Photography
Real and Imagined
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square
Level 3
Until 4 Feb | Free entry
Photography: Real and Imagined examines two perspectives on photography; photography grounded in the real world, as a record, a document, a reflection of the world around us; and photography as the product of imagination, storytelling and illusion. On occasion, photography operates in both realms of the real and the imagined.
Highlighting major photographic works from the NGV Collection, including recent acquisitions on display for the very first time, Photography: Real and Imagined examines the complex, engaging and sometimes contradictory nature, of all things photographic. The NGV’s largest survey of the photography collection, the exhibition includes more than 300 works by Australian and international photographers and artists working with photo-media from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
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Select Works
Hank WILLIS THOMAS
Amelia falling 2014
photographic print, mirror and glass
166.0 x 135.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2017
2017.462
© Hank Willis Thomas. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Rennie ELLIS
Between strips, Kings Cross (1970-1971); (2000) {printed}
from the Kings Cross series 1971
gelatin silver photograph
37.1 x 24.1 cm (image) 40.3 x 30.4 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 2005
2005.557
© Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive
Henri CARTIER-BRESSON
Juvisy, France 1938; (1990s) {printed}
gelatin silver photograph
29.1 x 43.9 cm (image)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2015
2015.566
© Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos
MAN RAY
Kiki with African mask 1926
gelatin silver photograph
21.1 x 27.6 cm (image) 22.1 x 28.5 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of Miss Flora MacDonald Anderson and Mrs Ethel Elizabeth Ogilvy Lumsden, Founder Benefactors, 1983
PH137-1983
Public domain
André KERTÉSZ
Chez Mondrian, Paris 1926; (c. 1972) {printed}
gelatin silver photograph
24.7 x 18.5 cm (image) 25.3 x 20.4 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1973
PH146-1973
Public domain
Michael Cook
Civilised #11 2012
from the Civilised series 2012
inkjet print
100.0 x 87.5 cm (image) 120.0 x 108.0 cm (sheet)
ed. 3/8
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2013
2013.584
© Michael Cook and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin
Dora MAAR
Untitled (Study of Beauty) (1936)
gelatin silver photograph
33.0 x 24.1 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2021
2021.17
© Dora Maar. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Dorothea LANGE
Towards Los Angeles, California (1936); (c. 1975) {printed}
gelatin silver photograph
39.6 x 39.1 cm (image) 40.8 x 50.5 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1975
PH96-1975
Zanele MUHOLI
Ntozkhe II (Parktown) (2016)
from the Somnyama Ngonyama series 2015–16
gelatin silver photograph
(99.0 x 74.0 cm) (image)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2017
2017.461
© Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson, New York
Malala ANDRIALAVIDRAZANA
Figures 1850, various empires, kingdoms, states and republics (2015)
inkjet print
(110.0 x 138.5 cm)
ed. 1/5
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Ruth Margaret Frances Houghton Bequest, 2021
2021.60
© Malala Andrialavidrazana. Courtesy of the artist and AFRONOVA Gallery
Nan GOLDIN
Misty in Sheridan Square, NYC 1991; 2015 {printed}
cibachrome photograph
76.0 x 102.0 cm (sheet)
ed. 20/25
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2015
2015.395
© Nan Goldin, courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
Thomas STRUTH
Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin 2001
type C photograph
144.1 x 219.9 cm (image) 151.5 x 226.8 cm (sheet)
ed. 1/10
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with the assistance of the Bowness Family Fund for Contemporary Photography, 2008
2008.518
© Thomas Struth
Marion POST WOLCOTT
Near Wadesboro, North Carolina (1938); (c. 1975) {printed}
gelatin silver photograph
26.4 x 26.5 cm (image) 28.0 x 35.3 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1975
PH145-1975
Barbara KASTEN
Composition 8T 2018
digital type C print
160.0 x 121.9 cm (image and sheet)
ed. 1/1
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2018
2018.1307
© Barbara Kasten, courtesy Kadel Willborn, Düsseldorf
UNKNOWN
No title (Woman with umbrella) (1880s)
albumen silver photograph, colour dyes
24.2 x 19.4 cm (image and sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented through the NGV Foundation by Thomas Dixon, Member, 2001
2001.214
Loretta LUX
The drummer 2004
cibachrome photograph
45.0 x 37.7 cm (image) 56.0 x 49.0 cm (sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Foundation, 2006
2006.341
© Loretta Lux. VG Bild-Kunst/Copyright Agency, 2023
Gordon PARKS
Big Mama and boy, 1961 (1961); (1972) {printed}
gelatin silver photograph
35.0 x 49.9 cm (image) 40.8 x 50.9 cm (sheet)
ed. 11/99
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1973
PH90-1973
Gordon Parks, Bessie and Little Richard the Morning After She Scalded Her Husband, Harlem, New York, 1967. Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.
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