Tracey Moffatt AO (b. 1960) has built an international reputation with a body of films and photographic series reflecting on issues including race, childhood trauma, gender and popular culture. Born in Brisbane, she graduated from the Queensland College of Art in 1982. After moving to Sydney, Moffatt became widely known through her celebrated first solo exhibition, Something More (1989). In 1990 her short film Night Cries – A Rural Tragedy (1989) was selected for official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, as was her first feature-length film, Bedevil, in 1993. She was invited to exhibit in the Venice Biennale in 1997, and during that year held solo exhibitions in Germany, Denmark, France and the USA. Moffatt became the first Aboriginal artist to present a solo exhibition, My Horizon, at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.
Irish-born James Horan is an editorial and advertising photographer who settled permanently in Sydney in 2012. Horan photographed Moffatt at her temporary studio in the Old Governor's Cottage at Middle Head, Sydney, while she was preparing works for the Venice Biennale. The photograph was a finalist in the 2018 National Photographic Portrait Prize.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 Finalist
Gift of the artist 2019
© James Horan/Copyright Agency, 2024
James Horan (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
In her self-portrait, Tracey Moffatt presents herself as her work.
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.
