This year I decided I would like to put together an exhibition of fashion photography that would do a couple of things - at least! The first was to show that fashion photography, at it's best is a true art form, a fine art. As I pitched the idea to photographers, sometimes via their agents, I started saying I wanted to show that fashion photography was, 'not just for magazines and then the bin'. I wanted to show that fashion photography was not disposable imagery and that great creative photography was visual art worth collecting, well worth space on your wall. One of the main prompts for this idea - especially the role of Australia, was Brett Hilder's image that he has often referred to as 'Legs Over Ayres Rock' (Uluru 1976 - then known as Ayres Rock) which is one of my favourite fashion pictures and virtually unknown as I don't think it is part of any of the major gallery collections - god knows why, it really should be! So I certainly wanted to exhibit that picture - if Brett would let me? Thank you Brett. I then began looking around for other fashion photographs that featured something typically Australian - identifiably part of Australia or Australian identity.
Australia + Fashion Photography - Head On 2023
Fashion photography often embraces the generic in how it uses landscapes and location though of course there are exceptions - perhaps laughingly sometimes the only way to identify a location is by the description! 'Shot in pick-a-location' with the model against an unidentifiable beach/wall/garden or in an international modern hotel suite - the same in every major city. This is not the kind of picture I was looking for. I had recently connected with Tony Potts who had some stellar B&W fashion from the mid 1980s, and he was happy to come onboard. I followed up with an approach to Grant Matthews, Ditto. Australia, Beach, Bondi, these two had me covered. Liz Ham; who could forget her Newtown Punks series which took that very English Punk ideal and yet somehow transformed them into emo-esque Aussie larrikins, though here we have some young women with chickens. Juli Balla bringing a European sensibility to the Australian light and dare I say, an approach to colour and modulating her landscape in a way not dissimilar to the approach of the early European painters when representing the Australian countryside, well mannered, and never too wild. And I have some pictures in the show, from two stories set in Costal and Bush landscapes, both places a deep part of the Australian psyche. Michele Aboud brings a famous Australian to the Australia theme and the saturation of the blue Australian sky as a feature of the land down-under. The exhibition is Co-curated with Head On Director Moshe Rosenzveig OAM.
Fashion Photography by Kent Johnson - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
The pictures are on show now 11 Nov 2023 - 03 Dec 2023, Bondi Beach Promenade Queen Elizabeth Dr Bondi Beach. I also interviewed each of the photographers about their pictures in the exhibition and the information I uncovered about their inspiration and ways of working are, I think absolutely fascinating. The first 30 minute edit of the interviews can be seen or listened too on YouTube here
Best viewed on Bondi Beach - perhaps while listening to the YouTube interviews above.
Photographs by Michele Aboud - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Juli Balla (middle 3) - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Grant Matthews - Liz Ham - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Brett Hilder & Tony Potts - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Photographs by Liz Ham - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Thanks to Director Moshe Rosenzveig and the Head On Photo Festival Team & to the photographers in the show, Brett Hilder, Grant Matthews, Juli Balla, Kent Johnson, Liz Ham and Michele Aboud - there would be no show without you. https://headon.org.au/exhibitions/australia-fashion-photography
/ lizhamdotcom
Tony Potts 
