Newsletter Editor: Ian Brown PH 0403 036 119 E: ian@ianbrowndesign.com.au
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From your Secretary
Elaine Herbert ARPS Hon Secretary, Australian Chapter
News of Members
We extend our very warm congratulations to Palli Gajree OAM HonFRPS who celebrated his 94th birthday last week. It’s a great age to reach, and what is quite amazing is that Palli is still working on his photography so actively. He’s experimenting with all sorts of new photographic techniques and is embracing different ideas and approaches most enthusiastically. Age isn’t limiting him at all!
There’s a special article about Palli – his life, his photographic achievements and a small selection of his images – on pages 18 to 24 of this Newsletter. Palli, congratulations from us all.
Your Chapter Committee is reaching out to you!
As foreshadowed in the previous Newsletter, your Chapter Committee is very keen to structure our Chapter program so that it best meets the photographic needs and interests of our Australian members. While there are various activities offered in the general RPS program and many more via the RPS Special Interest Groups (SIGs), we’d like to see if there are gaps which the Chapter might help fill, and if we can develop a greater feeling of ‘belonging’ and fellowship between our Australian members.
So you may have already had a phone call from one of the Chapter Committee members for a very brief chat. We’re asking our Australian members if they’re getting all they hoped for from their RPS membership and, if not, what else might we be able to offer. We’d also like to ask you about the Zoom presentations by the Chapter. And we’re really wanting the Chapter’s Newsletter to include images and article by any of our members, even if they’re new to the RPS and even new to photography.
Would you like to join an eCircle
Critique group?
One of our South Australian members, Michel Claverie, has offered to set up an eCircle Critique group for RPS members living in our general time zone, so it could include members in New Zealand and South East Asia as well as Australia. It has now been mentioned in the RPS International Members’ monthly Newsletter and a New Zealand member is already interested.
And what is an eCircle? It’s a small group of members who get together online once a month to show and share images.
If you’re not sure how these small e-Circle Critique groups work, Michel is inviting Australian members to be a guest at the circle he belongs to himself. Meetings of his current group are held on the 4th Sunday of each month, so if you’d like to observe how it works you are most welcome to do so. Just email Michel on michel.claverie.3361@gmail.com and tell him you’d like to be an observer at one of those online meetings and he’ll send you the details.
When he gets about five or six members interested Michel will set up another group which might meet on, say, the second Sunday of each month.
This may be just what you’re looking for. I know we have members in Australia who are feeling a bit isolated from other RPS members with whom they can discuss their image making. So here’s a great opportunity. Go for it!
Welcome from the Editor
Ian Brown
Editor, Australian Chapter
The old joke goes. How many graphic designers does it take to change a light bulb? I’m not changing anything. Well that not me. At the risk of sounding like a joke of a politician, I’m here, and I’m listening. Where I can I will implement your feedback into the design.
The change from an emailed PDF to the newsletter being published through Issuu is a huge step for the publication. Most of the feedback has been positive, some people have said that the type is tricky to read in Issuu. To alleviate this, I have increased the type size for this edition. Let me know if this makes it easier to read.
I will continue to build on your feedback to evolve the design.
In Issuu you can zoom in, but it isn’t as easy as it was in Acrobat when you viewed the PDF, and because it is a magazine spread rather than a portrait PDF you do have to navigate around rather than just scrolling.
To the right is a screen shot showing where you can zoom in. When you turn the page it defaults back to full page view and you’ll need to zoom in again.
Zoom in here
How to zoom in
Zoomed in two clicks
Convenor’s Corner
Rob Morgan ARPS
KUSAMA at the NGV
From December, through to 21st April NGV International on St Kilda Road in Melbourne is having an exhibition of the works of Japanese artist Kusama, together with other Kusama-themed events. As the NGV website breathlessly announces, “NGV’s Yayoi Kusama exhibition has been dazzling visitors with a world record-breaking 10 of the contemporary artist’s immersive environments, plus close to 200 works from Kusama’s near nine-decade career. Never before have so many of these works been assembled in one place, right here in Melbourne.” In fact it’s probably the only time ‘right here in Melbourne’ that her works have been ‘assembled’ (no Allen key required) but perhaps I’m misunderstanding artist talk?
The exhibition occupies numerous large rooms and includes ‘whole room’ experiences to walk through, as well as more conventional gallery spaces. The whole effect is visually striking and well worth seeing. If there is a phrase that sums up much of her work it must be ‘spots and dots’. As well as the exhibition (fee to enter), there are also areas that are free to enter. One of those is a children’s play area, where children and adults alike are encouraged to put adhesive-backed paper ‘spots and dots’ on the walls, floor or anything else that doesn’t move. Unfortunately, when I visited, I was wearing a striped shirt and the clash was almost unbearable.
What was I thinking, wearing stripes to a Kusama exhibition? (Image by Lucy Colangelo)
Claisebrook Cove Reflections
Barbara Brown
During a short stay in Venice last year, I was mesmerised by the colourful abstract reflections of the gondolas and surrounding buildings trapped on the surface of the canals. So much so, that I decided my photography project for 2025 would be based around reflections.
I didn’t want the resultant images to be linked to natural beauty. Instead, I wanted to reveal the colours and patterns of reflections in the marine environment from man-made infrastructure.
Claisebrook Cove which is an urban renewal project 100m from my home in East Perth, is the perfect location. During February and March of this year, I photographed the cove on 14 different occasions, taking in excess of 12,000 photographs. I used a Nikon Z8 and a 100-400mm lens with a 1.4x converter. Focussing on the moving patterns was very difficult so I switched to manual focus and a tripod. Continuous shooting mode maximised the capture of the different moving patterns. To achieve the desired maximum
depth of field and sharpness, I used f stops of f/11 and above and tried various short shutter speeds. As result, I was forced used a high ISO, typically between 1,250 and 3,000. Any “noise” generated by the high ISO was removed in the raw converter.
Initially, the images were traditional reflection pictures, but I soon discovered the patterns and colours hidden in the surface ripples of the Cove. The surface motion is generated by the wind and or the wake of boats. I quickly found that to capture the rippled reflections you need an oblique angle that has good lighting yet no direct sun light. The best reflections in the Cove occur under low wind speeds which typically coincide with early morning or late evening. The wind direction also plays a significant role, as the buildings around the Cove act as wind breaks.
A critical review of the raw files is important, and yes I have looked at every one of the images. Unsharp images don’t make the grade and will probably be deleted at the end of the project. I have spent many hours playing with the images in Photoshop CC 2022 to develop a consistent processing technique so that the abstract shapes and colours emerge from the surface striations.
Currently, I am considering holding an exhibition to show to the local community the beauty hidden in the surface of Claisebrook Cove. An accompanying picture book is also on the cards.
Pondering Pollard 17:
The Family of Man
Dr Robin Williams FRPS.
Australian photographer John Pollard FRPS died in 2018, leaving behind not just a grieving family and a substantial legacy of photographic work in public and private collections but also an eclectic collection of books representing his varied interests over his life. In this ongoing column, I hope to stimulate interest and reflection on various aspects of photography based on the perusal of John’s collection of books.
‘The Family of Man’
Curated by Edward Steichen with Prologue by Carl Sandburg. Pub. Museum of Modern of Modern Art, New York, 1955.
The Family of Man was a ground breaking photographic exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, first displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955 and later touring worldwide. It aimed to depict the universality of human experience through over 500 photographs, emphasising humanitarian themes such as love, birth, work, and death. Photos were chosen according to their capacity to
Fig.1: Portrait of the curator of the exhibition –Edward Steichen.
Fig.2: Front cover of the 1955 Book.
communicate a story or a feeling that contributed to the overarching narrative. Each grouping of images builds upon the next, creating an intricate story of human life. Of the 273 photographers represented, 60% were Americans (15% of them women due to the Herculean advocacy of Dorothea Lange), and 25% were European. The remaining 15% came from post-colonial countries – two from Australia: Lawrence Le Guay had an image showing courting rituals from New Guinea, and David Moore had an image taken in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern.
The physical installation and layout of the Family of Man exhibition were designed to enable the visitor to view it as if it were a photo essay about human development and cycles of life that affirmed a common human identity and destiny against the contemporary background of ‘Cold War’ threats of apocalyptic war. Architect Paul Rudolph designed a series of temporary walls that guided visitors past the images, which he described as ‘telling a story’, encouraging them to pause at those that attracted their attention. Open spaces within the layout encouraged viewers to interact, to choose their path through the exhibition, and to gather to discuss it. Viewers would have to bend down to examine a small print displayed below eye level or even on the floor and then step back to view a huge mural image and to negotiate both narrow and expansive spaces. Lighting intensities varied throughout the series of ten rooms to set the mood. The prints ranged in size from 24 cm × 36 cm to 300 cm × 400 cm and were made by Steichen’s assistant,
Jack Jackson, from the negative supplied by each photographer. Also included were copies of historical images, such as a Mathew Brady Civil War and a Lewis Carroll portrait. The prints were displayed without captions but instead were intermingled with quotations by, among others, James Joyce, Thomas Paine and William Shakespeare. Carl Sandburg, Steichen's brother-in-law and 1951 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, inspired the exhibition's title, added an accompanying poetic commentary displayed as text panels throughout the exhibition and included in the book as a prologue.
Jerry Mason edited and published the complementary book of the exhibition, which has never been out of print and was designed by Leo Lionni. Many of Lionni’s book covers, like that of The Family of Man, incorporate modernist collages of apparently cut or torn coloured paper. The publication was reproduced in a variety of formats in the 1950s and reprinted in large format for its 40th anniversary. In its various editions, it has sold more than four million copies. John Pollard’s copy was a 1955 hard-back edition. There were two notable omissions from this book that were in the original MoMA exhibition: an image of a hydrogen bomb test explosion (that had originally been a huge centre-piece colour transparency in the exhibition) and the distressing monochrome photograph of a lynching of a young African American man in Mississippi.
The Family of Man achieved its central role in the history of twentieth-century photography largely because of its international exposure. Ten different
Fig.3: An example of one of the large mural prints with multiple insets and text.
Fig.4: Image by William Garnett. None of the images carried captions or titles – only photographer attribution.
Fig.5: Poverty and hunger in Holland pictured by Cas Oorthuys.
Fig.6: Image by Nico Jesse.
Fig.7: Image by Don Weiner.
Fig.8: One of the images from Bechuanaland by Life photographer Matt Farbman that so incensed Neokonkwo that he tore it down.
versions of the show were seen in 91 cities in 38 countries between 1955 and 1962 and viewed by an estimated nine million people. The international tour was sponsored by the now-defunct United States Information Agency, whose aim was to counter Cold War propaganda by creating a ‘better world image’ of American policies and values. In 1958, a voluntary group called the Citizens' Welfare Services of Victoria suggested that bringing the exhibition to Australia would be a good opportunity to raise funds for voluntary organisations. After a year's negotiation with US officials, starting with the US Cultural Attache in Melbourne, it was finally agreed that the exhibition that was due to finish in Montevideo could make its way to Melbourne, arriving on February 13, 1959. US authorities paid for the freight to and from Australia (the exhibition weighed 5 tons, and a special pantechnicon was built to transport the exhibition), but other costs had to be borne by the voluntary association set up to manage the exhibition's progress throughout Australia. Proceeds from the entry fees were distributed amongst each of the four state charities in whose capital cities the exhibition was held. The Family of Man needed 10,000 square feet of display space, and in those days, there were very few venues that could accommodate it. Someone suggested that it was only fitting that the artistic product of American materialism should sit alongside the US automotive products at The Preston Motor Show Rooms in Central Melbourne, and in Sydney it was hosted by the department store David Jones.
Though not a particularly controversial notion in Australia, the idea of a universality of the human experience was nonetheless thought-provoking at a time when Australian social policy was underpinned by the ‘White Australia Policy.’ The underlying notion of global citizenship and its human rights advocacy did not sit well with Australia’s then restrictive and discriminatory immigration and social policies. The Family of Man clearly had a lasting influence on Australian photographers who saw it, cementing a model of documentary photography that was to dominate the practice of the 1960s and beyond, in which photography was understood as a universal language able to communicate simply and directly across barriers of race and culture. The influence of The Family of Man encouraged a collective of Melbournebased amateur photographers – Group M – to hold the first of a series of annual exhibitions, Photovision, less than two months later in 1959. Advocating the use of ‘straight’ photography as a means of expression, Group M presented an exhibition, Urban Woman, at the Melbourne Town Hall in 1963. Perhaps influenced by the superlatives that described The Family of Man exhibition, they described it as ‘the most ambitious exhibition ever to be attempted by a group of Australian photographers’; it featured around two hundred photographs by thirteen photographers. Australian photography had moved away from reliance on portraiture and artistic themes to realist depictions of contemporary social issues and themes. Popular acclaim for the exhibition centred on the
humanistic values expressed by the exhibition; the universality of humankind was seen as a positive and empowering message. However, this was generally at odds with scholarly criticism. The exhibition, it was argued, ‘took individual photographs out of context, and featured the work of mainly male, American photographers, outsiders who lacked an understanding of their subjects, or that it expressed the dominant western values of colonialism and racism.’ For example, Allan Sekula, the American photographer, theorist and critic, viewed the exhibition ‘as a populist ethnographic archive, the epitome of American Cold War liberalism that universalised the bourgeois nuclear family and therefore an instrument of cultural colonialism.’ The most dramatic ‘criticism’ of the exhibition was by Theophilus Neokonkwo, who slashed and tore down prints by Life photographer Nat Farbman. Neokonkwo objected to the depiction of Africans as ‘either half clothed or naked and as social inferiors, as victims of illness, poverty, and despair, while white Americans were represented mostly in dignified cultural states: wealthy, healthy and wise.’’
Fig.9: A Czechoslovakian Wedding photographed by Robert Capa.
Fig.10: ‘A World to be born under your footsteps’ St. John Perse, image by Eugene Smith.
Fig.11: Interior of an apartment in Redfern by David Moore – one of only two Australian photographers represented in ‘The Family of Man.’
A Lifetime Behind the Lens: Celebrating Palli Gajree’s 70 years with the RPS
Ian Brown
Sudershan Kumar (‘Palli’) Gajree OAM HonFRPS has dedicated his life to photography, and as he marks an incredible 70 years of unbroken membership with the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), his passion remains as strong as ever. From his early days in Kenya to his formative years studying in the UK, Palli’s journey has
been one of artistic excellence and professional achievement. His career spans portraiture, photojournalism, wildlife, and digital experimentation, with a lasting impact as an educator, exhibitor, and mentor. Honoured globally for his contributions to photography, including an Order of Australia Medal (OAM), Palli continues to inspire photographers worldwide.
Recently, Palli was featured in an article in Creative Eye. The article looked into his remarkable career, his innovations in digital photography, and his enduring commitment to the photographic community, which is well worth the read for all Creative Eye subscribers. We, in the Australian Chapter, also acknowledge Palli’s remarkable time as a member of The RPS.
Members’ Gallery
Rob Morgan ARPS
RPS Bursaries
In partnership with The Guardian
The Bursary was established in 2005 in memory of distinguished documentary photographer and Honorary Fellow of The Society, Joan Wakelin. The Bursary is administered by The Society in partnership with The Guardian and offers £2000 for the production of a photographic essay on a social documentary issue.
The 2025 bursary is now open for applications
Joan Wakelin Bursary
Find out more >
Online resources Spotlight
AI and Photography News and Events
The RPS have created on online hub focused on AI and photography, where we will share details of events, resources and news as well as blogs and the RPS’s latest thinking on AI.
The Royal Photographic Society is proud to be launching this new section of its website entitled “Spotlight.”
Focusing on the RPS’ strategy of “Photography for Everyone,” Spotlight aims to expand the RPS narrative to include a diverse collection of stories from all sectors of society.
Included in this are a selection of articles written by our newly appointed Spotlight editor, Alison Webber FRPS, extracts from the RPS journal and news about photography exhibitions and events.
