Adelaide Art Photographers

Front cover, Adelaide Art Photographers c.1970-2000

Adelaide Art Photographers c.1970–2000
by Gary Sauer-Thompson; Adam Dutkiewicz (ed.)
with a contribution by Ed Douglas
ISBN: 9780648718611 (paperback)
Series: Modern Art in South Australia, No. 10
Published by Moon Arrow Press, in association with Thoughtfactory
180 pages, full colour throughout, with 100mm flaps
Recommended Retail Price – $50.00

Gary Sauer-Thompson and Adam Dutkiewicz first collaborated in 2016 on a small book on post-war photography in Adelaide titled Abstract Photography: Re-evaluating Visual Poetics in Australian Modernism and Contemporary Practice. Gary presented work from his own photographic series and wrote two essays contextualising the subject and interpreting its reception in Adelaide and elsewhere. Adam researched the unexplored tradition of post-war experimental photography in Adelaide and profiled several practitioners.

Their second book covers the next generation of art photographers, those who pursued careers as artists in a more receptive, and less underground environment. Adelaide Art Photographers: c.1970 –2000 builds on the history section of the Abstract Photography book, which recovered what little remained of the work of the experimental photographers in Adelaide up to the end of the 1960s.

In the post-war years in Adelaide, art photography had retreated into suburban and regional photography clubs, and found itself outside the fine art galleries and of peripheral interest to the state gallery. Things started to change when photography was instated as a separate department in art schools, and the state and national galleries became interested once again.

In Adelaide in the 1970s – 80s there were art photography-only art groups and galleries (as opposed to camera clubs), and very engaged local curators such as Ian North and Alison Carroll, and Ed Douglas, as Head of the Photography department in the South Australian School of Art, also had a significant impact.

This book presents a cross-section, a sample of some of the Art Photographers of the late 20th century who worked with film in Adelaide. The process began with some historical knowledge and recommendations, to find nearly 40 people. Some did not respond to the initial email, whilst others did not respond to the call-out for submissions; and some came into the picture later or too late to be considered, as twenty had already been selected by then. Their work formed the basis of the portfolio sections in the books. With space, time and financial limitations, of necessity it became a partial history, but one that aims to represent the era with a wide range of work.

The artists included are: Eric Algra, Gavin Blake, Kate Breakey, Alan Cruickshank, Nici Cumpston, Ed Douglas, Gary Haigh, Graeme Hastwell, Terry Hollow, Ervin Janek, Mark Kimber, Michal Kluvanek, Paul Krieg, Robert McFarlane, Rick Martin, Ian North, Deborah Paauwe, Gary Sauer-Thompson, Josephine Starrs, and Hewson/Walker (including Linda Marie Walker).

In Adelaide the books will be available from the Royal SA Society of Arts (RSASA); the Centre for Creative Photography (Marleston); and Pepper Street Art Centre shop (Magill) after 22 March 2020, when the book is launched at an accompanying exhibition at RSASA. You can order copies from the publisher for $60 (incl postage) within Australia – email moonarrow@internode.on.net or write to PO Box 3072, Norwood SA 5067. I am working on ways to make the books available for sale online and will add that here as it becomes available.

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