Manly Art Gallery & Museum presents an exhibition casting new light on the life and work of pioneering Australian photographer Frank Hurley (1885-1962).
The exhibition reveals his early Sydney and Sydney Harbour photographs, tourist postcards and studies of Australian wildflowers which were his lifelong passion.
Manly Art Gallery & Museum Senior Curator Katherine Roberts said Hurley went on to enjoy a full lifetime of extraordinary achievements from his early life in the working class suburb of Glebe.
“Our exhibition is structured to provide bookends to Frank Hurley’s life – with the first focus being on his photography in and around Sydney and the Northern Beaches, and the second being on the photographs that reflect his lifelong engagement with Australian native plants.
“In Hurley’s later years, he continued his active professional life from his home on the Northern Beaches where he also established a fascinating garden that was a testament to his passion for Australian native plants.
“Often crossing lines where others saw boundaries, Frank Hurley sought and achieved recognition through what he saw as being the ‘perfect’ picture and through his many productions gained a wide public acceptance,” Ms Roberts said.
Guest curated by Gael Newton (former Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia) and Paul Costigan, the Frank Hurley: Photographer & Gardener exhibition is a highlight of the eighth annual Head On Photo Festival.
Perhaps best known as the photographer for both the Mawson and Shackleton expeditions to Antarctica and the final stages of the Ross Smith Flight from London to Sydney, Hurley has been described as “one of Australia’s first multimedia figures.”
Hurley was a photographer, cinematographer, writer, journalist and radio-broadcaster who learned how to maximise the impact of his work by promoting it globally through various types of media.
Hurley spent the final years of his life (from about 1950 until 1962) living at Collaroy Plateau on Sydney’s Northern Beaches from where he travelled Australia to produce books, photographs and postcards.
Images in the exhibition are drawn from the National Library of Australia, private collections and the Hurley family archive.
For details, visit the gallery website or call Manly Art Gallery & Museum on 9976 1421.
Exhibition dates: Friday 6 April - Sunday 14 Oct
Official opening: Sunday 8 April, 3 - 5pm
Frank Hurley Day: Monday 9 April
10 - 11.30am Join the curators for morning tea and an insightful tour of the exhibition.
3 - 5pm Senior high school students are invited for a private viewing of the exhibition with the curators, to discuss Hurley’s photographic techniques and to develop language around the critical analysis of image making.