MAPh - Museum of Australian Photography

MAPh - Museum of Australian Photography MAPh: the Australian home of photography and the William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize Entry to MAPh is FREE!
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The Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) is the Australian home of photography. We're dedicated to the preservation, collection and display of Australian photographs. www.maph.org.au

MAPh is the premier cultural facility of the City of Monash. Monash City Council reserves the right to remove content that violates its Social Media Policy or any associated policies. Materials authored or posted

are subject to public disclosure. MAPh is supported by Creative Victoria, the MAPh Foundation and its generous sponsors.

It's Father's Day, and MAPh would like to share this photograph from our collection by Matthew Sleeth: in celebration, a...
05/09/2026

It's Father's Day, and MAPh would like to share this photograph from our collection by Matthew Sleeth: in celebration, appreciation and acknowledgement.

We celebrate the ways that fathers nurture and encourage; appreciate the differences and nuances of diverse fatherly influence; and acknowledge that it's not a straightforward or celebratory relationship for all. For many, it's a reminder of absence and grief.

For a closer look at this image, or others in MAPh's photographic collection, head to maph.org.au.

A reminder that MAPh is closed until next Saturday 12 September, reopening with the Bowness Photography Prize exhibition 📸✨

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Image:
Matthew SLEETH
Untitled #11 1997
from the series Opfikon
chromogenic print
43.0 x 43.0 cm
Museum of Australian Photography, City of Monash Collection
courtesy of the artist and Claire Oliver Gallery (New York)

PHOTOREAL 2026: The splendid light > Sunday 20 September at MAPh 📸✨Photobooths: fun, nostalgic, archival, immersive. Joi...
04/09/2026

PHOTOREAL 2026: The splendid light > Sunday 20 September at MAPh 📸✨

Photobooths: fun, nostalgic, archival, immersive. Join artist Ruth O'Leary, whose long creative relationship with photobooth work includes 'Auto Photo: A life in portraits', to create your own photobooth set.

Ruth's practice spans drawing, painted textiles, photography and performance, where she deploys her body as both material and subject, documenting experiences typically excluded from institutional memory. From her connective photo booth series to provocative textile works, Ruth's practice refuses easy categories, creating work that confronts invisible labour, sexuality and the complexity of women’s lives.

Using paper, collage + DIY costuming, Ruth will guide participants to create a useful and imaginative resource that can be put to work in countless creative applications. All materials provided.

DIY Photobooth set with Ruth O'Leary
Sunday 20 September at MAPh
2pm to 3.45pm
$40 pp / $35 MAPh members + TarraWarra Museum of Art members
BOOK here: https://maph.org.au/events/1029
Check out all the other great speakers and workshops MAPh is running across our full-day symposium!

Ruth is a finalist in this year's Bowness Photography Prize, for her work Spider woman, pictured.

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Image:
Ruth O'LEARY
Spider woman 2026
pigment ink-jet print
135.0 x 93.0 cm
courtesy of the artist and Mary Cherry Contemporary (Melbourne)

PHOTOREAL 2026: The splendid light > Sunday 20 September at MAPh 📸✨Ever wondered how photographs of the cosmos are captu...
03/09/2026

PHOTOREAL 2026: The splendid light > Sunday 20 September at MAPh 📸✨

Ever wondered how photographs of the cosmos are captured? Come join Dr Peter Tuthill, professor of astronomy at University of Sydney, as he shares his expertise with us.

Peter is an expert in making extremely high-resolution images of distant celestial objects, and has pioneered new technologies and instruments at observatories around the globe and in space. He is the only Australian scientist to fly an experiment aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, and is now leading his own Australian-built space mission: the TOLIMAN telescope to study exoplanets in Alpha Centauri.

The celestial menagerie with Dr Peter Tuthill
Sunday 20 September
9.45am to 11am
FREE > RSVP here: https://maph.org.au/events/1029
Check out all the other great speakers and workshops MAPh is running across our full-day symposium!

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Image:
Harry NANKIN (Bowness Photography Prize finalist 2026)
Will the cosmos recall what we are forgetting? #4 (Shaula in Scorpius) 2026
from the series Will the cosmos recall what we are forgetting?
ink-jet print
90.0 x 90.0 cm
courtesy of the artist

MAPh is delighted to present The inner sky by Sarah Rhodes, for the 2026 Wai Tang Commissioning Award ✨Sarah Rhodes uses...
02/09/2026

MAPh is delighted to present The inner sky by Sarah Rhodes, for the 2026 Wai Tang Commissioning Award ✨

Sarah Rhodes uses analogue darkroom techniques to create layered photographs that speak to an experience of our inner and outer worlds.

Aiming to translate the atmosphere of interiority into a two-dimensional image, she cuts, tears and folds paper to create apertures onto the expanse within and beyond. Using papers with different translucencies and textures, she investigates what happens when light passes through these layers: inviting the viewer to consider the interplay between what is known and what is imagined.

This exhibition is curated by MAPh Director Anouska Phizacklea, and opens alongside the Bowness Photography Prize. Join us for the launch!
Thursday 17 September at MAPh
6.30pm to 8.30pm
RSVP via link in bio
📸
Sarah is also leading a hands-on workshop for PHOTOREAL: The splendid light, MAPh's annual photography symposium. It's filling up quickly, so book your place via the link in our bio!

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Images:
Sarah RHODES
Figure with paper I 2026
from the series The inner sky
60.0 x 80.0 cm
gelatin silver print
courtesy of the artist

Circular cut I 2026
from the series The inner sky
20.0 x 25.0 cm
gelatin silver print
courtesy of the artist

Folds of paper III 2026
from the series The inner sky
32.0 x 40.0 cm
gelatin silver print
courtesy of the artist

MAPh is pleased to be hosting Tall Poppy Press and C.Moore Hardy for the launch of their latest photobook, Nobody Knows ...
01/09/2026

MAPh is pleased to be hosting Tall Poppy Press and C.Moore Hardy for the launch of their latest photobook, Nobody Knows I'm Gay 📸✨

Saturday 26 September
1pm to 3.30pm
plus Q+A with the artist and insights from Q***r Love Collective and the Australian Q***r Archives!
FREE > no RSVP required

Hear from the artist and publisher as they discuss how and when the book's photographs were made. Guest speakers from the Australian Q***r Archives will speak to the processes of archiving and collecting the images.







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Images:
courtesy C.Moore Hardy

Final days! This is your last weekend to view Brook Andrew's ROLLERCOASTER: winhangadurinya in motion, at MAPh.The exhib...
27/08/2026

Final days! This is your last weekend to view Brook Andrew's ROLLERCOASTER: winhangadurinya in motion, at MAPh.

The exhibition examines photography’s relationship to colonial witnessing, evidence and the construction of historical narratives. We're encouraged to consider what remains – what we carry with us, what we let go of, and how meaning is shaped within an increasingly unstable and hypermediated world.

At a time of accelerating digital culture, social media and artificial intelligence, the exhibition creates space for pause, reflection and imagination. It reminds us that the future is not fixed, but something still in motion. We can choose to shape our lives through attention, care, responsibility and collective thought.

Curated by Angela Connor, MAPh Senior Curator

And let's take a moment to admire the paintwork one final time! Thank you Haymes for your generous donation of paint for this exhibition, it has brought another dimension to the artist's works across our museum spaces.
Haymes Paint

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Images:
John ZENG
exhibition launch event, ROLLERCOASTER by Brook Andrew 2026
courtesy Museum of Australian Photography

27/08/2026

PHOTOREAL 2026 | The splendid light ✨

MAPh's annual photography symposium returns for 2026, exploring the ways that light informs photographic practice, from inside the darkroom to the outer reaches of the cosmos.

Through a rich program of talks and workshops, presenters will pull back the curtain on their working and thinking processes, sharing insights from the farthest reaches of the galaxy and from the personal, philosophical, instinctual and technical aspects of image making.

Sign up for a hands-on workshop with artists Ruth O'Leary, Grace Woods or Sarah Rhodes! Be enthralled by our guest speakers: artist Bill Henson and astronomy professor Dr Peter Tuthill! Learn about wetplate collodion photography with artist Robert Ashton!

📸 Sunday 20 November > 9.45am to 4pm
🎞️ Keynote speakers + demonstrations are free
⚒️ Workshops are charged per session
💌 Please RSVP and/or book into each of the sessions you wish to attend.
🎟️ Book via link in bio or maph.org.au

FREE school holiday workshop coming up at MAPh > 'So bad it's good' with Kyle Archie Knight! ✨💎Saturday 3 October1pm to ...
26/08/2026

FREE school holiday workshop coming up at MAPh > 'So bad it's good' with Kyle Archie Knight! ✨💎

Saturday 3 October
1pm to 2.30pm
💌 FREE > RSVP here: maph.org.au/events/1027

In this workshop with artist Kyle Archie Knight, we’ll look at what might make an image or object ordinary or boring and then find ways to bling it up. Beginning with images and then moving onto 3D objects, we’ll use focus, contrast, colour and texture – plus some creativity and style to transform so bad to so good.

This program is suitable for young people aged 8 to 16 years.

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Image:
Kyle Archie KNIGHT
Gumball machine 2026
from the series Cruising for a Bruising
pigment ink-jet print
courtesy of the artist

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Wheelers Hill, VIC
3150

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Friday 10am - 5pm
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