Australian Centre for Photography

The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) was a not-for-profit photography gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia that was established in 1973 and which also provided part-time courses and community programs.

One of the longest running contemporary art spaces in Australia, after a shutdown from 16 December 2020 pending a restructure, it was acquired in October 2022 by the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences and relaunched as Powerhouse Photography. Powerhouse will continue and expand on ACP programs with commissions, acquisitions, publications, learning and research activities dedicated to the promotion and development of photography in Australia.

The Australian Centre for Photography published Photofile, a biannual photography journal, from 1983.

Function

The Australian Centre for Photography provided a photography gallery and also part-time courses and community programs. Amongst its initiatives were its hosting the Australian Video Festival; presenting public talks by such speakers as Victor Burgin; running an auction in support of Aboriginal protest against the Australian Bicentenary; and administrating displays in Sydney streets and railway stations of posters by Barbara Kruger.

Photofile

Tamara Winikoff, director of ACP (1982–1985) began publication of Photofile, a small community newspaper in 1983 which became a significant journal showcasing Australian photography in a glossy, large format (44cm) and hosting the critiques and debates surrounding it. It was issued 3 times yearly from 1991.

Editors included Mark Hinderaker, Mark Johnson, Ingeborg Tyssen & Tamara Winnikoff (with Robert Tuckwell for one issue) (1983); Mark Johnson (1984–85); Geoffrey Batchen (1985–86); Catherine Chinnery (1987); Catherine Chinnery & Carole Hampshire (1987/88); Ross Gibson (Guest Editor, 1988); Helen Grace (Guest Editor, 1988); Adrian Martin (Guest Editor, 1988); Robert Nery (1988–89); Elizabeth Gertsakis (Guest Editor, 1989); Fiona Macdonald (1990); Martin Thomas (1991–93); Jo Holder (1993–94); George Alexander (1995–97); Jacqueline Millner & Annemarie Jonson (Guest Editors, 1996); Bruce James (1997–99); Blair French (Managing Editor 1998–9); Francisco Fisher (Guest Editor 2000).

Without capital to increase circulation to attract more advertising for its funding, its survival in the 1990s was threatened. Alasdair Foster as director (1998–2011) secured increased financial support, enabling its print run to be increased and for the first time the magazine was distributed nation-wide through newsagents.

From 2010 Photofile was issued as a digital-only publication until Kon Gouriotis began as Director in early 2012 and a print version was relaunched in March 2013. The journal was again relaunched in 2017 under the new editorship of Daniel Boetker-Smith.

An anthology of essays from Photofile was published in 1999 as Photo files: an Australian photography reader edited by Blair French, with a preface by Gael Newton, then Senior Curator of Photography at the Australian National Gallery.

History

On 23 April 1970, leading Australian photographer, David Moore wrote a letter to Wesley Stacey, Grant Mudford and David Beal. In it he asked them to discuss with him the idea of a non-profit, national centre for photography to research, exhibit, publish, collect and advance photography. To examine the situation of photography in Australia he led a committee of other practising photographers Wesley Stacey, Laurence Le Guay, senior curator of the Art Gallery of NSW and Sydney Morning Herald art critic Daniel Thomas, and the director of an architectural and planning firm, Peter Keys, with support from arts commentator Craig McGregor. In July 1973, the Visual Arts Board accepted that there was a need for such a body in Australia and part-funded their proposal to set up a permanent photographic gallery in Sydney.

Venues

Paddington Street

Margaret Whitlam opened the first ACP gallery in a corner terrace refurbished by architect Michael Standley at 76a Paddington Street, Sydney, on 21 November 1974 with the initial exhibition Aspects of Australian Photography under inaugural director Graham Howe. That exhibition, expanded with ten more photographers' work to comprise Godwin Bradbeer, Warren Breninger, John Cato, Ian Dodd, Max Dupain, Rennie Ellis, Richard Harris, David Moore, Grant Mudford, Jon Rhodes, Roger Scott, Wesley Stacey, John Walsh and Richard Woldendorp, but with Max Pam who was in the original line-up, being excluded, as noted by Palmer, due to perceived sensitivities about his explicit imagery made in SE Asia, toured to Australian embassies and high commissions in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Burma, India, Sri Lanka and South Africa (given the end of apartheid) in 1975 and 1976, supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Women photographers were not included the initial exhibition of Aspects, nor its touring version, despite the added participants, prompting Deborah Ely, a later director of ACP to comment;

It is a characteristic of the early years of the ACP that its governing culture was exceptionally male ... "debate" between the founding fathers of ACP and feminists grew up over the years and persisted into the 1980s.

Oxford Street

The organisation subsequently changed the location of its gallery and offices several times. Christine Godden as director oversaw the moving of the Centre in 1981 to Dobell House at 257 Oxford Street, Paddington but in 1989, subsequent director Denise Robertson, previously of Melbourne University Union's George Paton Gallery, finding the Centre suffering from a deficit and a declining public profile, foreshadowed another relocation due to Paddington becoming "too expensive". It shared space with the Sydney Dance Company theatre at Pier 4/5 refurbished at a cost of $16 million to create a venue "second only to the Sydney Opera House", as announced by the Ministry for the Arts in May 1991.

Director Deborah Ely resisted, later saying; "when I joined ACP four years ago we were committed to a relocation at Pier 4/5. It seemed a real pity given this fantastic location and the fact that we'd been in Paddington for 20 years. I thought we should stay and make the most of the existing site." Accordingly, the Oxford Street premises were upgraded after mediation by NSW Ministry for the Arts persuaded the building's vendor the Dobell Foundation, which, with the help of Premier Neville Wran, had purchased the site from the NSW Fire Brigade for $1.5 million, mortgaged it to ACP for $750,000 a 50 рег cent discount, which Ely expected to pay off within 10 years. Its reopening increased the growing number of photography galleries in Sydney with the Byron Mapp Gallery, also in Oxford Street, Stills Gallery in Elizabeth St., the Josef Lebovic Gallery in Paddington Street and, from 15 February 1996, Toast II in Commonwealth Street. Architect James Grose refurbished the ACP by opening the facade up to the street and adding a two-storey extension with a central staircase in a construction by John Lewis and Luigi Rosselli, which integrated galleries, library, darkrooms, studio, digital imaging facilities, specialist bookstall and a restaurant, the latter through an arrangement negotiated protractedly over 1993–1994 variously with entrepreneur Rene Rivkin with caterer Maggi Agostini, then Victoria Alexander and others, to lease the shopfront, with the ACP offices and gallery behind.

Chippendale

A temporary closure in September 1993 saw refurbishments begin, with further assistance from the Ministry of $50,000 and also its loan of $300,000. In the interim the gallery opened at 27–31 Abercrombie St., Chippendale (6 km closer to the CBD and now housing Galerie pompom) under the name Temporary Hoarding to continue with a few shows into November 1994, including Reflex (12–27 August), sustained by curator/publicist Susan Charlton organising brochures and "Sydney Artbus" public tours. It was not until March 1996 that NSW Premier Bob Carr reopened the centre and launched its first show since December 1994, Inheritance, and its café, which was ultimately a joint venture between Stefano Manfredi of Restaurant Manfredi and Barry McDonald (B & J Lizard produce) and named La Mensa.

Darlinghurst

From 2011, as photography students increasing turned to courses in tertiary institutions for instruction, revenue from the ACP's film-based workshops continued to fall, and in 2015, the centre was forced to sell its building. It rented accommodation at 72 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney. Its current location is at 21 Foley St, Darlinghurst, a kilometre west along Oxford Street from number 72, and closer to the CBD.

Directors

• Graham Howe 1974–5
• Bronwyn Thomas 1975–1977
• Laurence Le Guay (Acting) October 1977 – February 1978
• Christine Godden 1978–1982
• Tamara Winikoff 1982–1985
• Lawrence Bendle (Acting) 1985
• Denise Robinson 1986–1992
• Deborah Ely 1992–1997
• Alasdair Foster 1998–2011
• Kon Gouriotis 2012–2015
• Catherine Baldwin (Acting) 2015–2017
• Cherie McNair 2017–2019
• Pierre Arpin 2019-

Initiatives

The ACP exhibition program delivered the first major retrospectives of Max Dupain, Olive Cotton and Mervyn Bishop. An early opportunity for photographers initiated by the ACP in 1978 was the Colonial Sugar Refinery Project, a commission for six Australian practitioners, Micky Allan, Sandra Edwards, Mark Johnson, Graham McCarter, Lewis Morley and Jon Rhodes, to freely make artistic and documentary work relating to the CSR site at Pyrmont. After its successful exhibition and publication the project was extended into the 1980s and inspired other art-based, non-commercial collaborations with industry. Signature Works - 25th Anniversary Exhibition, in 1999 included works by Fiona Hall, Bill Henson, Carol Jerrems, Maria Kozic, Tracey Moffatt, Max Pam, Patricia Piccinini, Jon Rhodes, Michael Riley, and Anne Zahalka selected by 25 Australian photographic curators, writers, artists and academics, and was a contemporary survey indicative of the national reach of the centre.

2020 closure

On 19 November 2020 the Australian Centre for Photography, announced it would go into a 'hibernation' from 16 December "due to a cash crunch brought on by COVID-19 lockdown, the shift to smartphone photography and funding cuts.". A restructure of the organisation would protect it from "ongoing financial losses"; ACP Chairman, Michael Blomfield said: "our organisation will not receive any operational funding from federal or state funding bodies for the next three years as a minimum, it is clear that continuing to operate in our current form is a pathway to extinction." Blomfield, decried the decision as a 'painful one', with 21 staff affected.

Coincident with the closure of the ACP, planning was taking place for a National Centre for Photography, with galleries, library, darkroom, an archive and education program, to be opened in regional Ballarat, funded with $6.7 million from the Victorian state government. The city is home to the Ballarat International Foto Biennale which has been running since 2005.

Powerhouse Photography

Two years after the Australian Centre for Photography had been mothballed and had laid off staff due to a shortage of funds and COVID restrictions, and after a series of community consultations, in October 2022 it was announced that Sydney's Powerhouse, the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, had acquired the Australian Centre for Photography in an agreement in which Powerhouse acquired ACP's photography archive and fund, worth approximately $1.6 million. New South Wales Minister for the Arts Ben Franklin noted that;

The Powerhouse Photography initiative declares photography’s cultural value at the precise moment we may have forgotten its significance in art and design, through to science, medicine, law, communication and commerce.

It operates under the new name of , which on its website notes that it is "supported by funds generously donated by the Australian Centre for Photography", and will continue and expand on ACP programs with commissions, acquisitions, publications, learning and research activities dedicated to the promotion and development of photography in Australia. Funds from the Australian Centre for Photography will provide a photography research fellowship, tertiary internship program, contemporary photography acquisition program, and industry day.

An Advisory group has been formed, and first convened in October 2022, to oversee Powerhouse Photography and to industry connections, and inform curatorship. It is co-chaired by photographer and University of Technology Sydney Associate Professor, Cherine Fahd and Powerhouse Senior Curator Sarah Rees. The panel comprises photographer, filmmaker and ACP board member Merilyn Fairskye; Friends of ACP member Lisa Moore; photographer Garry Trinh; photographer Hugh Stewart; photographer Meng-Yu Yan; photographer Tom Blachford; Powerhouse Director First Nations Emily McDaniel; Powerhouse Head of Curatorial Jacqui Strecker; and Powerhouse Artistic Associate Zan Wimberley.

The 50th anniversary of ACP occurred in 2024, and Powerhouse had plans to deliver a curated digital program to celebrate it, and through its publishing arm, Powerhouse Publishing, to release a major publication on Australian photography. Powerhouse Chief Executive Lisa Havilah recognised the long-term achievements of the organisation;

For nearly 50 years, ACP has cemented the importance of photography in contemporary culture by championing a diverse range of artists. It’s our privilege to play a part in shaping the future of photographic practice in Australia, building on the exceptional work of ACP, under the expert guidance of the Powerhouse Photography Advisory Group. We thank the ACP’s Board of Directors and Friends of the ACP for entrusting us with this responsibility and opportunity.

In 2025 Powerhouse announced photography commission recipients of $20,000 each; Guwa-Koa, Gungarri, and Kuku Yalanji photographer Jo-Anne Driessens who had won the First Nations Right of Reply Photography Commission and Tasha Tylee who received the Architectural Commission; each being collaborations with Powerhouse over 12 months to produce major new works.

Exhibitions held by the Australian Centre for Photography

See also

• Australian Centre for the Moving Image
• Brummels Gallery
• The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop
• Centre for Contemporary Photography
• Galley Museum
• Queensland Centre for Photography

External links

• at National Library of Australia