Juno Gemes In Conversation: A Comparative Analysis
The political and the personal process in portraiture: Juno Gemes In Conversation—
National Portrait Gallery, August 2003
Juno Gemes
Hawkesbury River
NB: Ms Gemes asks that this caution be brought to the attention of our readers: Warning: Please be aware that this article contains portraits and names of
Indigenous persons no longer with us. [Editor]
As an historian and as a filmmaker, I am struck by the strong historical significance of this exhibition…It reflects just what Senator Aden Ridgeway advocates:
‘With every action and every word we make history.
But its subsequent actions—how that history is recorded, how that history is interpreted, then how that history is used, that makes the written historical record’.1 I am Hungarian born; …show more content…
Through publications, I saw that there was a strong critical tradition and cultural engagement among European,
American
and
English
photographers. In Venice, in 1979, during a photographic Biennale, I attended a workshop with
Lisette Model. She had a profound effect upon my
The political and the personal process in portraiture—Gemes
work. One of Lisette’s favourite dictums was: ‘you do not photograph only with a camera, but with your eyes, your head and your heart’. I became aware of the work of Tina Mendotti for the Mexican
Revolution, Josef Kodelka with the Gypsies in
Europe, W Eugene Smith’s Minimata narrative. This was a photographic lineage I could relate to.
When I returned to Australia with my young son,
Orlando, I began a two-year period (1978–79) working with Woomera Dancers, touring the southern states; they were performing in schools to create understanding in the next generations.
I photographed for them and was invited to
Mornington Island [Figure 1]. From the start my approach was respectful, consultative and collaborative. I spent the first week going around to each clan group, sitting down around the fires at night, getting to know people, discussing what was happening and what I might do. The ethics of my practice were …show more content…
On the same night, 2
November 1982, my first solo exhibition, We Wait No
More, together with an exhibition of paintings by
Wandjuk Marika, opened at the Hogarth Gallery in
Sydney. Both Wandjuk and I were to be found at the
Apmira Artists for Land Rights exhibition opening that night [Figure 2]. This was the temper of The
Movement in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the south, culture was often expressed in innovative ways. As you view the portraits and the titles you might recognise that the same people acted in many diverse arenas—a testament not only to how gifted and flexible they were, but also that the same set of paradigms informed all that was done within
The Movement. There was also much humour. In 1981 during a NADOC Day March from Aboriginal Legal
Services in Redfern to Parliament House, we were
2000 strong. The Green Paper for Land Rights
Legislation in New South Wales was being
National Portrait Gallery, August 2003
Juno Gemes
Hawkesbury River
NB: Ms Gemes asks that this caution be brought to the attention of our readers: Warning: Please be aware that this article contains portraits and names of
Indigenous persons no longer with us. [Editor]
As an historian and as a filmmaker, I am struck by the strong historical significance of this exhibition…It reflects just what Senator Aden Ridgeway advocates:
‘With every action and every word we make history.
But its subsequent actions—how that history is recorded, how that history is interpreted, then how that history is used, that makes the written historical record’.1 I am Hungarian born; …show more content…
Through publications, I saw that there was a strong critical tradition and cultural engagement among European,
American
and
English
photographers. In Venice, in 1979, during a photographic Biennale, I attended a workshop with
Lisette Model. She had a profound effect upon my
The political and the personal process in portraiture—Gemes
work. One of Lisette’s favourite dictums was: ‘you do not photograph only with a camera, but with your eyes, your head and your heart’. I became aware of the work of Tina Mendotti for the Mexican
Revolution, Josef Kodelka with the Gypsies in
Europe, W Eugene Smith’s Minimata narrative. This was a photographic lineage I could relate to.
When I returned to Australia with my young son,
Orlando, I began a two-year period (1978–79) working with Woomera Dancers, touring the southern states; they were performing in schools to create understanding in the next generations.
I photographed for them and was invited to
Mornington Island [Figure 1]. From the start my approach was respectful, consultative and collaborative. I spent the first week going around to each clan group, sitting down around the fires at night, getting to know people, discussing what was happening and what I might do. The ethics of my practice were …show more content…
On the same night, 2
November 1982, my first solo exhibition, We Wait No
More, together with an exhibition of paintings by
Wandjuk Marika, opened at the Hogarth Gallery in
Sydney. Both Wandjuk and I were to be found at the
Apmira Artists for Land Rights exhibition opening that night [Figure 2]. This was the temper of The
Movement in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the south, culture was often expressed in innovative ways. As you view the portraits and the titles you might recognise that the same people acted in many diverse arenas—a testament not only to how gifted and flexible they were, but also that the same set of paradigms informed all that was done within
The Movement. There was also much humour. In 1981 during a NADOC Day March from Aboriginal Legal
Services in Redfern to Parliament House, we were
2000 strong. The Green Paper for Land Rights
Legislation in New South Wales was being