Papers
Selected conference papers, guest lectures and public talks
2017
Convenor ‘Photography’s history: does the past matter?’, Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, University of Loughborough, UK, 6-8 April
‘Thinking photography’, ADFAS, Academy of Science Building, 20 November
2016
‘New perspectives: portraiture and photography’, Human Kind: Transforming Identity in British and Australian Portraits 1700-1914, International Conference, University of Melbourne, 8-11 September
‘Miriam Stannage: Time Framed’, Lawrence Wilson Gallery, Perth, 29 July
2015
‘Death and Excess: The work of Fiona Hall’, Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, University of East Anglia, UK, April 2015 [peer reviewed]
‘Micro and macro views: two photographs from Gallipoli’, _Gallipoli Gelibolu _symposium, Art Gallery of NSW, 22 May 2015
‘What’s been stopping the traffic?’ T_rafficking images: histories and theories of photographic transmission,_ Art Gallery of New South Wales, 18 April, 2015
Keynote speaker, Terrains of Memory, Castlemaine State Festival, 17 March 2015
2014
Convenor, ‘Art and Mortality’, ANU and National Gallery of Australia, 19, 20 September. Paper ‘Rethinking our relation to death’
‘Sue Ford’s unfixed photography’, National Gallery of Victoria, 26 April
‘Talking Wolfgang Sievers’, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 16 July
2013
‘Things: Photographing the Constructed World’, National Library of Australia, 17 February
‘Diverging views: a portrait of Max Dupain’, Portrayal and Identity conference, National Portrait Gallery, 23 March
‘Max Dupain and Modern Life’, Liverpool City Library, 21 June
‘The state of photography: 1913’, National Museum of Australia, 25 June
‘Olive Cotton at Spring Forest’, National Library, 11 July
‘Being modern: Sydney photographers of the 1920s and 30s’, Art Gallery of NSW, 14 July
‘Olive Cotton at Spring Forest’, National Gallery of Victoria, 17 August
‘A portrait of Olive Cotton’, Tweed River Art Gallery, 10 August
‘Photography and Mortality: an Australian case study’, Death, Dying and Disposal, Open University, Milton Keynes, 5-8 September
2012
‘Curatorial contradictoriness’, Association of Art Historians 38th Annual Conference, Open University, Milton Keynes, 29-31st March
‘Scrutiny’, Keynote lecture, Death Down Under, University of Otago, 27-29 June
‘Unsettling: Photographs by Anne Ferran and Sue Ford’, Home/Land: Women, Citizenship, Photographies, University of Loughborough, 5-7 July
‘Charles Bayliss’, Framing Lives, 8th Biennial Conference of the International Auto/Biography Association, Australian National University, 17-20 July
‘Charles Bayliss and the New World’, Symposium on occasion of exhibition Eugène Atget: Old Paris, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 25 August
‘Quietness’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 30 August
‘Rethinking Carol Jerrems’, Carol Jerrems: photographic artist forum, National Gallery of Australia, 8 September 2012
‘On biography’, Centre for Australian Studies, University of Melbourne, 18 October
‘Things: Photographing the Constructed World’, Special Exhibitions Event, National Library of Australia, 30 November
2011
‘Wolfgang Sievers: Photography, history and memory’, Material, Memory and Place: Interdisciplinary Dialogues in Memory Studies, Centre for European Studies, ANU, 17-18 February
‘A Photographic Mystery: Max after Surfing’, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference, Victoria University, Wellington, 8 December
2010
‘Vernacular resistance?: Death, dying and digital photography’, Imaging Identity, National Portrait Gallery, 15-17 July
‘Frank Hurley’s Antarctica’, National Library of Australia, 16 August
‘Photography and the return of the dead’, invited speaker in forum, Monash Gallery of Art, 14 August
‘Other histories: photography and Australia’, Art History’s History, University of Melbourne, 28-29 August
‘A question of propriety: Olive Cotton and Joan Baines’ photographic collaboration’, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Adelaide, 2 December
2009
‘Nineteenth century portraiture’, National Portrait Gallery, 8 February
‘Who’s who: Photographing the Ballets Russes in Australia’, National Library of Australia, 27 May, Victorian Arts Centre, 23 July
‘An Australian Accent’, invited speaker in forum The power of portrait photography, National Portrait Gallery, 9 May
‘Unseen images: death and digital photography’, The Death Scene: Perspectives on Mortality, Griffith University, 15-16 July
2008
‘The importance of photography’, Peter Turner Inaugural Memorial Lecture, Massey University, Wellington, 9 October, keynote
‘Photography and Australia’, Christchurch Art Gallery, 6 October
‘Max Dupain’s last photographs – a late style?’, Rethinking Late Style, Australian National University, 21-22 August
‘A Modern Vision: Charles Bayliss, Photographer, 1850-1897’, National Library of Australia, 15 July
‘Reveries: Photography and Mortality’, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 24 April
‘Photography and Difficulty’, fotofreo, Western Australia Maritime Museum, Fremantle, 5 April, invited speaker
‘Who’s Who: Photographing the Ballets Russes in Australia in the 1930s’, The Ballets Russes in Australia: Our Cultural Revolution, University of Adelaide, 23-25 May, invited speaker. Broadcast on ABC Radio National 8 March
Chair, Conference committee, Photographies: new histories, new practices, ANU 10-12 July
2007
‘Reveries: Photography and Mortality’, National Portrait Gallery, April, Mayne Centre, University of Queensland, 1 September
‘Private thoughts, public spaces’, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 29 September
‘The Art of Dying’, 5th global conference Making sense of dying and death, Mansfield College, University of Oxford, 9-12 July
2006
The Art of Dying’, Reinventing the Medium, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Monash University, Melbourne, 7-9 December
‘A Shared Space: Photography and Intimacy’, Love and Desire: Literature and the Intimate’, National Library of Australia, 23-24 September
‘Faces of Mandurama’, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, 17 June
2005
Respondent to Bob Ellis, Sites of communication 2, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 8 – 19 March 2005
‘In a New Light’, National Library of Australia and ANU School of Art, Art forum, 9 March 2005
‘Margaret Michaelis: love, loss and photography, National Gallery of Australia and ANU School of Art, Art forum, 13 May 2005 ‘Margaret Michaelis: love, loss and photography’, 25th Anniversary: A Passion for Research symposium, National Gallery of Australia, 18 June 2005
‘Ways of remembering’, Art and Commemoration, Conference, ANU, 1 August
‘Triumphal Portraits and Colonial Narratives: Post-mortem photography’, Pain and Death, ANU Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, 8-10 December
2004
‘In a New Light: Australian Photography 1930s-2000’, National Library of Australia and ANU School of Art, art forum, 2004
‘Performing Photography’, Visiting Scholars Program, Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Australian National University, 9 September 2004
‘Thinking about looking’, Keynote address, Art Educators Conference, Australian National University, 16 July 2004
‘In a New Light’, Camera with a conscience, Australian Institute of Professional Photographers conference, University House, 24 October 2004
2003
‘Still time. Photographs by David Moore’, National Gallery of Australia, 27 February 2003 ‘Seeing and not knowing’, Sites of communication, symposium organized by National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery of Australia, 15 March 2003
‘The presence of the past’, Keynote address, Albury City Art Gallery, 5 July 2003
‘Man with a camera: Frank Hurley’, Screensound, 11 and 16 August 2003
‘Photography, History and the National Library’s Collections’, National Library of Australia and Canberra School of Art, Art Forum, 15 October 2003
‘In a New Light’, Women Archives Project, National Library of Australia, 3 December 2003
2002
‘Frank Hurley: an introduction’, National Library of Australia, 17 August 2002
‘Slow release: Recent photography from New Zealand’, Heide Museum of Modern Art, 13 August 2002
‘The observer and the observed: Photographs by Bill Brandt’, National Portrait Gallery, 20 October 2002
‘Photography, love and loss: Margaret Michaelis’, Ian Potter Museum of Art, 23 October 2002
2001
‘Polly Borland and Walter Barnett’, National Portrait Gallery, 24 March 2001
‘Portraiture in extremis’, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 19 September 2001
‘Berlin 1933: Photographs by Margaret Michaelis’, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, October 2001
2000
‘Olive Cotton’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 13 May 2000
‘Mirror with a memory’, National Portrait Gallery, 17 May 2000
‘Photography and barbarism’, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2000
Opening speaker Olive Cotton exhibition, National Library of Australia, 12 July 2000
‘Olive Cotton: An introduction’ National Library of Australia, 25 July 2000
1998
‘Margaret Michaelis: Life and Work’, ANU Art History Graduate Seminar Program, May 1998
1997
‘Margaret Michaelis’, National Gallery of Australia, 17 April 1997
Mixed Messages in Documentary Photographs in the Art Museum, Centre for Contemporary Photography, 26 July 1997
‘The reflecting eye’, National Portrait Gallery, November 1997
1996
‘New Technologies: Old Tricks?’, Tasmanian School of Art, University of Tasmania, Launceston, May 1996
‘Mixed messages in documentary photographs’, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, July 1996
‘Olive Cotton’s landscapes’, Photography and the Landscape Public Forum, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, October 1996
‘Cazneaux in Close-up’, National Library of Australia, November 1996
1994
`The Valuer’s Perspective’ Taxation Incentives Scheme for the Arts Seminar, National Museum of Australia, 1994
1993
`Photography and China’, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 1993
1992
`Searching for Geoffrey Powell’, Centre for Photography, Melbourne, 1992
1991
`Geoffrey Powell: A Worker Photographer’, Art Association of Australia conference, Canberra, September 1991
`Modernism and Nationalism: Max Dupain’s Australia’, seminar on Max Dupain, Australian National Gallery, November 1991
1989
`Variations on the Original’ at More Than Meets the Eye : Managing Archive Collections of Photographs, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; repeated BHP Theatrette, Melbourne, May 1989
1988
`Contemporary Australian Photography’ and ‘The Australian National Gallery Photography Collection’ at APSCON ‘88, Canberra (Australian Photographic Society Conference), 1988
1986
`Tina Modotti and Olive Cotton’ and ‘Positive Images: 1970s Photography’, ‘Paint, Fabric and Clay’ Conference, Canberra College of Advanced Education, 14-15 February 1986
`Recent Australian Photography: strains of naturalism’. Artist’s week, Adelaide Festival, 1986
`Photography at the Australian National Gallery’, Sydney College of the Arts, 21 August 1986
`Recent Australian Photography’. Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, 5 September 1986
`Photography Collection at the Australian National Gallery: Its Past, Present and Future’, organized by the Victorian Centre for Photography, held at Victoria College (Prahran Campus), Melbourne, 26 September 1986
1985
`Corporate decisions and the landscape: the photographs of Jon Rhodes and Virginia Coventry’. Landscape/photography forum, Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart, 27 July 1985
`Jon Rhodes: Just another sunrise?’ Art Association of Australia Conference, Melbourne, August 1985
1984
`Carol Jerrems: the politics of consent’. Art Association of Australia Conference, Canberra School of Art, August 1984
1983
`Wolfgang Sievers and Australian Photography’. Art Association of Australia Conference, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, September 1983
In addition, I have regularly given numerous lectures at tertiary institutions both locally and interstate, as well as floor talks on various art exhibitions to students and the general public.