Leave only footprints by Tamara Dean

© Tamara Dean. Night garden 2020, from the series, High jinks in the hydrangeas. Pigment ink-jet print 75.0 x 100.0 cm. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, donated by Tamara Dean 2022.
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin)
© Tamara Dean. Night garden 2020, from the series, High jinks in the hydrangeas. Pigment ink-jet print 75.0 x 100.0 cm. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, donated by Tamara Dean 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin)

Emerging from the depths of nature, Tamara Dean’s practice examines the human condition. Leave only footprints is the first survey of the critically acclaimed photo media artist and spans more than twenty years of her photographic practice. This immersive exhibition incorporates scent, photography, installation, and the moving image to create an environment that engages the senses.

© Tamara Dean. Tumbling through the treetops 2020, from the series High jinks in the hydrangeas. Pigment ink-jet print 110.0 x 160.0 cm.
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, donated by Tamara Dean 2022. 
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin).
© Tamara Dean. Tumbling through the treetops 2020, from the series High jinks in the hydrangeas. Pigment ink-jet print 110.0 x 160.0 cm. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, donated by Tamara Dean 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin).

Dean’s career began as a photojournalist for the Sydney Morning Herald (2001–14). She was renowned for finding the quieter, more introspective moments between subject and photographer. Her exploration of our shifting emotional states continues to evolve and these themes now occupy her large-scale performative photographic practice.

© Tamara Dean. I've always wondered when soon is 2022, from the series, Palace of dreams. Pigment ink-jet print 160.0 x 120.0 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin).
© Tamara Dean. I've always wondered when soon is 2022, from the series, Palace of dreams. Pigment ink-jet print 160.0 x 120.0 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin).

Dean’s practice transitioned from documentary to conceptual photography after the arrival of her first child. It transformed her practice into one that explores the primacy of nature and our connectedness to it and to each other. Leave only footprints spans over eleven key bodies of work that explore transitional moments in our lives; rites of passage, rituals and motherhood, and is underpinned by the artist’s longing and desire to be within and to protect nature.

© Tamara Dean. Ebenezer rock drop 2015, from the series, The edge. Pigment ink-jet print 75.0 x 100.0 cm. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, donated by Tamara Dean 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin).
© Tamara Dean. Ebenezer rock drop 2015, from the series, The edge. Pigment ink-jet print 75.0 x 100.0 cm. Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, donated by Tamara Dean 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Gallery (Sydney + Berlin).

To attend the launch on 27 November, RSVP at this link.

Curator: Anouska Phizacklea, MGA Director

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February

Melbourne: 28 Nov 2025 – 26 May 2026. The exhibition celebrates the wide-ranging photographic practices of more than eighty women artists working between 1900 and 1975.

Sydney: Until 11 April. Unfinished Business brings together the voices of 30 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with disabilities from remote, regional, and urban communities across Australia.

Canberra: Until 6 Sept 2026. Trent Parke’s photographic series The Christmas tree bucket 2006–09 is a tender and darkly humorous portrayal of his extended family coming together to celebrate Christmas.

Melbourne: 11 Feb – 25 April 2026. Familial brings together six international artists whose work navigates the emotional and psychological terrain of family.

March

Sydney: Until 7 Feb 2027. From his archive of more than 200,000 images, Close Up celebrates the historic moments and pivotal people he famously captured.

Melbourne: 5 March – 7 August 2026. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, artist and social documentary photographer Viva Gibb (1945-2017) documented the suburbs of North and West Melbourne, where she lived.

Melbourne: 7 March – 24 May 2026. Photos of flowers from the NGA collection by prominent photographers drawn such as Robert Mapplethorpe and four groundbreaking Australian photographers.

Melbourne: 10 March – 5 May 2026. TOPshots is an annual celebration of emerging photo-media artists selected from a large pool of entries.

April

Sydney: 9 April event 6-9pm. Unfinished is a free event to show/see photo-based work in progress or recently completed personal projects run by photographers for photographers.

Sydney: 15 April – 9 May 2026. An exhibition of fine art photography celebrating the intersection of maritime history and the human form.