Go back in time and explore Queensland through photography

The surname should be familiar, taking its name from Richard Daintree (1832-78), the Daintree Rainforest near Mossman — north of the regional city of Cairns — is part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest in Australia and the oldest surviving tropical rainforest in the world. A number of features in North Queensland have…

What is a Still Life?

What do you associate with the term still life? Is it highly detailed, and realistic painted images of flower bouquets and tables laden with lavish bowls of fruit and game from a time past? Yes, the still life genre uses inanimate objects such as flowers, fruit and vegetables, and manufactured items to symbolically reflect on…

Photographic tableau highlights historical injustices

Nature Morte (Agriculture) and Nature Morte (Blackbird), from Australian photographic artist Michael Cook’s ‘Natures Mortes’ series, draw on visual strategies affiliated with the still‑life genre — particularly the memento mori, a visual reminder of the inevitability of death — to highlight the devastating impact of colonisation from an Indigenous point of view. Michael Cook ‘Nature…

Vale: Graham Burstow

The Gallery acknowledges the passing of Queensland photographic artist Graham Burstow OAM. Born in Toowoomba in 1927, Burstow was initially self-taught, but later took instruction as a member of the Camera Club Movement. Working on black-and-white film, he was a subject-driven social documentarian with a keen lens for every-day Australians. A foundation member of the…

Elevating photography to an art form

The early 20th century saw the rise of new styles of photography worldwide, which influenced photography in Queensland. Encouraged by advances in film development and camera production, camera clubs flourished. Interest in artistic photography resulted in the formation of the Queensland Camera Club in Brisbane in 1923, with the opening of its first Photographic Salon…