BIOGRAPHY
Sue Ford (b.1943-2009)
Sue Ford was one of the most important practitioners in the wave of 1970’s Australian Feminist
photographers. She regularly took pictures of friends and family for social and political ends
frequently turning the camera on herself. Ford’s raw, simple and personal photographic style
was both pragmatic and experimental.
In 1961 Sue worked from a small studio above Ninky's Tea & Coffee house in Little Collins St.,
Melbourne. Post her studies in photography at RMIT in 1962 Ford began to invest her practice
with the theory that photography was art and not a technical product. This led to a major solo
exhibition, Tide Recedes, at Hawthorn City Art Gallery in 1971 and the now famous Time Series
solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and Brummels Gallery in 1974. Fords art
practice continued with significant achievements including solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of
New South Wales in 1982, at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1988 and 1994. In 1995 the
exhibition Sue Ford: A Survey 1960-1995, curated by Helen Ennis was held at the Monash
University Gallery.
Paralleling Fords photographic work was her film and video making that began in 1970 with
Low Deposit Easy Terms. The iconic film Faces 1976-1996 made with her son Ben featured
as an installation at the opening of ACMI, Melbourne in 2003 and was awarded the Best
Australian Film at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 1997.
Dr. Isobel Crombie, Senior Curator, Photography, NGV credits Ford with ''breaking
significant ground in photomedia work in Australia throughout the later part of the 20th
century''.
In 2004 Sue Ford received the Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship to begin the
process of cataloguing her extensive photographic archive. Since 2010 Joy Hirst and Ben
Ford have continued this work, identifying, catologuing, digitising and housing 1000's of
negatives and art works, most of which have not been published or exhibited.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2014
SUE FORD Retrospective, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2012/13
Sue Ford: Time machine, La Trobe Regional Gallery
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery
Bundoora Homestead
Horsham Regional Gallery
2011
Sue Ford: Time machine Monash Gallery of Art Melbourne
2009
Somewhere in France 1917 The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2008
ST Kilda Series Rupert Bunny Foundation commission City of Port Philip
2007
Last Light ARC One Gallery Melbourne
2004
Continuum Watter's Gallery Sydney
2003
Continuum ARC One Gallery Melbourne
2002
Shadow Portraits ARC One-Span Melbourne
1999
Somewhere in France 1917 Watter's Gallery Sydney
1999
Somewhere in France 1917 Parliament House ACT
1997
Faces 1976-1996 Multi Screen Projection Australian Centre for Photography NSW
1995
Sue Ford: A Survey 1960-1995 Monash University Gallery Melbourne
1995
The Wonder Book of Empire Watter's Gallery Sydney
1994
Time Surfaces National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne
1992/3
From Van Diemen's Land to Video Land Niagara Galleries Melbourne
Canberra School of Art Gallery ACT
Institute of Contemporary Art Brisbane
1992
The Witches Letter National Gallery of Australia ACT
1989
A Different Landscape Tiwi Museum Bathurst Island Northern Territory
1989
Sue Ford : A Different Landscape Melbourne Contemporary Art Gallery
1989
Sue Ford : A Different Landscape Aborigines' Advancement League Northcote
1988
A Sixtieth of a Second National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne
1983
Paintings Watter's Gallery Sydney
1982
The Photobook of Women: 1961-1982 Art Gallery of New South Wales
Portraits of Women 1961 - 1982 Axiom Gallery Melbourne
1975
Time Series I Australian Centre for Photography Sydney
1974
Time Series I National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne
Brummels' Pentax Gallery Melbourne
1971
Metamorphoses Series I: Suburban Series II Hawthorn City Art Gallery Melbourne
Metamorphoses Series I The 'Yellow House' Sydney
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
Photography 130 - Behind the Lens: 130 years of RMIT Photography RMIT University
2015
The photograph and Australia Art Gallery of NSW
2014
Photography meets Feminism Australian women photographers 1970's-80's Monash Gallery of Art
2011
What's in a face? Art Gallery of NSW
2011
Brummels: Australia's first gallery of photography Monash Gallery of Art
2011
A Different Temporality Monash University Museum of Art
2010
Imaging the Apple AC Institute New York USA
2010
Mortality Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Melbourne
2007
Truth and Likeness National Portrait Gallery Canberra
2006
Photographic Portrait Prize Art Gallery of NSW
2006
Magic Realism Art Gallery of NSW
2006
City of Port Phillip Art Collection Linden Gallery Melbourne
2005
The Altered Landscape The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2003
Second Sight The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2004
Remembrance - Faces 1976-1996 Multiscreen Screen Installation
Australian Centre for the Moving Image Melbourne
2003
Remembrance - Mind of Tibet Multiscreen Installation in Collaboration with Geshe Sonam Thargye
Australian Centre for the Moving Image Melbourne
2002
Fieldwork The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2002
Eye for Idea A Decade of Australian Women Directors Experimenting with Form Berlin Film Festival Germany
2000
Mirror With a Memory Photographic Portraiture in Australia National Portrait Gallery Canberra
2001
World Without End Photography in the Twentieth Century Art Gallery of NSW
1999
Persona Institute of Modern Art Brisbane
1999
Clemenger Art Award Museum of Modern Art at Heide
1998
Faces 1976-1996 & Time Series Queensland Art Gallery
1997
I Had a Dream Australia in the Nineteen Sixties National Gallery of Victoria
1997
Screen Installation Monash University Gallery of Art
1996
Colonial-Post-Colonial Museum of Modern Art at Heide
1995
Director's Choice National Gallery of Australia
Territory Pictures Museum of the Northern Territory Darwin
Power to Move Queensland Art Gallery
1994
Pictograms: Aspects of Contemporary Photographic Practice touring exhibition Australia
1991
The Intimate Experience Ivan Dougherty Gallery Sydney
1990
Twenty Contemporary Australian Photographers National Gallery of Victoria touring AGNSW and QLD Art Gallery
From The Empire's End: Nine Australian and Spanish Photographers touring exhibition Spain and Australia
Time Changes (1976) Film Screenings: Sue Ford and Carol Jerrem's Australian Centre for Photography Sydney
1989
Portrait Photography National Gallery of Australia Canberra
1988
A Sixtieth of a Second Australian Centre for Photography Sydney
1988
Interventions The Performance Space Sydney
1988
The Thousand Mile Stare Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Melbourne
Shades of Light: Photography and Australia 19839-1988 National Gallery of Victoria
1987
Living in the 70s Australian Photographs National Gallery of Australia Canberra
1983
Continuum 83 Tokyo Art Gallery Tokyo Japan
A Decade of Australian Photography 1972-1982 Australian National Gallery Canberra
1982
Time Series II Vision in Disbelief Biennale of Sydney
1981
George Paton Gallery Melbourne
1980
Self Portrait Self Image Victorian College of the Arts Gallery Melbourne
1977
Adelaide Arts Festival South Australia
1976
Modern Australian Photographs National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne
1975
Three Photographers Abraxas Gallery Canberra
Jam Factory Adelaide
Australian Centre for Photography Sydney
1974
Time Series I Abraxas Gallery Canberra
My Faces George Paton Gallery Melbourne
Boyfriends Prahran Gallery Melbourne
Time Series I Australian Centre for Photography Sydney
1964
Museum of Modern Art Melbourne
AWARDS AND COMMISSIONS
2008
City of Port Phillip Commission
2004/6
Australia Council Fellowship
2002
Melbourne City Council Grant - Continuum large-scale digital prints
2002
Arts Victoria Grant - Continuum a new series of large-scale digital prints
2002
Multimedia Artists Profile on touchscreens The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2000/3
Australian Centre for the Moving Image Commission curated by Ross Gibson for Remembrance
Mind of Tibet - multiscreen video installation in collaboration with Geshe Sonam Thargye
2000/3
Faces 1976-1996- multiscreen video installation Australian Centre for the Moving Image
1999
Somewhere in France 1917- 34 offset prints published in a Limited Edition of 500
for the Third Clemenger Art Award in association with the NGV and MoMA at Heidi
1999
Australian Council of the Arts- Residency Bessozo Italy
1997
Best Film St. Kilda Film Festival
1997
Best Short Film ATOM Awards
1997
Best Australian Film Erwin Rado Award Melbourne International Film Festival
1997
AFI Nomination Faces 1976-1996
1996
Australian Film Commission Film production Faces 1976-1996
1992
Victorian Arts Board Development Grant
1987
Victorian Council of the Arts Fellowship in Photography
1987
A Sixtieth of a Second published by Experimental Art Foundation South Australia
1982
Visual Arts Board (Australia Council) Development Grant
1975
Australian Film Commission Film production Time Changes
1973/4
llford Scholarship for Post-graduate Study Victorian College of the Arts
1970
Australian Film Institute Film production Woman in a House
COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of South Australia
State Library of Victoria
State Library of New South Wales
National Library Canberra
Aborigines Advancement League Northcote
City of Port Philip
Art Bank
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
City of Melbourne
Waverley City Collection
Private collections
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2012
Helen Ennis Unsettling, conferance paper, University of Longborough, UK
2012
Virginia Fraser Time Out-A Different Temporality, MUMA, Art Monthly, 247 March 2012
2011
Judy Annear Why photograph people? Artlink Vol. 31 No. 3, pp36-38
2011
Sue Ford Self-portrait with camera (1960-2006) Monash Gallery of Art Melbourne
2011
Helen Ennis Sue Ford's History Art Journal of the National Gallery of Australia 50
2011
Gael Newton Shadow Play Artonview National Gallery of Australia Autumn 2011/65
2011
Anne Ferran Faces Catalogue essay A Different Temporality MUMA pp46-53
2010
Anne Marsh Look Contemporary Australian Photography since 1980 Melbourne
2007
Judy Annear (editor) Photography Art Gallery of NSW Collection pp 193, 205, 241, 257
2004
Zara Stanhope What’s Mine is Yours Feature Article Artlink Magazine, Vol 24 no. 3
2003
Ross Gibson Remembrance and the Moving Image Catalogue Essay ACMI Melbourne
2003
Isobel Crombie and Susan Van Wyke Second Sight Catalogue Essay The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2002
Kate Rhodes Fieldwork Catalogue Essay The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2002
Susan Van Wyke multi media touch screen text The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
2001
World Without End: Photography and the Twentieth Century Catalogue Art Gallery of New South Wales
2000
Judy Annear World Without End Photography and the Twentieth Century Art Gallery of New South Wales
Kurt Brereton Photo-Discourse essay in What is this thing called Photography 1975-1985 (J.Annear & E.Macdonald eds.)
1999
Isobel Crombie Somewhere in France 1917 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award Museum of Modern Art at Heide
1997
Jenepher Duncan Screen Catalogue Monash University Gallery Melbourne
1996
Zara Stanhope Recovering Lost Ground Catalogue Colonial Post-Colonial Museum of Modern Art at Heide
1996
Donald Williams & Colin Simpson Art Now Contemporary Art Post 1970 Book Two McGraw-Hill
1995
Helen Ennis Past/Present Catalogue - Sue Ford A Survey 1960-1995 Monash University Gallery Melbourne
1995
Virginia Fraser Collaborations at the Borderline Catalogue - Sue Ford A Survey 1960-1995 Monash University Gallery Melbourne
1995
Gael Newton The Movement of Women Art & Australia Spring 1995
1994
Catriona Moore Twenty Years of Australian Feminist Photography Allen & Unwin Sydney
1992
George Alexander Glitches or Falling off the Face of the Earth
Ewen McDonald and Juliana Engberg (eds.) Binocular: Focusing Time Moet & Chandon Contemporary Edition
1992
Anne Marsh Myths and Narratives Art Monthly March
1990
Janine Burke Field of Vision Penguin Books
1988
Gael Newton Shades of Light Australian National Gallery Canberra
1980
Jenepher Duncan (ed.) Women and Art: Into the Eighties Monash University Melbourne
1978
Geoffrey De Groen Conversations with Australian Artists
1965
Fire and Clay: The Craft of Peter and Helen Laycock (Photographs) Melbourne