National Archives of Australia – Photographers/photographs

Speaker: Carol Webber (I think)

Photographs and photographers play a big part at the NAA in Canberra. At the ANN there are over 50 million records and 3 million items such as posters, architectural drawings , maps and photos. There are a few hundred thousand photographs.

The records are post 1901 and are mainly non-private sector ie mainly Government records (all the public service and Canberra based court – High court).

Some of the earlier photos are Canberra photographs – these represent a tiny bit of the private sector. There are also collections of some photographers who have photographed life in early Australia. One of the most prominent is Max Dupain.

There are many exhibitions and these are often dominated by photographs.....such as:

1.Primary exhibitions such as “Memory of a Nation’. This is on all the time and is about Australians – some who stand out & others who are just ordinary people. Another is about the Snowy Mountain Hyrdo-Electric Scheme.

2.Temporary exhibitions such as the Stanley Melbourne Bruce exhibition – the only other Prime Minister who was voted out of office.

3.Touring Exhibitions – such as the Max Dupain photographs of Australian Life in the mid-20^th century. Also there is one called ‘Summers Past’.

Part of the ‘Memory of a Nation’ exhibition is a wall of 227 photographs called ‘Faces of Australia’. The photos are all black and white, back lit and make a very impressive wall. This is some of it:

Most of these photos were taken in the 1950s and 60s (ie post-WWII) by photographers working for the Australian News and Information Bureau. These photos are from all walks of life in Australia. This is the face of Australia which Menzies Government wanted to present to the world.

The Stanley Melbourne Bruce exhibition also contained a number of photographs such as these:

Max Dupain worked for the Government per-WWII and in the 1960s. Hence the NAA has a collection of about 400 of his works.

The exhibition called ‘Summers Past’ is about Australia’s love affair with the sun, the sea and sport.

Several photographers are employed to photograph other photographs as well as maps, architectural drawings etc.

The NAA is a good source of family history. They have records of the wars, migration indigenous and many of these are photographs. There are also photos and records of displaced persons after WWII.

All in all it is a great photographic resource.

PHOTOS: all photographs are from the ANN website: http://www.naa.gov.au