Mervyn Bishop: Close Up
Mervyn Bishop is one of Australia's most important photographers.
His extraordinary archive of more than 200,000 images makes a landmark addition to the State Library of NSW’s collection.
Mervyn Bishop: Close Up celebrates the historic moments and pivotal people he famously captured, while exploring the private influences that shaped his groundbreaking career.
This intimate exhibition offers a rare glimpse of the man behind the lens and honours the enduring legacy of Australia’s first Aboriginal press photographer.
About Mervyn
Born in Brewarrina in 1945, Mervyn Bishop fell in love with photography at a young age. At 17, he began a cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald, where he won the Press Photographer of the Year award in 1971.
A few years later he famously photographed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam passing a fistful of dirt into Aboriginal Elder Vincent Lingiari’s hand. Mervyn’s body of work, which chronicles both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, has been in dozens of exhibitions over several decades.
