For 150 years photographs have helped define Australia’s military history, and the Australian War Memorial holds some of the most powerful images of our time at war.
Hundreds of these photos, taken by some of the world’s best war photographers, can now be seen in a special Memorial touring exhibition.
Focus: photography & war 1945-2006 opens at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery at 6.45pm on Friday, December 12, 2008 by Major General Bill Crews AO (Retd) National President of the RSL.
The exhibition captures the horror and humanity of military and peacekeeping actions over a turbulent 60-year period, through the lenses of 15 official and freelance photographers as well as serving members of the military forces.
Australian War Memorial Director Steve Gower said the Memorial was pleased the travelling exhibition would enable communities around Australia to share some of the most potent images from its archive.
“Photographs have a vital function in the national memory of war. They provide an indelible image of the sacrifice and experience of Australian servicemen and women and portray some of the defining moments in this nation’s history,” he said.
Focus: photography & war 1945-2006 features a diverse range of images, from Hiroshima and Korea to Vietnam and Australia’s role in past and present peacekeeping operations.
It includes the work of Tim Page, Stephen Dupont, David Dare Parker, Allan Cuthbert, Phillip Hobson and George Gittoes.
Exhibition curator Patricia Sabine said the photographs “provide an illuminating and complex view of the physical and emotional effects of conflict, on both the Australians who serve and those who live in regions affected by war”.
A book relating to the exhibition, Contact: photographs from the Australian War Memorial collection, spans almost 150 years of Australia’s military history, and is the most comprehensive work to date surveying what is one of the world’s most extensive photographic archives. Contact is available at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery during the exhibition.