop was born in Brewarrina in north-west NSWNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. His father, "Minty" Bishop, had been a soldier and shearer, and was himself born to an Aboriginal mother and a Punjabi
Punjabi people
The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...
Indian father. In 1950, "Minty" gained an "official exemption certificate which permitted 'more advanced' Aborigines to live apart from mission blackfellas in post-war Australia". This enabled the family to live among "ordinary" people in Brewarrina. The catch to this certificate was that the exempt Aborigines were expected to "sever their ties with their old culture".
By high school he had started "chronicling the family with a camera - first his mother's Kodak 620 and, then a 35mm Japanese camera he bought for ₤15". He moved to Dubbo when he was 14 to finish his high school at the Dubbo High School.
His wife, Elizabeth, died of cancer in 1991, and he was left to care for their teenage son, Tim, and six-year-old daughter, Rosemary.
Career
He began his career as a cadet photographer with The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
in 1962, the first Aboriginal photographer ever hired by the paper. In 2004, he remained the only indigenous photographer to have been employed by the paper.
From 1974 to 1980, he worked as the Department of Aboriginal Affairs
Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Australia)
The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs is an Australian Government department. Its main office is located in Southern Canberra in the suburb of Greenway. Its role is to develop social policies and support affected Australian society and the living standards...
staff photographer. Some of his most enduring work came from this period, as he visited indigenous communities and documented "the first flush of an idealistic era when land rights, equal wages and government-funded aid seemed to presage a new dawn for Aboriginal Australians".
It was during this time, in 1975, that he shot the iconic photograph of Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
pouring soil into the hand of Gurindji
Gurindji people
Gurindji are a group of Indigenous Australians living in northern Australia, 460 km southwest of Katherine in the Northern Territory's Victoria River region....
traditional owner, Vincent Lingiari
Vincent Lingiari
Vincent Lingiarri, AM , was an Aboriginal rights activist who was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to the Aboriginal people. Lingiarri was a member of the Gurindji people. In Vincent's earlier life he worked as a stockman at Wave Hill Cattle Station. He also played...
, at the handover of the deeds to Gurindji country at Wattie Creek. This photograph has been seen as capturing "the symbolic birth of landrights".
Through his photographs of the 1960s to 1980s, he captured the spirit of the times, whether it was documenting Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's anti-Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
demonstrations in 1969, or exposing the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
living conditions in Aboriginal communities as Australia celebrated its Bicentenary
Australian Bicentenary
The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land, and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement.-1970:...
in 1988.
He returned to the Herald in 1979, before becoming a freelance photographer in 1986, working for such agencies as the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
.
Bishop completed further studies and lectured in photography at Tranby Aboriginal College, the Eora
Eora
The Eora are the Aboriginal people of the Sydney area, south to the Georges River, north to the Hawkesbury River, and west to Parramatta. The indigenous people used this word to describe where they came from to the British. "Eora" was then used by the British to refer to those Aboriginal people...
College and at the Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
.
In 1991 he had his first solo exhibition, In Dreams: Mervyn, Thirty Years of Photography 1960 to 1990, at the Australian Centre for Photography. Originally curated
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
by Tracey Moffatt
Tracey Moffatt
Tracey Moffatt is an Australian artist who primarily uses photography and video.Born in Brisbane in 1960, she holds a degree in visual communications from the Queensland College of Art, graduating in 1982....
, it went on to tour for over 10 years. A book titled In Dreams was published to accompany the exhibition.
He produced a one-man performance piece, Flash Blak, in the vein of a William Yang slide show to music and written and directed by Yang, for the 2004 Message Sticks Festival at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. His aim in the show was to delve "into his family's history to illuminate a wider story about Aboriginal life in the latter half of the 20th century". He also worked as a stills photographer on Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce is an Australian film director.-Life and career:Noyce was born in Griffith, New South Wales, attended Barker College, Sydney, and began making short films at the age of 18, starting with Better to Reign in Hell, using his friends as the cast...
's Rabbit-Proof Fence
Rabbit-Proof Fence (film)
Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film directed by Phillip Noyce based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara...
.
Bishop's work was included in Candid Camera: Australian Photography 1950s–1970s
Candid Camera (Australian photographic exhibition)
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....
at the Art Gallery Of South Australia
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...
(May to August 2010) a group retrospective of social documentary photography which also featured the work of key Australian photographers 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....
, 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...
, 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...
. A number of Bishops photographs are held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
.
Awards
- 1971: He won the Nikon-Walkley Australian Press Photographer of the YearNikon-Walkley Australian Press Photographer of the YearThe Nikon-Walkley Australian Press Photographer of the Year Award recognises newsworthiness, impact, technical superiority, creativity and originality in news photography. It was first awarded in 1969 as a separate award, but in 2000 merged with the Walkley Awards to create the current prize...
for Life and Death Dash, a photograph, which had appeared on the front page of the Herald in January 1971, depicting Sister Anne Burn carrying a child (who had taken an overdose) into hospital - 2000: He was awarded the Australia CouncilAustralia CouncilThe Australia Council, informally known as the Australia Council for the Arts, is the official arts council or arts funding body of the Government of Australia.-Function:...
's $50,000 Red Ochre Award, through its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board.
Solo and Group Exhibitions
- 1991, In Dreams: Mervyn Bishop Thirty Years of Photography 1960-1990, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney and touring
- 1991, Images of Black Sport, Powerhouse MuseumPowerhouse MuseumThe Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, the other being the historic Sydney Observatory...
, SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people... - 1991, Her Story: Images of Domestic Labour in Australian Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery
- 1992, Cultural exchange with the Chinese Photographic Society and Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and TradeDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a department of the government of Australia charged with advancing the interests of Australia and its citizens internationally...
- 1993, Aratjara: Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-WestfalenKunstsammlung Nordrhein-WestfalenThe Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the K20 at Grabbeplatz, the K21 in the Ständehaus and the Schmela Haus...
, Düsseldorf; Hayward GalleryHayward GalleryThe Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
, London; Louisiana Museum of Modern ArtLouisiana Museum of Modern ArtThe Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located directly on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark with an extensive permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, dating from World War II and up...
, Humlebaek, Denmark - 1993, Urban Focus: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from the Urban Areas of Australia, National Gallery of AustraliaNational Gallery of AustraliaThe National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
, CanberraCanberraCanberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne... - 1998, Retake: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Photography, National Gallery of Australia
- 2003, New View: Indigenous Photographic Perspectives, Monash Gallery
- 2008, Half Light: Portraits from Black Australia, Art Gallery of New South WalesArt Gallery of New South WalesThe 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...
- 2010, Candid Camera: Australian Photography 1950s–1970s, Art Gallery of South AustraliaArt Gallery of South AustraliaThe 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...