Presented alongside the Women Photographers: 1900–1975 exhibition and celebrating the ground-breaking work of artist and filmmaker Sue Ford, we delve into the radical creativity of 1970s feminist photography.
Featuring screenings of a selection of Sue Ford’s films and an introduction to the exhibition by NGV Curator of Photography, Maggie Finch, the program will finish with a discussion reflecting on how Ford and other artists during this period used the medium of photography and film to challenge conventions of representation, identity and gender equality.
When booking, pre-purchase a copy of Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light to collect after the event. Published alongside the Women Photographers 1900–1975 exhibition, this richly illustrated publication brings together an extraordinary range of photographs and photobooks by women photographers spanning the pivotal period from 1900 to 1975.
Please note this event does not include entry to the Women Photographers: 1900–1975 exhibition.
Women Photographers: 1900–1975 is on display at NGV International until 3 May.
Dr Sian Mitchell is a Senior Lecturer in Film, Television and Animation at Deakin University. Her research in areas of film festivals, the Australian moving image and women’s screen practice has been published in journals such as Camera Obscura, NECSUS and Historic Environment. Sian’s work also extends to practice-based film programming and curatorial projects, particularly through her role as Festival Director of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival since 2017, an annual festival celebrating and supporting Australian, Aotearoan and Pasifika women and gender diverse screen creatives and their work. Sian was the 2022 recipient of the Natalie Miller Fellowship, an award given to support women’s leadership in the Australian screen industry. Sian received a PhD. in Film and Television Studies (2012) from Monash University. She also holds a Masters in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies (2016) with a focus on film history, curation and multimedia exhibition, and a Graduate Certificate in Arts and Entertainment Management (2004), both from Deakin University.
Victoria Duckett is Associate Dean (Partnerships and International) and Associate Professor of Film at Deakin University, where she builds partnerships with universities, cultural institutions, and industry organisations worldwide and advances Deakin’s reputation as a leader in education and the arts.
She is the former Co-Director of the Deakin Motion Lab (2023–2025), heading the Lab during a period in which it became one of Victoria’s leading university facilities for creative-industries research. Under her leadership, the Lab delivered more than $6 million in cross-disciplinary projects and received major international recognition, including the Good Design Gold Award (2024), the Columbia University Breakthrough in Storytelling Award (2024), and Best of Science at Adelaide Fringe (2025).
An award-winning feminist film historian, Victoria has served as elected President of Women and Film History International, published more than 80 articles and several books, serves on the editorial boards of Feminist Media Histories and Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, and programs for the renowned Italian festivals Il Cinema Ritrovato and the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.
Julia Murphy is a curator at the Melbourne Arts Precinct with extensive experience in the contemporary art field. She has previously held curatorial and collections roles at ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), where she facilitated exhibitions of film and video art, as well as undertaking research into the Sue Ford Archive. She holds a Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne.
Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light celebrates the wide-ranging photographic practices of more than seventy women artists working between 1900 and 1975. Featuring prints, postcards, photobooks and magazines, the exhibition explores the role of photographers as image-makers, and the ways in which women artists create an image of themselves, of others, of the times – from images of the women’s suffrage movement at the turn of the twentieth century, through to the women’s liberation movement and beyond.
Learning Partner
