The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop

For the London gallery, see The Photographers' Gallery.

The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop (1973–2010) was an Australian photography gallery established in South Yarra, a suburb of Melbourne, and which ran almost continuously for nearly forty years. Its representation, in the 1970s and 1980s, of contemporary and mid-century, mostly American and some European original fine prints from major artists was influential on Australian audiences and practitioners, while a selection of the latter's work sympathetic to the gallery ethos was shown alternately and then dominated the program.

History

Paul Cox, Ingeborg Tyssen, John F. Williams and Rod McNicoll. founded The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop in 1973 at 344 Punt Road, South Yarra in an 1888 two-storey fruiterer's shop and dwelling (originally a bootmaker's) in the 'Sharp's Buildings' terrace, occupied at the time by Paul Cox who was to teach cinematography at Prahran College. It was the second gallery devoted to photography to be established in the city after Rennie Ellis' and Robert Ashton's Brummels Gallery, which was started in 1972 less than a kilometre away, and before the Church Street Photography Centre run by Joyce Evans in neighbouring Richmond (1976).

Gallery

Ian Lobb, an Australian born in 1948, who had undertaken workshops with Ansel Adams and Paul Caponigro, took over the Gallery in late 1974. Also that year, Lobb was teaching photography at Coburg Technical School with Carol Jerrems, and they met American Bill Heimerman (born January 13, 1950) who was teaching Englsh at the same institution and was renting rooms above the gallery; the two inspired Heimerman's interest in photography. Lobb mounted his first exhibition as director at the beginning of 1975. He and Heimerman became co-directors of the gallery from the beginning of 1976. Beside some government funding and sales, both financially supported their roles through teaching, Heimerman being next employed at Brighton Technical College, where he and other staff members established a photography program, and then at the Council of Adult Education. Critic and photography lecturer Tony Perry noted Heimerman's 'detached, informed view of photography'.

Lobb and Heimerman showed some local work, but pursued high profile international, mainly American and some European, photographers for exhibitions. The first exhibition of international photography at the gallery was that of Paul Caponigro in 1975 which sold 22 prints, after which success the gallery was closed for renovations and while Heimerman made a trip to the US to secure more shows. After the refurbishment Melbourne Times critic Wendy Harmer described the space as "an oasis of pristine white walls and warm, polished wood.

Workshop

As well as exhibitions, and from the outset, workshops were held in the gallery building from which part of the funding for the enterprise was derived. The space accommodated a two-person darkroom available for film development and printing, and a demonstration room with 6-8 student capacity. Printing for exhibitions was offered. Technical instruction for beginners and in the Zone System for those more advanced was provided at first by Australian photographer Steven Lojewski in 1976. Evening classes ran for ten weeks. By 1977 Heimerman and Lobb had organised the first workshop to be conducted in Australia by an American photographer, Ralph Gibson, and sponsored another, of 6 days by William Clift in May 1978 (costing participants $200), before Lobb left to pursue his own photography later that year. Jeff Busby, who also exhibited at the gallery, took over later as Heimerman's assistant.

Among the more recent workshops was 'How Joshua Greene Saved Marilyn Monroe: Techniques to Rehabilitate Ageing Photographs and the Art of Digital Printing', held on November 26, 2002 by the son of Milton H. Greene who photographed Monroe.

In addition to its activities at its own premises was the Gallery's organisation and sponsorship of seminars by international photographers, which began with Ralph Gibson's on August 11, 1977 at Prahran College, then that of Harry Callahan, held on November 20, 1979 at the Prahran Recreational Centre, 147 High Street with also a workshop at the Gallery.

Ethos

By showcasing the silver gelatin 'fine print’ Lobb and Heimerman hoped to improve Australian work by example, as Lobb observed,

From 1975, every second show was an international show [. . .] The initial philosophy was simply to let people see the physical difference between the production of prints overseas and locally.”

Curator Joyce Agee in 1988 noted that, with feminist photography on the ascendant, the gallery's ambitions irritated some Australian women photographers;

In the 1970s, Micky Allan, the late Carol Jerrems, Ruth Maddison, Sue Ford and Ponch Hawkes, reacting against the technocratic and patriarchal American West Coast 'fine print' tradition then being promoted by The Photographers' Gallery in Melbourne, began to use photography as an intimate expression of their individual concerns.

Nevertheless, Jerrems was amongst the first exhibitors at the Gallery, showing there four times before her premature death in 1980. Beatrice Faust, an Age newspaper reviewer and noted women's activist however was supportive, and in 1987 hosted Beatrice Faust Curates: From Boubat to Fereday at the gallery featuring male and female photographers.

Certainly women exhibiting were outnumbered by men in a ratio of nearly 10:1 until the 90s, after which they appear on a more equal footing (see below).

The Gallery's concentration on American photography in its early years was not in isolation and was prompted as much by interest amongst Australians as by Heimerman's own contacts in the US, and despite touring exhibitions of Bill Brandt in 1971, and the French Foreign Ministry’s major exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1974. Joyce Evans' Church Street also presented work by American's Minor White, Jerry Uelsmann, Les Krims and others.

In mid-1978, the gallery extended a call in the pages of the magazine Light Vision to Australian photographers to submit work for a survey that was to be a traveling exhibition. The final selection, two samples across double-page spreads of each of 21 photographers, featured in the journal in a double number, 6 and 7, titled 'Special Australian Edition', issued October 1978. Editor Jean-Marc Le Pechoux acknowledged the cooperative nature of the venture in his editorial, and in her introduction Memory Holloway emphasised the breadth of the selection; "...a plurality of techniques, ideologies and styles; social documentary; pictorial, surreal landscapes; nudes; portraits; straight photography." Four of the 21 contributors were women, but the exercise marked a shift in the program toward a gender-inclusive representation of Australian photographers of diverse styles and often radical attitudes to picture-making and photographic printing and presentation.

Closure

The gallery was closed in 2010 and sold in 2015, and after a period of failing health, Bill Heimerman died on October 1, 2017.

Legacy

In the 1970s, with the decline of the pictorial magazines and a consequent crisis in photojournalism and documentary photography, a revival of the pre-WW2 interest in photography as a fine art was a world-wide phenomenon, as it was in Australia. The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop, because of its policy of promoting established international work of a high standard, was well placed when percipient private collectors were entering the market in fine photographic prints, and major institutions were initiating collections of photography.

The National Gallery of Victoria, newly (1968) re-housed and under its inaugural curator of a new photography department Jennie Boddington, Alison Carroll and Ian North of the Art Gallery of South Australia (which had begun to collect photography as a distinct discipline from the mid-1920's, its building expanded in 1962, refurbished 1979), and David Moore and Wes Stacey at the Australian Centre for Photography (est. 1973), all purchased from the Photographers' Gallery, with special interest in American and European works, along with the National Gallery of Australia, which though not built and opened until 1982, had started a photography collection in 1972. Its director James Mollison turned the sponsorship of the tobacco company Philip Morris International to the acquisition of Australian photography. These sales contributed significantly to the standing and survival of the Gallery, particularly in its early years of the 1970s and 1980s.

An archive of The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop is maintained by Heimerman's partner, Barbara Derrick.

Exhibitions

• 2006, November 24–December 1: Tom Putt Photographic Workshops Annual Exhibition
• 2006, October 21–November 19: Rotation II
• 2005, August 24–September 9: Lynton Crabb, The Boy From PNG
• 2005: Defining the Fine Print
• 2004, June 15–July 2: Greg Sims, Up the Road
• 2004, May 13–28: Najda Sue Macdermid, Karen Rawady, Gina Milicia, Jacquie Winder, Gaynor Manning. Presented as part of the Next Wave Festival
• 2004, February 12–March 3: Charmaine Hardy and Tanya Sarkies She's Lovely
• 2004, January–February: Peter Leiss, War Fever: 50 Images of Urban America, 1992–1994
• 2003, April 3–20: Neil Howe: Bodyscapes II
• 2003, March 13–23: Serendipity
• 2002, December 2–22: Derrick Lee and Ray Moles The Rainforest and Beyond
• 2002, October 31–December 1: Marilyn Monroe: Sixty images by Milton Green
• 2002, October 10–27: Protection: combined works by Francesca Golotta and Maurizio Golotta
• 2002, July; Joel Meyerowitz: After September 11: Images from Ground Zero
• 2002, April 23–May 12: Craig Roberts, Foundations
• 2002, April 4–21: Rob Love, Water Sky and Flowers
• 2002, March 7–24: David Tatnall, Himalaya* 2001, November 20–December 2: Tulsi Jones, Gujarat: Stories from the Earthquake
• 2002: The Salon Show
• 2001, December 6–23: Works In Transition Artists: Steve Petrov, Diane Kitanowski, Roland Lawrence, Zoran Vasileveski, Robin Rosenfeldt
• 2001: July 19–August 5: Robyn Rosenfeldt, Cuba
• 2001, May 3–20: Konrad Winkler and Julie Goodwin: Baby Blues and Housewife Hues: Photographs and Drawings
• 2001, March 7–31: Still Moments
• 2000 Neil Howe: Bodyscapes
• 2000, October 12–29: The Nature of Things. Artists: Nigel Clements, Myer Bloom, Mick Sirianni, Gayle Slater, Gay Clarke, Kevin Birks, Stuart Murdoch, John Muller, Virginia Stobart, Chris Manteris, Gillian Martin, Gavin Liddle
• 2000, September 28–October 8: Jeremy Angerson presents Dreamasaurus. Photographers: Allison Adamson, Kata Bayer, Chris Beck, Eric Blaiche, Bournou Photography Designs, Andrew Chapman, Andy Dunbar, Josh Ellis, Rennie Ellis, John Gollings, Vanessa Hall, Grant Hancock, David Johns, Tard Johnston, Stuart Kerne, Ian Lawrence, Jason Lucas, Katherine Mandie, David Marks, Mercury Megaloudis, Ned Meldrum, Pru Miller, Gerard O'Conner, Lesley O'Donnell, James Pepino, Peter Rozetsky, Marco Sacchi, Jason South, Rod Stewart, Leanne Temme, Serge Thomann, Andy Vuksova, Dale Wright, Taek Yang, Yatzek, Jack Zarafian
• 2000, September 14–24: Circles of Confusion: a photographic exhibition Artists: Evan Collins, John Muller, Chloe Holder, Livia Milazzo, Mirjana Josik, Hedy Ritterman, Virginia Stobart
• 2000, August 3–20: Melissa McVeigh, Kashgar Market
• 2000, July 13–30: Juan Carlos D'Abrera Syncytium
• 2000, May 26–June 11: Chelsea Anne Fitzgerald, Night Queens
• 2000, April 12–29: Nathan Miller, Here, There and Everywhere
• 2000, March 23–April 9: Lisa Saad: Ex: the Exhibition
• 2000: February 10–27: Millennium.com: Thirty Contemporary Australian Photographic Artists Point and Shoot at the New Millennium
• 1999, November 4–21: Zoe Ali, Mozambique
• 1999, September 24–October 10: Ellie Young, For Lylee
• 1999 Stuart Murdoch: Sight Insight Site
• 1999, July 22–August 8: Nudes, incl. photographers Gordon Bunyan and Martin Barrie
• 1999, June 10–27: Roxanne Oakley Scratching the Surface
• 1999, May 20–June 6: La Trobe University, Bendigo, Photography and Photojournalism. Irene Brereton, Jodie Clough, Jade Denton, Harry Palmer, Matthew Wickham, Ron Brown, Tom Campbell, Glenda Hooper, Name Salmon, Brad Wileman, Michael Harkin, Amanda Parker
• 1999, April 29–May 16: Gayle Slater, Continuum
• 1999, April 8–25: Debra Pleuckhahn
• 1999, March 18–April 4: Andrea Paton, The Red Tent
• 1999, February 25–March 14: Synergy. Artists: Chris Lim, Deanna Ross, Susan Grdunac, Ellie Young, Bronwen Hyde, Marryanne Christodoulou, Kalli Karvelas, Berenger Marin Dubuard, Roxanne Oakley
• 1998, December 1—20: Deanna Ross The Street is a Stage
• 1998, November 12–29: Matthew Sleeth Roaring Days exhibition and book Launch
• 1998, October 22–November 8: Contemporary Australian Artists, The William Heimerman Collection
• 1998, October 1–19: G.A.S.: La Trobe University, Bendigo Media Arts students
• 1998, September 17–27: Photographic Imaging Centre Annual Staff Exhibition.
• 1998, August 20–September 6: Second Series: Photographs by Konrad Winkler
• 1998: July 30–August 16: Three Suites: Colin Vickery, Susan Purdy, John Billan
• 1998: July 13–29, the Gallery was closed for renovations
• 1998: July 12, 1:00pm–5:00pm: Photographs by graduates of the 1998 M.33 Linden Documentary Workshop: The Blue Tak Show
• 1998, May 28–June 14: Carolyn Cliff, Natures
• 1998, May 7–24: Virginia Stobart
• 1998: March 28–April 16: Cassandra Tombs, 365
• 1997, November 27–December 14: Denise Moore, Journey From Antiquity, Italy, 1997, A folio of Impressions
• 1997, September 25–October 13: Photographic Imaging College staff show
• 1997, August 21–September 7: Essence: Transcendental Works by Colin Vickery
• 1997, July 31–August 17: Kay Rintel, Flowerings* 1997, May 29–June 15, Kerry Clarke
• 1997 May 8–25, Konrad Winkler, Family and Friends
• 1997, April 17–May 4, Peter Leiss, Prague: Identification by Blood
• 1997, March 27–April 13, John Cato Retrospective
• 1997, March 6–23 Konfir Kabo, Ordinary Dreams
• 1996, November 28–December 15: Stuart Murdoch: ‘...as a log book stands to a journey’
• 1996, November 7–24: 20th Anniversary Exhibition Ralph Gibson, Ian Lobb, Marcus Bunyan, Harry Callahan, Christopher Koller, Aaron Siskind, Gayle Slater, Paul Caponigro, Francis Busby, Hans Namuth, Les Walkling, Lisette Model, Greg Elms, Larry Clark, Kylie Hamill, Wyn Bullock, Rosemary McKeoun, William Clift, Jeff Busby, Duane Michals, Rennie Ellis, Karen Rawady, Edouard Boubat, Carol Jerrems, Eikoh Hosoe, John Cato, Peter Leiss, William Eggleston, Robert Besanko, Paul Nadalin, John Divola, Colin Vickery, Eliot Porter, Warren Brenninger, Emmet Gowin, Bill Henson.
• 1996, September 5–22, Marcus Bunyan, All Natural Fibres
• 1996, September 2–19: The Big Picture: a photographic exhibition by the staff of Photographic Imaging College. Artists; Daniel Bacon, Peter Barker, Kevin Birks, Myer Bloom, Gay Clarke, Nigel Dements, Chris Manteris, Stuart Murdoch, Mick Siranni, Gayle Slater
• 1996, February 8-28: Marion E. Hill Bearing the breast: photographic images of breast cancer
• 1996, August 15–September 1: Salon '96: a collection of photographers showing trends from the 70s, 80s and 90s
• 1996, July 25–August 11, Allison Ross, The Union of Psyche and Eros
• 1996, July 4–21, Photographs by David Showler and Glenn Sloggett, co-curator: Louisa Ragas.
• 1996, May 23–June 9, Maxienne Young, Experiences in Time
• 1996, May 9–19, Moses Tan, Journey to Jerusalem
• 1996, April 11–28, Lyn Pool
• 1996, March 21–April 7, Colin Vickery: Presence
• 1996, February 29–March 17, Rennie Ellis: Further Observations
• 1996, February 8–25, Marion Hill
• 1995, November 30–December 17: Glenn Guy, Ancient Images
• 1995, November 2–12: Kylie Hamill, Into the Looking Glass
• 1995, September 7–October 1; Jeff Busby
• 1995, July 20–August 6: Francis Busby
• 1995, June 29–July 16: Sandra Taylor, Labyrinth
• 1995, June 8–25: Kathryn Reeves Reeves 95
• 1995, May 18–June 4: Daniela Donati, Restoration
• 1995, April 27–May 14: A Collector’s Choice
• 1995, March 30–April 23: Peter Leiss
• 1994, October 27–November 13: Marcus Bunyan, Inevolution
• 1994, July 7–24: Michael Goldsmith 6,7,8,
• 1994, April 21–May 8: Francesca Golotta, In Bocca Al Lupo: In Good Faith
• 1994, March 31–April 17: Paul Nadalin Platinum Prints
• 1994: The Collection
• 1993 Greg Wayn, In Industrial Light
• 1993, 7-17 Oct, Marcus Bunyan: The naked man fears no pickpockets.
• 1992, December 4–19: Peter Leiss, The Romper Stomper Series
• 1992 Kim Percy: Points Of Departure
• 1991, September 27–October 6: Myopia: The Photographic Imaging Centre's Staff Exhibition
• 1991, May 16–June 9: John Werrett
• 1990: Next Wave Festival show
• 1989, July 20–August 27: Jacqueline Mitelman, Jeff Busby, Greg Elms, Peter Leiss, Resurgence
• 1989, May 25–June 24: Benefit Exhibition
• 1988, December: Peter Leiss, Regression
• 1988, November 11–19: Dean Petti, Lancefield Region
• 1988 Rod McNicol
• 1987, November 5–15: M.C.A.E Final Year Photography Students Peter McDougall, Celina Loren-Rymaszewska, Barbara Syme, Rosemary Connors, Marina Grubelich, Parallax
• 1987 Warren Breninger
• 1987, September 13–October 4: Beatrice Faust Curates: Boubat to Fereday
• 1987, July 9–August 1: Francis Busby
• 1986, July 31-August 24: Nicholas Nixon
• 1986, July 3–27, Australian group show
• 1986, June 5–29: Reece Vogel
• 1986, May 1–25: John Gollings
• 1986, April 3–27: Emmet Gowin
• 1986, February 7–28: Grant Matthews, Paul Murphy, Paul Torcello
• 1984, November 28–December 16: Christopher Köller, Zen Zen Chigau
• 1984, October 13–November 4: Jeff Busby, Dance Photographs
• 1984, May 10–June 3: Jeff Busby, Photographs
• 1984, April: Francis Busby* 1984 Tim Handfield: Australian Colour Photographs
• 1983 Warren Breninger There is No Escape 1971–1983
• 1983, September 15–October 16: Ian Lobb, Photographs 1979-1983
• 1983, March 24–April 24: Steven Lojewski, Sydney Photographs 1981–1983
• 1983: Peter Leiss, Metropolis
• 1982, October 15–November 7: Tony Perry
• 1982, September 17–October 9: Tim Handfield
• 1982, to August 29: Jeff Busby
• 1982, to May 23: Les Walkling
• 1982, March 12–April 13: Hans Namuth, Jackson Pollock
• 1981, September 25–November 1: August Sander
• 1981, July24–September 13: Duane Michals
• 1981, July: Lin Bender
• 1981, April 16–May 13: American Photographers: Lisette Model, William Eggleston, Ralph Gibson, Larry Clark
• 1981, March 5–29: Christopher Köller
• 1980, November 28–December 14: Don Sharpe, Vietnam Revisited
• 1980, October 31–November 23: Graham Howe
• 1980, October 15–November 7: Tony Perry
• 1980, August: Lisette Model
• 1980 John Divola
• 1980, July 10–August 8: Tim Handfield, Colour Photographs
• 1980, June 6–July 6: Lee Friedlander
• 1980, April 25–May 25: John Divola, Zuma
• 1980, March 21–April 20: Édouard Boubat
• 1980, February 7–March 8: Tony Perry
• 1979 Greg Wayn
• 1979, November 16–December 16: Eikoh Hosoe, Ordeal by Roses
• 1979, October 12–November 11: Ian Lobb
• 1979, September–October: Larry Clark
• 1979, August: William Eggleston
• 1979 Tim Handfield: Recent Work
• 1979, May 25–June 24th: Benefit Exhibition. Photographers: Greg Wayn, Brett Weston, Les Walkling, Paul Caponigro, Edna Bullock, Wynn Bullock, Aaron Siskind, John Cato, Ralph Gibson, Robert Besanko, Boone Morrison.
• 1979, April 13–May 20: Franco Fontana
• 1979, March 9–April 8: Paul Caponigro
• 1979, February 8–March 4: Nigel Clark
• 1978, November 16–December 17: Jerry Uelsmann
• 1978, October 19–November 12: Robert Cumming
• 1978, September 21–October 15: Les Walkling
• 1978, August 17–September 17: Harry Callahan
• 1978, July 20–August 13: New Australian Work. Artists: Gerard Groenveld, Bill Henson, Vivienne Hale, David Ellis, Fiona Hall, Ian Cerchi, Stephen Roach, Penny Malone, Peter Charuk, John Adair, Rod McNicol, Jon Macmichael, Christine Cornish, Frank Busby, Greg Wayn, Rod Trinca, Paul Krieg, Geoff Strong, Wayne Fimeri, Sandy Edwards
• 1978, June 15–July 16: Ralph Gibson: Colour Work
• 1978, May 18–June 11: Four Australian Women: Carol Jerrems, Christine Godden, Christine Cornish and Jenny Aitken
• 1978, April 13–May 14: Emmet Gowin
• 1978, March 9–April 9: Eliot Porter
• 1978, February 2–March 6: Robert Besanko
• 1978 Carol Jerrems
• 1978 Christine Godden
• 1977, November 17–December 12: Aaron Siskind
• 1977, October 20–November 13: Oliver Gagliani
• 1977, September 22–October 16: William Clift
• 1977, August 25–September 18 John Cato
• 1977, July 29–August 22: Ralph Gibson
• 1977, July 1–25: Boone Morrison
• 1977, June: Paul Hill
• 1977 Wynn Bullock (1977),
• 1976, August: Paul Caponigro
• 1976 Marion Hardman
• 1976 Rennie Ellis and Carol Jerrems: Heroes and Anti-Heroes
• 1976: Jon Rhodes and Peter Leiss, Images of India
• 1975 Carol Jerrems
• 1973, October: Gerard Groeneveld

Other solo or group exhibitions at the Gallery presented photographers Paul Hopper, Jean-Marc Le Péchoux, and Ingeborg Tyssen. In 1982 The Photographers' Gallery presented Aaron Siskind at Reconnaissance in Fitzroy in a joint venture.