“Black and white photography has always been my…I suppose it’s just kind of my life,” says Mervyn Bishop on his 60-year photography practice.
Bishop is a Murri man and is Australia’s first Aboriginal photojournalist and documentary photographer. In the early 1960s, when he was just 17, he began a four-year cadetship with The Sydney Morning Herald. Later in the 1970s Bishop took a government position as a photographer for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. It was during this time he took one of his most iconic images of prime minister Gough Whitlam and Aboriginal rights activist Vincent Lingiari.
The first solo exhibition of Bishop’s images came about in 1991 and was curated by artist Tracey Moffatt, and he currently has a major survey Mervyn Bishop: The Exhibition at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
Bishop began taking photos when he was young, and we talk about the influence of his mother in steering him toward photography, as well as the years at The Sydney Morning Herald. We also discuss the stories behind some of his most iconic images, and the emotional aspects of his work. And as a photographer who’s known for capturing incredibly empathic moments, we talk about how Bishop gets photography to such an intimate place.
This episode of The Long Run is part of an ongoing podcast series, and you can listen back to previous episodes with Suzanne Archer, Robert Owen, Gareth Sansom, Wendy Stavrianos and John Wolseley. You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, so you never miss an episode. And don’t forget to rate and follow the podcast.
Mervyn Bishop: The Exhibition
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Until 1 August
This series is kindly sponsored by Leonard Joel Auctioneers and Valuers, based in Melbourne and Sydney.
Produced and presented by Tiarney Miekus, engineering by Patrick Telfer, and music by Mino Peric.
Developed in 2022 by Artback NT as part of Apmere Mparntwe—the Australian Ceramics Triennale— touring exhibition Clay on Country, showing now at New England Regional Art Museum, showcases the diversity of ceramics in the Central Desert.
About Face is a smart piece of marketing. The new book on portrait painting from Australia and New Zealand has a mission to change buyers’ minds about the field. But as Jane O’Sullivan discovers, any sales pitch wears thin if it’s repeated often enough, and the close attention to how portrait painting is received by the market means that other important conversations fade to the background.
In Anmatyerr artist Elizabeth Mbitjana Pitijana’s first solo exhibition in Melbourne—which focuses on the Central Desert food source Arnwekety (bush plum)—the influence and love of her Country and culture is palpable. Elizabeth Mbitjana Pitijana is now showing at Niagara Galleries.
Heide Museum of Modern Art’s summer blockbuster exhibition is unveiling the breadth and beauty of Italian modernism through design. With over 170 objects spanning sixty years, Molto Bello explores the cultural impact of this period of creativity and invention.
A Delicate Terrain, a new exhibition of works drawn from the Tweed Regional Gallery collection, looks at our relationship with the environment through the lens of contemporary art.
With their iconic painted poker machines and installations, notably featured in the 2020 Biennale of Sydney, the Tennant Creek Brio are now taking over Melbourne with a new show at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
