An Australian Photographer in China

Image: Leo Meier – Harold Weldon with a crowd of onlookers in Sichuan, China 1984

Australian Photographers in China

1894-2018

Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing

May 12 – October 12 2018

‘An Australian Photographer in China’ brings together pioneering Australians; adventurers, explorers, inquisitive souls all drawn to the remote areas of South Western China far from the safety of the ‘Treaty Ports’ where foreign business was conducted on the Eastern seaboard.

This collection of photographs presents an important historical archive of images captured by generations of Australian photographers who visited South West China during the past 125 years.

The power and vitality of their photography transports the viewer through this record of 20th Century China; capturing a rapidly changing country by providing a view between past and future as a thin slice of place and time.

The exhibition has a strong historical foundation based upon images captured by the pioneering Australian adventurer George Morrison as he trekked through Yunnan on his overland journey from Shanghai to Burma in 1894. Followed shortly after by Australian Geologist, R Logan Jack who traveled up the Yangtze to Chongqing in early 1900, then overland to Chengdu where he spent several months before fleeing the Boxer Rebellion into Burma.

We then examine the work of Sinologist and Historian, Charles Patrick Fitzgerald (1920s) and travelling fabric salesman, Harry Glathe (1930s).

This is augmented by images from another important group of Australian photographers living and working in Eastern China including: George Rose (1904) Herman J Asmus (1920s) Stanley O Gregory (1930s) & Hedda Morrison (1933-46).

The exhibition also surveys work created by 25 contemporary Australian photographers & filmmakers including:

Shelley Warner and Geoffrey Marginson, both junior diplomats with the first Australian Embassy in Beijing, who provide our audiences with a rare glimpse of provincial Yunnan during the 1970s.

Leo Meier, Harold Weldon & Ken Duncan who retraced The Long March route in 1984 and more recent adventurers who undertook their own epic journeys including:

Guo Jian, William Yang, Garrie Maguire, Elise Potaka, Jason Wing, Kay Lawrence, James West, Mikki Young, John Barclay, Ian McArthur, John Brennan, Clare Nadas, Guanghui Chuan, Andrea Myles, Peter Nelson, Catherine Cloran, Dan Zhou, Kate Anderson, Paul Batt, Anthony Anderton & David Sickerdick.

An Australian Photographer in China is produced and presented by Cultural Partnerships Australia, the Dali Photography Museum and Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing.

This exhibion is proudly sponsored by the Australia China Council, the Dali Art Factory, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art and the State Library of NSW and is supported by the Australian Embassy, Beijing and the Australian Consulate-General, Chengdu

FINAL CALL OUT :: Australian Photographers who’ve visited South West China to participate in ‘An Australian Photographer in China’ Dali Photography Museum Yunnan April 2018 * EOIs CLOSE FEB 28 *

Focusing on Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing & Guizhou, the exhibition will commence with work by George Morrison (taken during his journey to Yunnan in 1894) and take great leaps forward to images created by contemporary photographers and film makers.

Through this exhibition we will endeavour to capture the people, significant places, cultural activities and major events which display pictorially the strong ties between Australia and China.

This exhibition is proudly sponsored by: The Australia China Council, The Dali Photography Museum, Yunnan, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, the State Library of NSW and The Australian Consulate, Chengdu.