Photography: Real and Imagined

MAN RAY: KIKI WITH AFRICAN MASK 1926 (supplied)
MAN RAY: KIKI WITH AFRICAN MASK 1926 (supplied)

Photography: Real & Imagined (13 October 2023 – 4 Feb 2024) is the largest survey of the NGV's Photography collection in the institution’s history and features more than 270 photographs from the past 125 years to present day.

The exhibition will present some of the most iconic photographs ever captured, alongside recent acquisitions that have not been presented beforewith work by leading Australian and international photographers including Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gilbert & George and Nan Goldin, and Australian photographers Max Dupain, Olive Cotton, Mervyn Bishop, Polly Borland and Darren Sylvester.

The NGV photography collection holds more than 14,000 works and is the second largest collection area in the NGV, accounting for 16% of the entire collection. Four years in the making, this landmark exhibition interrogates the proposition that a photograph can be grounded in the real world, recording, documenting and reflecting the world around us; or be the product of imagination, storytelling and illusion; and on occasion they can be both.

You can read more about the upcoming exhibition on the NGV website.

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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.

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.

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.

May

Sydney: Until 16 August 2026. PIX, Australia’s first pictorial news weekly, is brought to life in this exhibition, showcasing its archived images and stories for the very first time.

Coffs Harbour: 28 May – 29 June 2026. West Of Somewhere East is a photographic series tracing a cinematic journey through the interior of New South Wales, shaped by long drives, fleeting encounters, and the reflective rhythm of return.