All rights reserved. Dated l.l. Hallmark Cards Australian Photography Collection Fund 1990, © Anne Zahalka.

I’ve come full circle, except that now I’m doing it digitally. The photograph is a record of these and is inherently nostalgic because of this. What does that look like, where are we headed?

ANNE ZAHALKA: The beach is such a loaded place in the Australian psyche and so defining of who we are—or think we are. Not only do they occupy a space reserved for these revered characters, they, in fact, replace them. It’s fascinating to note the contrasts between our past and present in such a direct way; it says so much about where we’ve come from, and perhaps opens up the conversation of where we’re going.

They record our parents and parents’ parents—the way they walked, the parcels they carried and the clothes they wore. How has your own heritage informed your work?

verso frame, ink "A Zahalka". When I take in her vast portfolio I can’t help but feel nostalgic and forward-looking all at once; her art provokes both a sense of yearning for what was while deeply rooting us in what is. The project looked at Bondi’s status as a significant cultural site and questioned the dominant representations that mythologise and embody it.’ Anne Zahalka 1995 1, Anne Zahalka, in her tableaux, forces the viewer to question what is being looked at. & Williamson, C. 1996, ‘The power to move: aspects of Australian photography’, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane p 322. As I reflect on my work, I notice that what has been recorded over the years are subtle changes to the way we live, the way we appear. After more than 30 years on the contemporary art stage, Anne’s work has cemented its place in art history, becoming an important part of the Australian cultural landscape she’s explored throughout her career. Art Gallery Rd, The Domain 2000Sydney, AustraliaInfo line 1800 679 278, See opening hours and admission verso frame,ink "...1989". I think photography is always about loss. It has given me an understanding of the difficulties faced by new migrants and refugees and how hostile their reception here—by some—has become. This puts considerable burden on those stepping into the place of these historic images and to perform there publicly.


I’m currently working on a project that retrieves “street photographs” taken of passers-by in the city, in country towns or at the beach from the 1930s. Now she brings her creative vision to Sydney Living Museums’ new exhibition Street Photography. There’s been an amazing response through a call-out and I hope to bring these photographs from private and personal albums out into the public domain. She graduated MFA from the University of NSW in 1994. I think it’s wonderful to leave a legacy and to feel I’ve made a contribution to the cultural landscape. Through my research into local and state library photographic archives, the surf lifesaving clubs and art galleries, I became fascinated with the way in which Australia had been represented through this place and how these images had come to define us. Anne Zahalka Saturday 5:18 pm 1995, printed 1997 397.2011.3. The New Bathers, 2013, Type C photograph, 90cm x 74cm, Image courtesy of Anne Zahalka and ARC ONE Gallery. "I’ve always loved the way photography can condense the world into a single frame so seamlessly and faithfully, recording its minutiae." I’m a first generation Australian and the child of migrants, so I have identified with people whose backgrounds are also different. ANNE ZAHALKA is one of Australia's most respected photographic artists. Anne Zahalka The girls #2, Cronulla beach 2007 398.2011.

But I’m constantly looking at images from the past and always interested in how we see ourselves through this lens today and the differences that exist between the two. The sunbather #2, Contemporary Colour Photographs from the Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Jul 1991–22 Sep 1991, Critic's Choice, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Apr 1994–10 Jul 1994, Points of view: Australian photography 1985-95, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Nov 2005–29 Jan 2006, Anne Zahalka, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 14 Mar 2007–02 May 2007, Judy Annear, Points of view: Australian photography 1985-95, Sydney, 2005. no catalogue numbers. In some way my works attempt to understand the past through the present.

Robert McFarlane, Critic's Choice, Sydney, 1994. no catalogue numbers. We are observing strict physical distancing and hygiene measures to protect the health of visitors and staff and minimise the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus).

My interest in the beach as a mythologised site stems from an early residency at Bondi Pavilion in 1989, the suburb in which I lived at that time. Australians who know art know Anne Zahalka, our feature artist for issue 48. The work of Anne Zahalka, one of Australia’s most highly regarded photo-media artists, often explores and deconstructs familiar images to tell alternative narratives. Having my work studied and written within secondary and tertiary institutions and seeing my work hang in major collections beside great artists is very gratifying.

It’s a site that has been endlessly represented throughout our history and has been imbued with symbolic meaning for the nation. In her series ‘Bondi: playground of the Pacific’ Zahalka uses a painted background of a beach, against which she places and plays with the icons of Australian beach culture: the surfers are Japanese; Max Dupain’s sunbather becomes a pale skinny redhead; and the modern ‘bathing beauty’ reclining on the sand is reading Marcel Proust, ‘immersed in a completely different place to the one where she lies’. Having only recently read polls that suggest 49 percent of Australians don’t want Muslims migrating here is disturbing. Is this something you do consciously?

When I think about how you’ve chosen to pay close attention to the small rituals in every day life, as in your 1996 series Open House, or the homes of artists and collectors that are no longer living in The Appearance of Things in 2010, there seems to be a sense of nostalgia in all of that. Has this changed over time?

I feel very concerned by this and the difficulty and hostility it presents for Muslims living here. But so much rests on what is presented here. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Anne Zahalka verso frame, ink "...1990" and l.r. 2, Anne Zahalka was educated in Sydney at East Sydney Technical College and Sydney College of the Arts. The exhibition, ‘Citizens of our Cities’ will be at the Museum of Sydney in Spring 2018.]. Where my work references history and the past, then it is about the distance that separates us from those depicted. My mother was persecuted as a Jew and had to flee her country of birth and found acceptance and peace here. So sometimes I try to make my photos move or introduce sound in order to layer the image. I love that!

She was born to a Jewish Austrian mother and Catholic Czech father. ‘I am primarily concerned with … representations to do with place, identity and culture. Signed l.r. I feel a responsibility to give voice to these groups and individuals, and to present them through familiar and powerful images of the past.

Dumbo Feather is a magazine about these people. What was the inspiration for this exhibition? Realism can be a burden because of what it reveals, and sometimes I want to escape from the veracity of the photographic image and incorporate other materials and ways of working. It was the setting for race riots and cultural conflict over 10 years ago now, while it is also where cultural diversity and difference can be expressed in a very egalitarian way. Lost moments, lost events, lost people, lost things. Ten thousand photographs were purchased around the country every week!