Come along to the launch of John Ogden’s latest book…
Manly Art Gallery
26 November 2011
2.30pm
To be launched by Jack Thompson and Jeff McMullen
Saltwater People of the Broken Bays explores the incredible history and natural beauty of the coastline between North Head and Barrenjoey. The scalloped beaches found here were home to the coastal clans of the Eora people for at least 20,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. Their water skills and ability in the surf underscore the northern beaches as the birthplace of Australian beach culture, where beach bathing, body surfing, surf life saving and board-riding all began in this country. But it is not just surfers who are drawn to the surf zone, that ever changing interface between ocean and shore that can in turn be calming, thrilling, or threatening. Poets, artists, photographers, architects, and dreamers are inspired by the beauty and drama of this coastline.
John Ogden is a photographer, photojournalist, filmmaker, writer and artist based in Avalon, Sydney. Ogden’s career began in Southeast Asia during the last days of the Vietnam War, later extending his practice to cinematography in multiple genres of filmmaking. His photographs are often direct yet quietly subversive, choosing not to shy away from political commentary, provocation or occasional dark humour.
John Ogden started Cyclops Press and published his first book Australienation in 2000. Through Ogden’s black and white humanist photography Australienation explores the reconciliation process between Australia’s Indigenous peoples and the various tribes and many races that subsequently settled in this Great Southern Land. An equally emotive record of the first Australians, Portraits from a Land Without People, published in 2009, is an anthology of photography that is now acknowledged as the most comprehensive pictorial history honouring Aboriginal culture yet produced.