Michael Riley's portrait of Hetti Perkins, now a celebrated curator and ambassador for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and artists, was originally exhibited in his first solo exhibition, Portraits by a Window, in 1990. Riley reflected on the portrait: 'Hetti is a good friend of mine, not a model and has beautiful cheekbones, beautiful face and shoulders … I didn't do much setting up … Very glamorous, just the way she is.' Then aged 25, Perkins remembers that 'Michael offered very few cues as to what he expected … but Michael's style of taking portraits was to bring all the ingredients together and then let events take their natural course, while he would appear just to sit back and observe.' Now part of the series Michael Riley Portraits 1984–1990, the sophisticated image of Hetti and fourteen other photographs stand as an intricately connected group portrait of the vibrant urban-based Aboriginal arts community in Sydney's inner-west at a formative moment. They may have gone on to become some of Australia's most influential arts practitioners, but to Riley, they were simply his close friends.
Purchased 2013
© Michael Riley/Copyright Agency, 2024
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Joanna Gilmour reflects on 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.
Linda Burney, Brenda Croft and Darrell Sibosado share memories of Michael Riley and his photographic practice.
