Richard Morecroft (b. 1956), television presenter and radio announcer, migrated from England to Adelaide with his family at age ten. He studied English and drama at the University of Adelaide, where he worked at the university’s radio station. Before graduation, he landed a job as an announcer with the ABC. He presented ABC nightly television news bulletins in Adelaide, Canberra and Sydney and hosted educational and wildlife programs in an ABC career that would span more than 20 years. Since 2010 he has hosted Letters and Numbers for SBS Television. He is a long-time trustee of the World-wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a patron of WIRES (the Wildlife Information and Rescue Service), a governor of the Taronga Foundation and a director of the Zoological Parks Board of NSW. He is also an accomplished landscape photographer with work in the collection of Australian Parliament House. Morecroft’s partner Alison Mackay (b. 1966), artist, came to Australia from the UK in the early 1990s, settling in Sydney. She trained as a lawyer, but from 2002, following a riding accident, concentrated on painting. She has been a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award, the Black Swan Portrait Prize, the Perceval Portrait Prize, the Plein Air Painting Prize and, recently, the Archibald Prize – for a portrait of Gary Grealy.
Gary Grealy is one of Sydney’s most sought-after commercial and portrait photographers, with work commissioned by leading advertising agencies and major national and international clients. This photograph won the National Photographic Portrait Prize in 2017.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 Winner
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2018
© Gary Grealy
Gary Grealy (age 66 in 2016)
Richard Morecroft (age 60 in 2016)
Alison Mackay (age 50 in 2016)
Gary Grealy (4 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Featuring striking photographic portraits of contemporary figures from the National Portrait Gallery collection, The Look is an aesthetic treat with a lashing of je ne sais quoi.
The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
