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'A landmark biography of a singular and important Australian photographer, Olive Cotton, by an award-winning writer - beautifully written and deeply moving.
'Olive Cotton was one of Australia's pioneering modernist photographers, a woman whose talent was recognised as equal to her first husband's, Max Dupain, and a significant artist in her own right. Together, Olive and Max could have been Australia's answer to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, or Ray and Charles Eames. The photographic work they produced during the 1930s and '40s was extraordinary and distinctively their own.
'But in the early 1940s Cotton quit their marriage and Sydney studio to live with second husband Ross McInerney and raise their two children in a tent on a farm near Cowra - later moving to a hut that had no running water, electricity or telephone. Despite these barriers, and not having access to a darkroom, Olive continued her photography but away from the public eye. Then a landmark exhibition in Sydney in 1985 shot her back to fame, followed by a major retrospective at the AGNSW in 2000. Australian photography would never be same.
'This is a moving and powerful story about talent, creativity and women, and about what it means for an artist to manage the competing demands of art, work, marriage, children and family.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
'Drawing with Light' : A Compelling Biography of Olive Cotton
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January / February no. 418 2020; (p. 22-23)
— Review of Olive Cotton : A Life in Photography 2019 single work biography 'A lover of photography since childhood, by the time Olive Cotton, who was born in Sydney in 1911, was in her twenties she was already creating the pictures that were to define her as one of Australia’s foremost women photographers, although this would not be acknowledged until the 1980s. Apart from the photographs she made, Cotton left little material trace of a life that spanned nine decades (she died in 2003). This lack of physical evidence presented a challenge for biographer Helen Ennis, a former curator of photography at the National Gallery of Australia and an art historian, who has nonetheless managed to weave a compelling, if at times diaphanous, narrative.' (Introduction) -
Life’s Work in a Trunk of Treasure
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21 December 2019; (p. 16)
— Review of Olive Cotton : A Life in Photography 2019 single work biography'By default, a sound biography becomes a potted history of the decades of its setting. It is also a record of the fading and flourishing mindsets, fashions and technologies of the time. Readers of a certain generation will fondly recall the Kodak Box Brownie camera with its convex rectangular window and the concentrated delight of collecting a modest, brown-paper envelope of photos from the local chemist a few days later. The black-and-white results were more often than not lopsided, out of focus and sometimes cut off people’s heads.' (Introduction)
-
'Drawing with Light' : A Compelling Biography of Olive Cotton
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January / February no. 418 2020; (p. 22-23)
— Review of Olive Cotton : A Life in Photography 2019 single work biography 'A lover of photography since childhood, by the time Olive Cotton, who was born in Sydney in 1911, was in her twenties she was already creating the pictures that were to define her as one of Australia’s foremost women photographers, although this would not be acknowledged until the 1980s. Apart from the photographs she made, Cotton left little material trace of a life that spanned nine decades (she died in 2003). This lack of physical evidence presented a challenge for biographer Helen Ennis, a former curator of photography at the National Gallery of Australia and an art historian, who has nonetheless managed to weave a compelling, if at times diaphanous, narrative.' (Introduction) -
Life’s Work in a Trunk of Treasure
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21 December 2019; (p. 16)
— Review of Olive Cotton : A Life in Photography 2019 single work biography'By default, a sound biography becomes a potted history of the decades of its setting. It is also a record of the fading and flourishing mindsets, fashions and technologies of the time. Readers of a certain generation will fondly recall the Kodak Box Brownie camera with its convex rectangular window and the concentrated delight of collecting a modest, brown-paper envelope of photos from the local chemist a few days later. The black-and-white results were more often than not lopsided, out of focus and sometimes cut off people’s heads.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2020 winner Queensland Literary Awards — Non-Fiction Book Award
- 2020 longlisted 'The Nib': CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature
- 2020 winner ASAL Awards — The Australian Historical Association Awards — Magarey Medal for Biography
- 2020 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Illustrated Book of the Year
- 2012 winner Australian Centre Literary Awards — Peter Blazey Fellowship