• Jun 2, 2017 from 4:00am to 5:00am
  • Location: Australian War Memorial, Council Room, Administration Building
  • Latest Activity: Dec 3, 2020

Camels, cockerels and governors: Thinking with the photographs of E.L. Mitchell

Joanna Sassoon

For nearly 100 years E.L. Mitchell’s emblematic photographs of several Australian states have shaped how Australia was seen internationally. Many will recognize Mitchell’s images from having seen them published in Australian school textbooks, government publications, postcards, lantern-slides, international pictorial encyclopedia and museum exhibitions. But who was Mitchell, why did he succeed above his competitors, and how did his archive survive?

In this illustrated talk, Joanna will bring together three biographies – of the photographer, his photographs, and his archive. In doing so, Joanna will discuss this innovative approach to thinking with photographs and open a conversation about the way institutions document and digitize photographs and how this shapes the way they can be used.

Dr Joanna Sassoon is a well-known, and internationally respected historian and archivist. She has managed a number of formats and archival collections in cultural institutions in Western Australia and Canberra and worked in social policy research in the State and Commonwealth public service. She has taught at several universities. She has written widely on Australian, environmental, oral and photographic history and has recently published a book called Agents of Empire: How E.L. Mitchell’s photographs shaped Australia

Please RSVP to Craig.Tibbitts@awm.gov.au

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