Concrete Playground

The 1970s were a phenomenally productive decade for Australian photographers and documentarians. There was Sydney’s first Mardi Gras, the massive campaign to save Tasmania’s Franklin River and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established in support of Aboriginal Land Rights. But as the 70s drew on, protesters pacified and photographers began looking elsewhere for what to capture of Australia.

Spanning three decades of Australian photographers who have turned their camera eye to the abundance of space in this landscape of ours, Photography & Place displays works from Jon Rhodes, Ricky Maynard and Lynn Silverman to name a few. With the absence of human figure in these works, one must imagine human presence in a landscape in Anne Ferran’s Lost to Worlds, examine the residue we have left behind in Rosemary Laing’s panoramic series, or the cultural impact of inhabiting a place through Michael Riley’s series Flyblown. This retrospective is a thorough examination of a significant era of Australian photography and begs the question: what will define the next one?

Image: Blue Sky, Paul Ogier 2009