"I don't like analysing photographs, I don't like analysing paintings. My whole attitude to life has been emotional and I depend on emotions to get my kicks. I always find myself resisting reading people's motivations for their work. It could so easily not be the truth. - Lewis Morley
The exhibition Lewis Morley is the first time the Gallery has focussed on Lewis' career. It covers his work from the 1940s until now and includes 150 of Morley's photographs covering fashion, theatre and reportage plus a large selection of contact sheets, magazines and ephemera. Many of these photographs have not been seen before said curator of the Lewis Morley exhibition, Judy Annear.
Lewis worked as a fashion photographer both in London and in Sydney and he used his interest in street photography to enliven his fashion work and portraiture. He worked for Tatler, London Life, Go! and She. Morley took the first fashion photographs of Twiggy and of Jean Shrimpton and in 1963 took that picture of Christine Keeler, which has become one of the most iconic images of the 20th century...
From Lewis' point of view, the fact that he was a self taught photographer was an asset. He could work out how to do things in efficient and interesting ways. In-between magazine work he continued to do his own work, having studied painting at art schools in England and Paris, whether with the camera or with objects...
Lewis who is 81 in June, continues to work steadily and his most recent photographs in the exhibition are from the last few years and include many location shots as well as portraits of British luminaries such as Beth Orton and Tracey Emin and Australia's Margaret Olley.
The catalogue accompanying the exhibition includes an interview with Lewis where he discusses his thoughts on Cartier-Bresson and Lartigue, theatre and photography of the late 1950s and 1960s, his Chinese heritage and its importance, his love/hate relationship with photography and the enduring power of the image."
7 July - 10 September 2006
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney, Australia
Admission $6 full price, $4 concession
W: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/coming/lewis_morley
