matter to light as the ‘‘personal became political.’’
Ruth Maddison was one of a group of photogra-
phers who validated the richness of everyday Aus-
tralian experiences by focusing on the often
overlooked rituals of ordinary life, while Sue Ford
used her friends as the models for her fascinating
study of faces taken a decade apart. Ford’s appar-
ently simple photographs reveal the power of
photography to show how physical, emotional,
and social changes are reflected in a person’s face.
The creative uses of photography expanded con-
siderably in the 1970s. The medium began to be
absorbed into the ‘‘mainstream’’ art world as con-
ceptual and performance artists started to employ
the medium. For body artist Stelarc, photographs
were an important creative adjunct to his art events
in the 1970s. In a different vein, Jon Rhodes was
one of several photographers of the period to
address social issues when he used the medium to
bring attention to land rights issues for Aboriginal
people in the Gove Peninsula in his series,Just
Another Sunrise?Others, such as John Cato and
Les Walking, explored the metaphoric potential of
photography. The range of photographic processes
similarly expanded in this period. Most photogra-
phers still preferred to produce formally composed
and finely printed black and white images but
some, most notably women photographers, found
that hand-coloring added to the creative possibili-
ties of their vision.
The 1980s was a time of diversity in Australian
photography. One distinctive aspect of the period
was photography by practitioners from non-
Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. Takis Christodoulou,
for instance, used the documentary approach to
create disturbing, almost claustrophobic images
suggesting the cultural pressures for contemporary
Greek families living in Australia.
However, generally speaking, critical attention
was diverted in this period away from the docu-
mentary to a different kind of practice influenced
by the theories and practices of Postmodernism.
This complex international movement proved a
powerful invigorating force on contemporary the-
ory, art, and culture. Its influence on photography
in Australia was profound, raising fundamental
issues concerning the interpretation of images, the
nature of reality, and the role of the artist. Critical
debate concerning photography flourished and, in
1983, the magazinePhotofile (published by the
Australian Centre for Photography) became an
important venue for writing in the field.
In general, post-modern photographers called
into question the long-held objectivity of the me-
dium, revealing the partial nature of any photo-
graph through the obviously constructed or ‘‘set
up’’ character of their work. Naturalism, so long
held to be the foundation of photography, was
widely abandoned among Australian photogra-
phers in favor of openly declared theatrical fabri-
cations. There was also a shift in the materials used,
with black and white, discretely sized documentary
photographs being replaced by large-scaled, opu-
lent productions with photographers often reveling
in the lush, saturated colors of the Cibachrome or
Polaroid processes.
Post-modern photographers frequently ques-
tioned cultural truths through the use of allegory,
parody, and the montaging of image with text to
disrupt the usual interpretation of the photograph.
The visual language of popular culture, film, and
traditional fine arts, such as painting, were all
raided in the process, as were other photographic
genres—in particular, glamour, advertising, and
surrealist imagery. Photographer and filmmaker
Tracey Moffatt’s seriesSomething Morewas char-
acteristic of this fertile new area of inspiration for
artists. In this influential series, Moffatt borrowed
from 1950s B-grade films to create a fevered story
of a young woman’s search for ‘‘something more’’
in her life. Casting herself in the lead role, Moffatt
set her disturbing and sometimes violent narrative
in outback Australia, producing images that resem-
ble film stills.
Another characteristic trait of 1980s Australian
photography was the appropriation of imagery
from various sources. In one of the most notable
series of the 1980s,Bondi: Playground of the Paci-
fic, Anne Zahalka wittily explored and subverted
the mythology and stereotypes that have evolved
around this famous stretch of the Australian coast
by reworking various Australian artworks. Julie
Rrap also drew on art history in her installation
Persona and Shadow, taking a feminist approach to
provoke the viewer to consider how women have
been represented in the visual arts, while Fiona
Hall created complex tableaux of figures sculpted
from sardine cans in her large scale Polaroids illus-
trating Dante’sThe Divine Comedy.
In 1988, the Bicentennial of the founding of
European settlement in Australia offered an oppor-
tunity to re-evaluate the country’s achievements.
Many major art and social histories were pub-
lished including two major histories of photogra-
phy: Gael Newton,Shades of Light: Photography
and Australia 1839–1988and Anne Marie-Willis,
Picturing Australia: A History of Photography.
Another major photographic publication was
After 200 Years, which contained substantial
photo-essays on, or by, contemporary AboriginalAUSTRALIA, PHOTOGRAPHY IN