People
Photo Australia supports universal access to diverse, progressive, meaningful discourse to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. We achieve this through the promotion and commissioning of new photography and ideas, connecting Australia to a global arts and photography community.
Board
WILLIAM DONALD BOWNESS AO
William (Bill) Bowness AO is chair of Wilbow Group Pty Ltd. He is a business leader and patron of the visual and performing arts, actively involved in various cultural, community and philanthropic activities in Australia and abroad. He is a trustee of the Monash Gallery of Art Foundation, and was chair of the Monash Gallery of Art Committee of Management from 1998 to 2010. He was appointed a member of the National Gallery of Victoria Foundation and The Australian Ballet Foundation in 2010. He was invited to join the Tate International Council in recognition of his support of art in Australia and internationally and in 2017 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.
MARK HENRY (Chair)
Mark is the National Public Law Practice Group Head at Maddocks lawyers, and previously served two terms as Chairman of partners. He spearheaded Maddocks support of Australia’s participation in the Venice Biennale since 2001, as the pavilion’s firstcommercial sponsor. He was on the Commissioner Council for the Australian Pavilion from 2013-17. He instituted the Maddocks Art Prize in 2007 to support the development of artists’ practice and research travel to visit the Venice Biennale. Mark has supported, and been involved in, a range of community based arts activities including as a member of the Board of Gertrude Contemporary. In 2016 he was an inaugural member of the top 50 LGBTI business leaders in Australia.
PENNY MILES
Penny is an arts professional specialising in executive leadership, strategic planning, government investment, audience engagement and market development. Penny’s career spans industry roles and working for all tiers of government including the Australia Council for the Arts, NSW State departments, and recent Chair of the Night-time Economic recovery for the City of Melbourne. Penny has previously headed-up the Federal Government’s Visions Australia and Festivals Australia funds, developed touring strategies for some of Australia leading arts companies, and worked on major cultural policy including the inaugural Arts and Cultural Plan for the City of Parramatta, the first precinct framework for the City of Gold Coast, and the national Audience Experience Program for regional galleries, theatres, and arts centres.
NAOMI MILGROM AC
Naomi Milgrom AC is an Australian business leader, philanthropist and patron. She is internationally recognised for initiating and supporting cultural innovation, artistic excellence and successful collaborations between government, business and not-for-profit partners. She served as chair of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and commissioner of the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2017, where she was responsible for the selection of Tracey Moffatt as the first ever solo female Indigenous artist representing Australia. She was appointed as chair of the jury for the 2019 Parramatta Powerhouse Precinct Project. Through her annual MPavilion commission and Living Cities Forum, she has collaborated with some of the world’s leading architects and urban thinkers.
ELIAS REDSTONE
Elias Redstone is the Founder and Artistic Director of Photo Australia and PHOTO International Festival of Photography. With over 15 years experience within the arts sector, Elias has a track record of initiating and delivering innovative cultural programs in collaboration with leading institutions such as Barbican Art Gallery, MoMA and Storefront for Art and Architecture. He was the curator of the Polish Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale and senior curator at the Architecture Foundation, London. He has edited publications for Prestel, Sternberg Press and Bedford Press, and acted as a contributing editor for Arena Homme Plus and GQ Style. His book Shooting Space: Architecture in Contemporary Photography is published by Phaidon.
MELINDA RICH
Melinda is an experienced senior executive with strong skills in people and culture, risk, safety, capital works, facilities management, procurement, technology, communications, and social impact. Her corporate experience spans leadership positions in the financial services, transport, agribusiness, mining, and manufacturing sectors. She holds degrees in Engineering (Mechanical) and Arts (Politics/Philosophy), and a Master of Business Administration. Melinda has extensive experience at board level in the not-for-profit space, with previous roles as director and chair of JOY Media, and as chair of the RACV Community Foundation. She currently sits on the board of the Victoria Pride Centre and is a member of the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee.
Team
Founder / Artistic Director
Elias Redstone
Executive Director
Clare McKenzie
Curator
Brendan McCleary
Associate Curator
Pippa Milne
Events Producer
Briony Bennett
Administrator
Sabina McKenna
International Partnerships Manager
Jessica O’Brien
Communications & Marketing Manager
Sean Barrett
Marketing Coordinator
Jenn Ma
Design
U-P
Publicity
AMPR
Bookkeeper
Renee Hoy
Curatorial Advisors
MARIAMA ATTAH
Mariama Attah is a photography curator, writer and lecturer with a particular interest in overlooked histories, and understanding how photography and visual culture can be used to amplify under-represented voices. Mariama is Head of Exhibitions at Open Eye Gallery and LOOK Biennial, Liverpool. She was previously Assistant Editor of Foam Magazine. Prior to this, she was Curator of Photoworks, where she was responsible for developing and curating Brighton Photo Biennial and was Commissioning and Managing Editor of Photoworks Annual.
DANIEL BOETKER-SMITH
Daniel Boetker-Smith is the Director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, and the Founder of the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive. He was previously Dean of Studies at Photography Studies College and is a regular contributor to a range of Australian and international print and online publications.
LÉULI ESHRĀGHI
Léuli Eshrāghi (Sāmoan/Persian/Cantonese ancestry) is active in Australia, Hawaiʻi, Canada and Europe across various forms of creativity. They intervene in display territories to prioritize global Indigenous and Asian diasporic visuality, sensual and spoken languages, and ceremonial-political practices. In 2022, Eshrāghi presented new work at Tate Modern, London; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; and Centre d’Exposition de l’Université de Montréal. They are Curatorial Researcher in Residence at University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, and Curator of TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville.
LUCY GALLUN
Lucy Gallun is The Peter Schub Associate Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In her over 12 years at MoMA, Lucy has curated three iterations of the Museum’s New Photography exhibition series and two iterations of the Elaine Dannheisser Projects exhibition series, among many other projects. Lucy was co-editor and contributing author of Photography at MoMA, a three-volume history of photography at the Museum, and has contributed to numerous publications within and outside MoMA. Her most recent MoMA title is Robert Frank: Trolley—New Orleans, part of the Museum’s One on One book series.
CLARE GRAFIK
Clare Grafik is Head of Exhibitions at The Photographers’ Gallery, London. She has worked in public institutions including the ICA, Whitechapel, Hayward Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. At The Photographers’ Gallery she has worked on exhibitions with Lise Sarfati, Isa Genzken, Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel, Taryn Simon, Katy Grannan, Antoine D’Agata, Zineb Sedira and Keith Arnatt. Group shows include The Photographic Object (2009), Perspectives on Collage (2013) and Double Take: Photography & Drawing (2016).
VARUN GUPTA
Varun Gupta is the Biennale Director of Chennai Photo Biennale, India, which he co-founded in 2015, and a commercial photographer. In 2006, he founded Travelling Lens – a company that conducted specialised photography workshops and holidays in remote areas of India. In 2010, Varun began work with Art Chennai (a city-wide arts event) to manage their photography exhibitions with a focus on public engagement through which they organised large exhibitions in train stations and beaches in Chennai.
SHAUNE LAKIN
Shaune Lakin is Senior Curator, Photography at the National Gallery of Australia. Previous roles include Gallery Director, Monash Gallery of Art and Senior Curator of Photography at the Australian War Memorial. Shaune’s curatorial projects are usually collaborative, often with colleague Anne O’Hehir, and tend to focus on the histories of feminist photography in Australia. Recent projects include the book Fugitive Text with Peter Maloney, which opens up an archive of the artist’s overpainted photographs produced at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
ALONA PARDO
Alona Pardo is a curator at Barbican Art Gallery, London. Recent exhibitions include Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins (2018), Richard Mosse: Incoming (2017) and Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers (2016), curated with Martin Parr.
ISOBEL PARKER PHILIP
Isobel Parker Philip is Senior Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Recent shows include Imprint: Photography and the Impressionable Image (2016), New Matter: Recent Forms of Photography (2016–17), and Hold Still: The Photographic Performance (2018). In 2017 Isobel was the coordinating curator of Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium and was AGNSW’s representative curator for the 2019 edition of The National: New Australian Art.
SOPHIA SAMBONO
Sophia Nampitjimpa Sambono is a Jingili woman with family connections from Elliot/Newcastle Waters to Darwin, Daly River and the Tiwi Islands. She is the Associate Curator, Indigenous Australia Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) where she is working on a number of exhibitions opening in 2024, including the 11th Asia Pacific Triennale. Prior to QAGOMA Sophia curated exhibitions for kuril dhagun at the State Library of Queensland and as Curator of Indigenous Collections at the National Film and Sound Archive.
SUSAN VAN WYK
Susan van Wyk is the Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Victoria. Since joining the NGV, she has worked on more than seventy exhibitions of Australian and international photography. Over a thirty-year career Susan has written several books, numerous catalogues, and contributed to journals and magazines on photography. In addition to her role at the NGV, Susan has previously served as a board member of the Substation Contemporary Art Space, on the Exhibitions Committee at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, and the School of Art Advisory Committee and the Photography Advisory Committee at RMIT.
First Nations Advisory Committee
UNCLE BILL NICHOLSON JR
Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elder Uncle Bill Nicholson Jr is the principal adult and cross-cultural educator working across the corporate, not-for-profit, and university sectors. Uncle Bill is passionate about sharing his extensive cultural knowledge with the broader community, and advocates for the rights of contemporary Wurundjeri to access and practice culture on their traditional homelands. As a Winston Churchill Fellowship recipient, Uncle Bill explored cultural practice and maintenance among First Nations communities in urban environments. He was also a member of the Victorian delegation nominated to attend the First People’s Assembly that led to the development of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
HAYLEY MILLAR BAKER
Hayley Millar Baker is a Gunditjmara Djabwurrung artist, born in South-West Melbourne, Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts at RMIT University. Hayley’s lens based practice interrogates and abstracts autobiographical narratives and themes relating to her own identity – drawing on spirituality, Indigeneity, womanhood, motherhood, and the psyche. Her oblique storytelling methods and methodologies encourage us to embrace that the passage of identity, culture, and memory are not linear nor fixed.
JARRA KARALINAR STEEL
Jarra Karalinar Steel is a multidisciplinary artist and the curator of Rising’s Art Trams. Jarra’s work looks at ways to insert contemporary cultural visual language into the urban and digital landscape by reclaiming space and belonging. Jarra is of Boon Wurrung, Wemba Wemba, Trawlwoolway, English and Scottish descent, and is based in Melbourne’s south on Boonwurrung country. She is a passionate advocate and consultant for self-representation of Victorian First Peoples art and culture and making sure it is kept alive and thriving.
ALAN STEWART
Alan Stewart is a proud Taungurung, Filipino man. He has worked in both the corporate and public sectors and currently works for the Department of Justice and Community Safety in the Aboriginal Justice Group. He is a photographer predominantly focusing on landscape and street photography, examining the connection with “country” and how we view the Australian landscape. He has premiered work at various festivals including Yirramboi, BlakHeart and PHOTO 2021.