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SHADES OF LIGHT

Based on text from the original book: Shades of Light: Photography and Australia 1839-1988
Gael Newton, 1988 Australian National Gallery

 

Chapter 12  Footnotes

 

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  1. Information on the development of Russell Roberts' organisation from the artist's files, Australian National Gallery, Canberra.

  2. See William A. Ewing and Colin Osman, Spontaneity and Style: Munkacsi A Retrospective (New York: International Centre of Photography, 1978).

  3. For biographies of Hasenflug and other photographers included in this chapter see Gael Newton, Silver and Grey: Fifty Years of Australian Photography 1900-1950 (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1980).

  4. Humphrey McQueen's The Black Swan of Trespass: The Emergence of Modernist Painting in Australia to 1944 (Sydney: Alternative Publishing Cooperative, 1979), p. 8 1, posits reasons why Surrealist inspired photographers appeared in the Home and Art in Australia,

  5. Shattered intimacy is reproduced in Gael Newton, Max Dupain (Sydney:David Ell, 1980), p.55 and discussed on p.26. Surrealism was only one of several influences on this type of work by Dupain. The concern for the essential nature of natural forms of the New Photography and the vitalist movement in literature were the most significant.

  6. Dupain was the only photographer of his generation whose works were truly expressive of Modernist or Surrealist philosophies. Humphrey McQueen's analysis of the appeal of Surrealism and theories of the unconscious to artists of a romantic bent in his Black Swan of Trespass, op. cit., p.78, applies to Dupain's work and suggests a more serious examination of the latter's contribution to this movement's influence on Australian art. Prints of Dupain's Hardy's Hose and Hoover advertisements - redolent with sexual overtones and Surrealist atmosphere - are held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra.

  7. For a selection of Shmith's work see Contemporary Photographers 2: Athol Shmith (Richmond, Melbourne: Richmond Hill Press, 1980). Text by John Cato and Dacre Stubbs.

  8. The Australian National Gallery acquired a large group of works from the retrospective mounted by the Australian Centre for Photography in 1985. For further details of Cotton's career see Barbara Hall and Jenni Mather, Australian Women Photographers 1840-1960 (Melbourne: Greenhouse, 1986), pp.83-8.

  9. Reproduced in Barbara Hall and Jenni Mather, Australian Women Photographers 1840-1960, op. cit., p. 108. See also further biographical details of Donald's career p. 106.

  10. The only large collection of Michaelis' work is held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra. Biographical details are included in the catalogue by Helen Ennis and Kate Davidson, Margaret Michaelis (Canberra: Australian National Gallery, 1987).

  11. See Helen Ennis'paper on Wolfgang Sievers which seeks to redress the lack of public awareness of his achievements; 'Wolfgang Sievers and Australian Photography', paper delivered at the Art Museums of Australia and Art Association Conference, Canberra 1983. Copy held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra on the artist's file.

  12. Seethe tribute to Sievers' pioneering role from his younger contemporary Australian architectural photographer, John Gollings, 'I Wolfgang', Lumiere [Melbourne] no. 14 (March-April, 1972): pp.24-6.

  13. See Forsyth Hardy, ed. Grierson on Documentary (London: Collins, 1946).

  14. Dupain's assimilation of the basically socially educative concept of Documentary work as defined by Grierson, with the almost mystic formalism of the New Photography is traced in Gael Newton, Max Dupain, op. cit., pp. 16-36.

  15. Oswald L. Ziegler produced Australia 1788-1938: 150 Years for the Australian 150th Anniversary Celebrations Council (Sydney: Simmons, 1938). The elaborate design work was done by Gert Sellheim. Ziegler's role as a publisher of illustrated books has apparently received little attention. An earlier publication was Soul ofA City which was illustrated by Max Dupain and Hal Missingham. (Sydney: W. E. Smith, 1937.)

  16. For a brief history of LIFE see Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography (New York: Abbeville, 1984), pp.474-83. Allan Sekula's critical study of The Family of Man exhibition in his essay'The Traffic in Photographs', Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photoworks 1973-1983 (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1984), pp.77-101, can also be applied to photojournalism as a whole.

  17. See Gael Newton, Axel Poignant Photographs 1922-1980 (Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1982). Collections of Axel Poignant's work are held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the Australian National Gallery, Canberra and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. Poignant's role in Western Australia has been assessed in two recent exhibitions; Picturing Western Australia (Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1987).

  18. Poignant, like other artists of the thirties, found inspiration in the desert regions of Australia. His journey along the Canning Stock Route in 1942 was a powerful experience which confirmed and strengthened Poignant's orientation towards outback subjects.

  19. Axel Poignant-HalMissingham Exhibition of Photographs, Perth, September 194 1, catalogue notes. Alex King was a lecturer in English at the University of Western Australia, Perth, 1932-41. His article, 'Art and Democracy', The WestAustralian, 18 September 1940, reveals his belief in the social value of art and commitment to the philosophy of the Documentary movement in film.

  20. See 'The Sydney of Yesteryear' and 'Here and there: Around Old Sydney' Contemporary Photography (May-June 1948): pp. 11-40.

  21. See Max Dupain,A Note on Damien Parer', Contemporary Photography (November-December 1946): p.20. Parer exhibited still photographs but his main career was as a cinematographer, see Frank Legg, The Eyes of Damien Parer (Adelaide: Rigby, 1963).

  22. Max Dupain Photographs (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1948), p. 12.

  23. Harold Cazneaux expressed his disappointment in the book in a letter to Jack Cato of 7 December 1952, in which he complained 'it was in the wrong hands and the Modern Minded Selectors wrecked the whole concern. The book was not representative of Australian Photography'. Ms. no. 37, held by the Cazneaux family, Sydney. Copy held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra. The special issue of the A.P.-R, 'The Cazneaux Story' with text by Jack Cato had just been published. By this time Cazneaux felt modern photography was at a stand still with technique dominating over individuality and character in prints, see his earlier letter of May, p.10 (ms. no. 30), op. cit.
    A review of the book in Contemporary Photography (November-December, 1947): p.51 expressed similar discontent at the predominance of the 'factual-documentary outlook'.

  24. Harold Cazneaux, 'Print Analysis'; David Moore, Little Charlie, Contemporary Photography (May-June, July-August 1949), p.21. He nevertheless described Moore's image as ,a straightforward example of the candid type of photography'.
    A recent letter from Moore to the author on the circumstances sur25
    rounding his Redfern interior is held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra on the artist's file.

  25. For a selection of images see David Moore: ContemporaryAustralian Photographers I (Richmond, Melbourne: Richmond Hill Press, 1980).

  26. See Gael Newton, Silver and Grey, op. cit., for a group of reproductions of Potts' work.

  27. See Martyn jolly, 'Edward Cranstone, Photographer', Photofile (Autumn 1984): pp. 1-4. Records of interviews between Jolly and Geoffrey Powell and Cranstone are held on the artists' files, Australian National Gallery, Canberra.

  28. A collection of seven albums for the Department of Information and the Allied Works Council is held by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra,

  29. Axel Poignant, Piccaninny Walkabout: A Story of Two Aboriginal Children (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1957). The book was awarded a UNESCO commendation as 'a children's book promoting understanding between peoples'. A number of children's books with a similar educative role were produced in the fifties, however the Walkabout has sold over 100,000 copies since 1957.

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