She died young, and that is the least important aspect of this Australian photographer’s art.
Carol Jerrems died young, aged 30, and that is the least important aspect of her art. The National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of her portrait photography is a revelation – of an age, of the foresight of the National Gallery of Australia in collecting her full archive, and of what can be achieved with a Pentax Spotmatic single reflex camera loaded with black-and-white film.
One of the joys of the exhibition is that it includes some of Jerrems’ early work made for assessment at Prahran College in Melbourne where she was taught by the film-maker Paul Cox. Three portfolios, each the final submission for that year’s course, show how her eye developed from her first series of captured images from the Melbourne Show, to her final year photo essay,A self-portrait taken in 1979, the year before she died aged 30 of a rare liver disease.
In 1971, Jennie Boddington, Australia’s first curator of photography, bought Jerrems’ student work for the National Gallery of Victoria and later curated her first solo exhibition. Jerrems returned the compliment, recording the curator as she scrutinises her subject, the photographer. The result is a masterful work, as the viewer shares the intense concentration of the curator’s gaze.celebrated the creativity of a generation who were changing Australia at a breakneck speed.
Jerrems was very much a part of the creative communities of both inner-city Melbourne and Sydney. They lived in shared houses in suburbs that were at the time regarded as slums, so rent was cheap. They were a rich mix of artists, actors, filmmakers and musicians, all of whom juggled freelance gig work on their way to fame – or oblivion. Jerrems became an active interpreter of her community’s lives and loves, including her own.
After Jerrems died, her mother made the wise decision to give her entire photographic archive to the National Gallery of Australia. Because Jerrems kept such meticulous records, visitors can see the difference between the many sheets of images taken and the final work selected. In the end, it is her judgment, as well as her art, that is deservedly celebrated.
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