John Gollings has been a leading Australian photographer for over fifty years. This collection of his architectural photography bridges modernism and the present day, celebrating Australian architecture through a surreal lens. This approach is exemplified in one of his most iconic photographs, Kay Street Housing by Edmond and Corrigan, which captures the optimism and energy of Melbourne’s postmodern architecture movement. Shot at night with double exposures and awash with flash, Gollings imbues the suburban setting with a mythic quality through the addition of bounding kangaroos.
Across the display, Gollings’s images are characterised by strong formal composition, moments of drama and exaggeration, and an ongoing experimentation with emerging technologies that pushes the possibilities of each image.
The display is part of NGV’s Artist Room series, which invites audiences to take a closer look at individual artists.