Cathy Freeman OAM (b. 1973) was eight years old when she won her first race at a school athletics carnival in north Queensland. Aged sixteen, she was selected for the Australian women’s 4 x 100m relay team that took out the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, making her the first Aboriginal athlete to win a Commonwealth gold medal. She won two more gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Canada in 1994. The first Aboriginal track and field athlete to represent Australia at the Olympic Games, she won a silver medal in Atlanta in 1996. She was ranked first in the world in her signature event, the 400m, in which she won back-to-back World Championships in 1997 and 1999, and, memorably, the Olympic gold medal in front of her home crowd in Sydney in 2000. The Catherine (now Cathy) Freeman Foundation was established in 2007 to enhance educational opportunities for Aboriginal children.
This photograph was taken at the NSW Academy of Sport in December 1994. As Denis Montalbetti and Gay Campbell noted: 'It's irrelevant how many times a person has been photographed. Our aim is to create unique images of them, to be part of their testimony … a part of their photographic history.'
Gift of the artists 2003
© Montalbetti & Campbell
A photographic portrait of Cathy Freeman created by Montalbetti+Campbell in 1995.
The photograph shows only the face of Cathy and at 121.0 cm x 90.0 cm is roughly four times larger than life. Coloured in tones ranging from sepia to velvety black, her face is closely cropped to exclude her hair and much of her forehead.
Her strong, black, gently arched brows span the width of the image and a water droplet rests in the slight crease between them. Deeply set almond shaped eyes gaze directly forward with intense focus that commands attention. There are dark shadows in the inner corners of her eyes that extend underneath them and a short way down her nose. Cathy’s nose is narrow at the bridge but broadens towards the tip and another water droplet pools at the side of her left nostril.
Light shines on her left cheek making it lighter than her right. Her cheeks are slightly lifted. On the right side, the area between her nose and upper lip is in shadow.
Her full lips are framed by subtle creases on either side. She holds her mouth closed, a droplet gleams and drips from under her rounded chin, suspended in an extended tear shape. Behind it, a narrow band of her neck is visible, the rest disappearing into deep black.
Audio description written by Krysia Kitch and voiced by Emma Bedford
Montalbetti + Campbell (8 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Magda Keaney talks with Montalbetti+Campbell about their photographic portrait of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.
Eye to Eye is a summer Portrait Gallery Collection remix arranged by degree of eye contact – from turned away with eyes closed all the way through to right-back-at-you – as we explore artists’ and subjects’ choices around the direction of the gaze.
