“Revisiting the 1970s: Carol Jerrems’ Collaborative Lens on Melbourne and Sydney”

Australian visual artist Carol Jerrems adopted a broad perspective toward portrait photography. She explored the concept of seriality – shaping narratives and significance through a series of images – and viewed photography as a partnership involving her subjects, her camera, and herself.

Born in Ivanhoe, Victoria, in 1949, Jerrems primarily utilized black and white photography until her untimely passing in 1980.

Currently, over 140 of her images are showcased at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

Commonplace moments, collective imagery

Faces constitute just one aspect of Jerrems’ portraits. Equally important are the environments she selected for photography.

Numerous photographs portray her subjects within ordinary settings: bedrooms, living rooms, suburban yards, and streets in Melbourne and Sydney during the 1970s.

She emphasized faces and bodies set against the rumpled linens of a bed, the clutter of a space, suburban street signs, and the fall of a hospital curtain – always mindful of the inner frames of windows, tables, and doorways.

Many images are captured in spaces associated with creativity or societal activism, reflecting the feminist movements of 1970s Australia and the interconnection between domestic existence, creative pursuits, and resistance. These include artists’ studios, protests, the Filmmakers Co-Op in Sydney and the National Black Theatre in Redfern. The imagery features film projectors and refrigerators, sewing machines, and slogans.

Scenarios depict university campus life (a commission for Macquarie University) and ultimately conclude with the interior of a Hobart hospital in the final collection before her demise from the rare condition Budd-Chiari syndrome in 1980.

These environmental portraits situate the subject within a familiar backdrop, such as their workplace or residence. They consider space as a facet of the intricacies surrounding her human subjects.

That said, it’s essential to note that faces and individuals play a crucial role: they are extensively present throughout this exhibit. Some are widely recognized, while others remain less known.

Many of the portraits featured in this exhibition are images taken for Jerrems and Virginia Fraser’s 1974 photobook, A Book About Australian Women.

The compilation includes photographs of children, activists, authors, artists, historians, and sex workers. Recognizable faces include a young Evonne Goolagong (1973) and an older Grace Cossington Smith (1974).

The portrait of Anne Summers (1974) shows the author in her residence, half her face cast in shadow, with a stack of books behind her. Bobbie Sykes stands at the podium in Black Moratorium, Sydney ’72 (1972), presenting her speech, while her hands on her hips in Bobbi Sykes, Aboriginal Medical Service (1973) illustrate another powerful stance.

Shadows, designs, borders

Observing photographs can lead to the allure of concentrating on the individual, to search for the one snapshot that “resonates”.

However, Jerrems’ comprehensive work, along with the arrangement of this display, indicates an alternate endeavor. The significance here builds cumulatively across and in between images.

The image Caroline Slade (1973) depicts a young girl, a serious chameleon adorned in a floral printed garment encircled by floral motifs on the wallpaper. This instance of blending resonates in the picture Enid Lorimer and Kate Fitzpatrick (1974). This snapshot portrays the actresses gazing at one another in floral outfits that meld seamlessly with the leafy patterns of the garden backdrop.

Instances of mimicry are associated with additional patterns, other photographs engaged in dialogue. Shadows resonate through images and time.

Lynn Gailey sewing (1976) portrays the right side of Gailey’s face shrouded in shadow. In the preceding photograph of Myra Skipper (1974), the lower half of her face is also in shadow while her eyes gaze pointedly upwards. Esben Storm’s visage, consistently captured by Jerrems’ observation, frequently emerges from darkness, speckled with light.

Segments, exchanges, transitions

Numerous portraits carry an autobiographical inclination. Jerrems’ presence infiltrates the composition of Rita on the couch at Kilcare Beach (1976). The silhouette of Jerrems’ arm, which holds the camera to her eye, parallels the formation of Rita’s crossed limbs.

Jerrems’ capture of Ambrose Campbell (1973) reveals him reclining on a bed draped in white sheets. The composition is designed to incorporate her reflected image, dressed and standing with the camera to her eye. She appears poised and somewhat removed, framed by the luminous glare of the window behind her.

In Self-Portrait after Surgery (1979), Jerrems tightly frames the photograph around herself, raising her elbows, yet her camera and face remain beyond the frame. A lengthy stitched incision runs vertically down her abdomen, with bruises and remnants of medical tape narrating a story on her skin.

In 1969, Jerrems created the handcrafted, accordion-style photobook A Continuum of Age as an assignment while attending Prahran Technical College.

At the beginning of the book, strips of cut-and-pasted typewritten text articulate the significance of age to “every speck of matter.” The images collected within the book are “not focused on individuals but rather on conditions, phases, and specific periods of existence.”

This conceptual arrangement of the photobook (which, splendidly, is displayed open behind glass) provides another perspective for understanding Jerrems’ artistry and portraiture created during the subsequent decade.

The images showcased in this exhibition comprise all small prints, meant to be viewed up close, and, importantly, in relation to one another. This methodology is illustrated by the choice to showcase several of Jerrems’ contact prints – sheets featuring grids of images – which disclose their own narratives of being handled, annotated, and cut.

These flaws are, in themselves, part of the photographic dialogue. They mirror the series of choices made by Jerrems, providing a glimpse into her creative process.

Carol Jerrems: Portraits is being exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, through March 2.