In the 1980s Michael Riley photographed Kristina Nehm several times when she was a dancer with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in Glebe. This chic 1986 image of Nehm in sunglasses was used on the invitation card for the opening of the influential NADOC '86 Exhibition of Aboriginal and Islander Photographers at the Aboriginal Artists Gallery in Sydney. As Riley noted in Racism, representation and photography (Inner City Education Centre, 1989): 'I just want to show young Aboriginal people living in the cities today; a lot of them are very sophisticated and a lot of them are very glamorous. A lot of them have an air of sophistication which you don't see coming across in newspapers and television programs. I'm just talking about positive things really, positive images of Aboriginal people.' Nehm has appeared in numerous Australian films and television series including Bruce Beresford's The Fringe Dwellers (1986), The Flying Doctors (1989) and A Country Practice (1991). She was an assistant director on the mini-series Heartland (1994) and has worked as a producer for SBS.
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.
Linda Burney, Brenda Croft and Darrell Sibosado share memories of Michael Riley and his photographic practice.
Michael Riley’s early portraits by Amanda Rowell.
