Stargazing

Image: David Stephenson – Star Drawing 1996/906
Image: David Stephenson – Star Drawing 1996/906
Stargazing brings together a selection of contemporary photographs that guide us towards the stars, the planets and celestial spaces in poetic, experimental, playful, conceptual, and often quite abstract ways.

Through a variety of photographic processes and experimental techniques, often incorporating analogue technologies or archival imagery, the artists in this exhibition evoke, transform and play with celestial scenes. They delve into ideas about the universe and our place within it, challenging expectations of photography to explore the cosmos from felt, imagined and self-referential perspectives. While alluding to realms that exist beyond Earth’s surface, these artists encourage us to reflect on themes that remain tightly connected to human experience and the planet in which we live. These include environmental issues, interconnectedness, identity, spirituality, time, memory, mortality and the nature of photography itself.

Showing works from MAPh’s significant collection of Australian photographs alongside loans from artists, Stargazing features work by Amos Gebhardt, Michaela Gleave, Anna Higgins, Harry Nankin, Trent Parke, Luke Parker, Patrick Pound, Michael Riley, Kate Robertson, David Stephenson, Christian Thompson, Zan Wimberley and Jemima Wyman.

Curator | Stella Loftus-Hills, MAPh Curator

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November

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: 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.

February

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.

Sydney: 03 March – 26 March 2026. NSW at Night is a photography exhibition offering a glimpse into life after dark across New South Wales, through the people, places and rhythms that shape it.

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.

Melbourne: 13 – 22 March 2026. Award-winning photographers Andrew Tan and Rosalind Pach invite you to explore the city as a living, shifting experience.