Museum of Sydney
8 December 2018 – 21 July 2019
Inspired by a candid street photograph taken of my mother in Prague in 1948, I became interested in this forgotten genre of photography. My mother’s album contained a handful of street photographs showing herself with friends in Europe during the 1940s, before she migrated to Australia. These images capture her at a particular time and moment in history before she fled communism. Finding other photographs of my mother with new Australian friends on the streets of this city was a starting point for a call out to the public to uncover and this unseen archive and to consider its history.
The initial research involved looking for similar images through friend’s family albums held in personal collections and through a call out for street photographs on social media which resulted in hundreds of photographs being identified. These formed the basis for a collaboration with Sydney Living Museums and a hugely successful through them call which resulted in a pool of 1500 images for an exhibition.
Alongside the historic collection are a series of contemporary street portraits that I created of descendants and those still living based on the original street photographs. These contemporary re-enactments capture people against the backdrop of the city today.
The Street Photography exhibition was curated with Anna Cossu and opened at the Museum of Sydney in December 2018.