The first photograph to enter the collection of the NGV was Surry Hills street, 1948 by Australian photographer David Moore. Moore began to make photographs around 1947 and this image, made the following year, is an outstanding example of an Australian photographer working in the social documentary style.
In the late 1940s Moore produced an extensive series of photographs that documented the depressed economic and social environment of inner city Sydney. He was, as he explained it, ’… intrigued by my city - Sydney – and I wanted to explore that style of social documentary photography.’