Time Machine: Sue Ford

Sue Ford (1943–2009) was one of Australia’s most important photographers and filmmakers. Ford studied photography at RMIT and in 1974 was the first Australian photographer accorded a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Ford passed away in 2009. Prior to her death, she was working on an exhibition of her work which would feature her final major project Self-portrait with camera (1960–2006). Time Machine is the first opportunity for audiences to see this important series of 47 photographs, and presents a compelling self-portrait of an artist. It underscores the central role the camera played in Ford’s life. Self-portrait with camera will be shown alongside a survey of Ford’s black-and-white photographs from the 1960s and 70s and examples of her most iconic work, Time series (1960s–1970s).

The exhibition chronicles a period when photography was charged with political and personal meaning. It provides a great opportunity for audiences to reassess the talent of this important photographer, whose work was at once political, beautiful and elegiac.

In an era when the photograph has become highly disposable this exhibition acknowledge its role as an agent of change and memory.

Monash Gallery of Art travelling exhibition

Artist: Sue Ford