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WOPOP: Working Papers on Photography

WOPOP: Working Papers on Photography[1] was a short-lived non-profit academic photography journal irregularly published in nine issues between 1978 and 1983, which developed from a 1977 conference in Sydney and incorporated the proceedings of a later conference in Melbourne. It contributed research to the emerging field of photography history and historiography in Australia and exposed readers to significant international experts in the field.[2]

Background

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In September/October 1977, amidst increasing interest in the medium and establishment of public collections, and the opening of an Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) by Margaret Whitlam in November 1974, Wayne Hooper of Sydney University convened a conference 'Photography in Australia', on photography as an art form and communication medium, at the Department of adult education at his University.[3][4]

The conference was attended by 150 photographers, teachers, curators, librarians and students, many from interstate and each paying A$35 and travel and accommodation fees (a value of A$200 in 2021). From amongst the attendees Hooper set up a national committee of members interested in the history of the medium.[5][6] At the 1978 annual general meeting of the ACP Hooper raised objection to the centre's lack of initiative in supporting such conferences and, as reported by Anne-Marie Willis in the Nation Review,[7] bemoaned its Sydney-centrism.

Establishment

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In December 1977, the Sydney conference delegates joined Euan McGillivray and Matthew Nickson in proposing, and then establishing, a journal WOPOP: Working Papers on Photography.[8] From a terrace house at 20 Wellington Street, Richmond, in Melbourne, McGillivray and Nickson edited and irregularly published nine numbers of the staple-bound journal between 1978 and 1983.[9][10]

In 1980, when McGillivray was employed as curator at the Science Museum,[11] they published proceedings[12] of a follow-up Australian Photography Conference convened by the journal over September 19–21, 1980 at Prahran College where the pair had studied under Athol Shmith and John Cato. Presentations included a report by cultural historian Anne-Marie Willis on her research into nineteenth-century photography supported by the Australian Gallery Directors Council; 'Mods and Docos' by Helen Grace, Charles Merewether, Toni Schofield and Terry Smith; and international papers including Allan Sekula's 'The Frame in Photography'; and British art historian Kenneth Coutts-Smith's paper on German poster artist Klaus Stack, with an exhibition of Stack's work relating to the style of John Heartfield.[13] Other speakers were Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of NSW Gael Newton, Foundation Chairman of Standards Australiaʼs Committee on Signs and Symbols David Sless, photography lecturer John Cato, Macleay Museum curator Allan Davies and art historian Shar Jones.[10]

WOPOP joined contemporaries amongst 'serious' art journals; Art & Text, Artlink, Art Network, Lip, Photofile and Praxis.[14]

Ethos

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WOPOP adopted a Marxist perspective, proclaiming that it would "consider photography as a medium of communication as well as an art form," with a  "focus...on the social usage of photography as on the images themselves," by "drawing on sociology, history, literature, politics, aesthetics, anthropology and linguistics."[5][15][12]

Contents

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Amongst its contents the journal published criticism, theory, historical and technical articles, on conservation and preservation, picture collection and communication, reported on research in progress, and listed the grants for photographic research, practice and display available from the Australia Council.[16] When local content was not available it reprinted essays from international commentators including A. D. Coleman, and J.C. Sherer and, as Print Letter reported in 1978,

"articles by John Berger and Artforum's Alan Sekula, with a liberal dollop of Kozloff (or, if you prefer, a dollop of liberal Kozloff) thrown in for good measure."[17]

The contents of WOPOP Issue No.1 of 1978 included an editorial by Euan McGillivray and Matthew Nickson, and articles; "John Heartfield" by Matthew Nickson; "Futurology & Photography" by Graeme Johanson (Latrobe Library, State Library of Victoria); "LaTrobe Library Picture Collection" by Jenny Carew (acting Picture Librarian, Latrobe Library, State Library of Victoria); "Sontag on Photography" by Ann-Marie Willis;[18] "Silver" by Matthew Nickson; "A Constitution Lost" by Ann-Marie Willis; "Australian Women Photographers" by Jenni Mather.[19]

Issue No.5 December 1979 is headed by McGillivray and Nickson's editorial, and includes articles '...A Not So New Non Silver Process' by 'the Editors'; 'China Cheesecake'; 'On the Subject of John Szarkowski' by A.D. Coleman; 'Pictures, Words and History' by Jozef Gross; 'Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing Documentary (Notes on the Politics of representation)' by Allan Sekula; and Ian Cosier 'An Australian Photographic Data Base: A Research Resource'.[20]

In issue 7 McGillivray reported on research into the collection of Richard Daintree negatives at the Science Museum of Victoria[21]

Issue No.8 included Johansen's investigation of German photographer of Australian indigenous people, J. W. Lindt.[22][23][24][25]

Issue No.9 contained, amongst other articles, Nick Lottkowitz, 'Conservation and restoration, some chemical thoughts.'[26]

Cessation

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Finding suitable content for the journal required considerable and far-reaching research, and led to new interests for the editors; on reading Carroll Hart's 'The New Documentation: Oral History and Photography',[27] Nickson, who with McGillivray was then becoming interested in the planning and execution of historical photograph preservation, wrote to the author on January 1, 1983, about her involvement in the project.[28][29] In issue 9, of July 1983, Sherry Konter's 'Final Report' on the Vanishing Georgia Project was printed beside the editors' proposal for the Australian Bicentenary; 'Australia as Australians Saw It. A Comprehensive Pictorial Record of our Heritage: 1839–1939'; and their 'Position Paper— February 1983'.

Australian National Library bibliographer Victor Crittenden hailed the latter project as "most important," an;

...endeavour to create a comprehensive national index of photographic images. Entitled for the present 'Australia as Australians saw it', this project is to canvass the public to arouse awareness of the importance of photographs of the past; to invite the public to submit photographs and to allow them to be copied, and to provide a subject approach to the photographs, with appropriate cross-references, by means of a computer-based indexing program.[30]

Their idea was mercilessly critiqued by Tim Robinson of the Council of the City of Sydney Archives for the ambitious scale of a project that would digitise 500,000 images and computerise their cataloguing, storage and retrieval;

It is obvious from the submission and the position paper that WOPOP has not the slightest conception of the logistics of copying such a number of photographs, let alone documenting them and 'fully' indexing them. Even with the computer programme they describe, and there is no evidence that it has been tested in any way, the entire project would be of vast proportions with no guarantee of success. The money would surely be better spent on collections already held and in need of attention.[31]

WOPOP ceased publication that year with issue 9[9] when McGillivray and Nickson moved on to inaugurate the Museum of Victoria's Outreach Project in 1985 to realise their ambition, expressed in that last issue, to compile a national archive of Australian documentary, vernacular and historically significant photographs up to 1939, the centenary of the Daguerreotype. To do so, the pair issued a call for Australians: "to sit down with your family, look through your collection of photographs and select those which you and your family think should be included in the heritage of Australia," requesting specifically photographs of "members of your family at work, play, or engaged in leisure time activities...".[32][33]

Legacy

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Several Australian contributors to WOPOP: Working Papers on Photography, especially Ann-Marie Willis[18] who provided several of its articles, Jenni Mather[19] and Graeme Johanson[34] went on to publish books of substantial photo-historical research, and Jenny Carew's articles for other journals treated historical subjects.[35][36]

References

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  1. ^ Alkire, L. G., & Westerman-Alkire, C. (2006). Periodical title abbreviations: Covering periodical title abbreviations, database abbreviations, and selected monograph abbreviations in science, the social sciences, the humanities, law, medicine, religion, library science, engineering, education, business, art, and many other fields. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thompson/Gale.
  2. ^ Media Information Australia, Australian film and Television School, 1976-1995, 1982, ISSN 0312-9616
  3. ^ Ely, D. (1999). The Australian centre for photography. History of photography, 23(2), 118-122.
  4. ^ Hammerstingl, Werner. "Milestones". olinda.com. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  5. ^ a b Wayne Hooper, "Some Thoughts on What We Are on about and How We Might Go about It," unpublished manuscript [ early 1978 ], [p. 1 ].
  6. ^ Catherine De Lorenzo, 'Agency and Authorship in Australian Photo Histories', in Sheehan, Tanya (2 December 2014), Photography, history, difference, Hanover, New Hampshire Dartmouth College Press (published 2015), ISBN 978-1-61168-647-0
  7. ^ Anne-Marie Willis, "A constitution lost", Nation Review, 11–17 May 1978
  8. ^ Ennis, Helen (2007), Photography and Australia, Reaktion Books, ISBN 978-1-86189-323-9
  9. ^ a b Cooper, Jonathan; Alexander, George; Teffer, Nicola; Art Gallery of New South Wales (2000). World without end : photography and the 20th century. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales. p. 141. OCLC 223120248.
  10. ^ a b "Programme - 'Working Papers On Photography', Australian Photography Conference, Prahran, circa 1980". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  11. ^ McGillivray, Euan (March 1981), "Richard Daintree negatives at Science Museum of Victoria: report on research", WOPOP: Working Papers on Photography (7): 11–14, retrieved 27 February 2020
  12. ^ a b Australian Journal of Political Science (formerly known as Politics 1966 - 1989), Volume 16, Issue 1, 1981, p.181
  13. ^ Palmer, Daniel; Jolly, Martyn (2021). Installation view : photography exhibitions in Australia (1848-2020) (First edition of 1000 ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Perimeter Editions. pp. 247–8, 261 n.5. ISBN 9781922545008. OCLC 1262773212.
  14. ^ National Gallery of Australia, Australian photography : the 1980's, retrieved 27 February 2020
  15. ^ Kurt Brereton, 'Photo Discourse: Critical Theory and Practice in Australia,' in McDonald, Ewen; Annear, Judy; Art Gallery of New South Wales; University of Technology, Sydney. Transforming Cultures Research Group (2000), What is this thing called photography? : Australian photography 1975-1985, Pluto Press, ISBN 978-1-86403-161-4
  16. ^ Ingeborg Tyssen, 'Somebody has to make something happen sometime: between theory and practice lies the shadow,' in McDonald, Ewen; Annear, Judy; Art Gallery of New South Wales; University of Technology, Sydney. Transforming Cultures Research Group (2000), What is this thing called photography? : Australian photography 1975-1985, Pluto Press, p. 58, ISBN 978-1-86403-161-4
  17. ^ Print letter, M. Misani, 1978
  18. ^ a b Willis, Anne-Marie (1988), Picturing Australia : a history of photography, Angus & Robertson, ISBN 978-0-207-15599-4
  19. ^ a b Mather, Jenni; Hall, Barbara; Australian Galleries Directors' Council, (sponsoring body); Australian Centre for Photography, (sponsoring body); Australia Council. Visual Arts Board, (sponsoring body) (1981). Australian women photographers, 1890–1950 (2nd ed.). Parkville, Melbourne: George Paton Gallery. ISBN 978-0-9597254-7-6.
  20. ^ Cosier, Ian (1977), "An Australian photographic data base: a research resource", Australian Photography Conference (1977: University of Sydney): 20–23, retrieved 25 February 2020
  21. ^ Davies, Alan; Stanbury, Peter; Tanre, Con (1985), The mechanical eye in Australia : photography 1841-1900, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-554604-0
  22. ^ Johanson, Graeme (1981), "J. W. Lindt (1845–1926)", WOPOP: Working Papers on Photography (8): 19–20, retrieved 25 February 2020
  23. ^ Jane Lydon. (2016) Transmuting Australian Aboriginal photographs. World Art 6:1, pages 45-60.
  24. ^ Catherine de Lorenzo, Deborah van der Plaat. (2006) Southern Geographies and the Domestication of Science in the Photography of J.W. Lindt. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art 7:1, pages 143-166.
  25. ^ Moffatt, Tracey; Reinhardt, Brigitte; Ulmer Museum (1999), Tracey Moffatt : laudanum, Hatje Cantz, ISBN 978-3-7757-0874-6
  26. ^ Lottkowitz, N. Conservation and restoration, some chemical thoughts. WOPOP/Working Papers on Photography, 9(9), 61-63.
  27. ^ Hart, Carroll, 'The New Documentation: Oral History and Photography,' in Drexel Library Quarterly 15. no. 4, October 1979, 5–11
  28. ^ Matthew Nickson to Carroll Hart, letter, January 15, 1983, RG 4-1-20-Box 125, Georgia Archives.
  29. ^ Frazier, R. K., Garrison, E., Jakeman, R. J., & Grimsley, R. (2010). Vanishing Georgia Photographic Collection: The discovery of Georgia's historical photographs and the expansion of public access.
  30. ^ Crittenden, Victor (1897). "Chapter 6 : Pictorial Sources and Galleries". Australians : a historical library (2nd ed.). Broadway, N.S.W.: Fairfax, Syme & Weldon. p. 60. ISBN 978-0949288097. OCLC 715660963.
  31. ^ Robinson, T., (1984). WPOP: Working papers on photography reviewed by Tim Robinson pp. 177–179 in Archives & Manuscripts [1955–2011], 177–190.
  32. ^ Bate, Weston; McGillivray, Euan; Nickson, Matthew (1986), Private lives – public heritage : family snapshots as history, Hutchinson Australia
  33. ^ BorchardtD H (1987), Australians : a guide to sources, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, ISBN 978-0949288257
  34. ^ Johanson, Graeme (1974), Victoria through the lens : an exhibition of early photographs in the La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria, retrieved 25 February 2020
  35. ^ Carew, Jenny (1981), "Photographs and history", Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine (56): 17–21, ISSN 0312-2654
  36. ^ Carew, Jenny (1999), "Richard Daintree: photographs as history", History of Photography, 23 (2): 157–162, doi:10.1080/03087298.1999.10443816, ISSN 0308-7298

Further reading

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