Robert Ashton (photographer)

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Robert Ashton (1950) is an Australian photographer and photojournalist.

Contents

Early life and education

Robert Ashton was born on August 11, 1950, in Melbourne. He studied Photography at Prahran College 1969-71 and graduated with a Diploma of Visual Arts and Design.

Career

In the early 1970s, Robert Ashton shared house with Carol Jerrems and Ian Macrae in Mozart Street, St Kilda, [1] their artist associates being Ingeborg Tyssen, Paul Cox and Bill Heimerman, and Ashton's cousin Rennie Ellis with whom he shared a studio [2] in Greville Street, Prahran. From 1974 to 1981, [3] Ashton was assistant director at Ellis's Brummels Gallery in Toorak Road, South Yarra, [4] [5] where he also exhibited. [6]

Photography curator Judy Annear notes that;

"Robert Ashton's work is typical of the highly personalised documentary photographs that began to emerge in the 1970s." [7]

His subject matter includes urban indigenous, life and incidents in inner suburbia in Melbourne, [8] particularly Fitzroy. [9] [10] Writer and musician Mark Gillespie, who had become involved in a new publishing venture, Outback Press, with Fred Milgrom Colin Talbot and Morry Schwartz, commissioned Ashton for the book Into the Hollow Mountain. Its images, [11] of "kids on the prowl, the old Salvo street bands, the Koorie clans, the card joint kaphenois", [12] were first shown at Brummels in a exhibition of that title in 1974, and when re-exhibited forty years later at Colour Factory, "serve as a rare documentation of day-to-day Melbourne and glimpse into an era that, while not actually all that distant, is most definitely a thing of the past." [13]

Ashton has published several other books, of portraits and close-up, abstracted landscape, and exhibited widely in Australia. His photograph Bernard Diving [14] featured in the 1988 exhibition, and on the cover its catalogue, The Thousand Mile Stare, a survey of Australian photography published by the Victorian Centre for Photography. [15]

In pursuing the best quality output for his imagery, Ashton adopted, and currently uses, hand-built large format cameras and advanced printing techniques including photogravure and the Collodion process. [16]

He lives on Victoria's Surf Coast, and imagery of the ocean and landscape is a consistent interest.

Exhibitions

Solo

Group

Collections

Publications

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References

  1. ↑ King, Natalie; Jerrems, Carol; Heide Museum of Modern Art (Bulleen, Vic.) (2010). Up close: Carol Jerrems with Larry Clark, Nan Goldin and William Yang. Melbourne: Heide Museum of Modern Art. ISBN   978-1-86395-501-0. OCLC   759868741.
  2. ↑ "Quiet cameraman won access to the heart of working-class enclave". 15 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Robert Ashton". www.mga.org.au. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  4. ↑ "Brummels". www.rennieellis.com.au. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  5. ↑ Ashton, R. (2004). Rennie Ellis, 1940-2003:[Obituary.]. Photofile, (70), 64.
  6. ↑ Creative Camera , February 1974, Coo Press, London, 321, 375.
  7. ↑ Art Gallery of New South Wales; Annear, Judy (2007), Photography : Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, ISBN   978-1-74174-006-6
  8. ↑ Smith, A. (2014). Photography: A portrait of Fitzroy in 1974. Arena Magazine (Fitzroy, Vic), (132), 50.
  9. ↑ Munro, Craig (ed); Sheahan-Bright, Robyn (ed); University of Queensland (2006), Paper empires : a history of the book in Australia 1946-2005, ISBN   978-0-7022-3559-7 {{citation}}: |author1= has generic name (help)
  10. 1 2 "Colour Factory Gallery Exhibitions - Australian Photography". www.australianphotography.com. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  11. ↑ "Robert Ashton: Into the hollow mountains, Fitzroy in 1974". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  12. ↑ PORTAL, ART NEWS. "Into the Hollow Mountains - A portrait of Fitzroy in 1974". www.artnewsportal.com. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  13. ↑ "Robert Ashton: Into the Hollow Mountains". Open Journal. 9 December 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  14. ↑ "Works | NGV | View Work".
  15. 1 2 Bennett, David; Agee, Joyce; Victorian Centre for Photography (1988), The thousand mile stare : a photographic exhibition, The Victorian Centre for Photography Inc, ISBN   978-0-7316-2054-8
  16. ↑ "Robert Ashton | Qdos Arts Digital Large Format Landscape Photographer". Qdos Arts. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  17. ↑ Ashton, Robert; Gillespie, Mark (1974), Into the hollow mountains, Outback Press, ISBN   978-0-86888-006-8
  18. ↑ Tony Perry, 'The big titles mystery,' The Age, Thursday 12 July 1979, p.2
  19. ↑ Listing, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, 18 Aug 1979, p.16
  20. ↑ "Robert Ashton" . Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  21. ↑ "Black Eye Gallery". blackeyegallery.com.au. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  22. ↑ "Thin Air by Robert Ashton - Capture magazine". www.capturemag.com.au. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  23. ↑ Calado, Jorge; Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon, Portugal); 100 Days Festival ((1998 : Lisbon, Portugal)) (1998), Waterproof : water in photography since 1852 ([Hardcover ed.] ed.), Edition Stemmle, ISBN   978-3-908161-26-4
  24. ↑ Monash Gallery of Art (2007), William and Winifred Bowness photography prize 2007, Monash Gallery of Art, retrieved 25 January 2020
  25. ↑ Hallmark Cards, Inc; Hallmark Photographic Collection; Hallmark Art Collection (2000), 2000 acquisitions : the Hallmark Art Collection, the Hallmark Photographic Collection, Hallmark Cards, Inc, retrieved 25 January 2020
  26. ↑ "Robert ASHTON | Artists | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  27. ↑ Peter Weiniger, Limelight The Age, Wednesday 31 August 1994, p.28
  28. ↑ irismagazine (14 May 2015). "Land Abound". Iris Magazine. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
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