Prahran Legacy is a project celebrating the emergence of Australian photography as art on its own terms, in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, amongst the students of a small art and design college in Prahran, a suburb of Victoria’s capital city Melbourne in Australia. The blog is intended as a tribute to those who learnt and taught photography, cinematography and video at this unique institution.

Who we are:

This site ‘Prahran Legacy’ was initiated by James McArdle, who graduated in 1977 with a Diploma of Art and Design from Prahran College and Merle Hathaway, who coined the title, and who joins James in writing some of the posts here. ‘Prahran Legacy’ is relatively new, having been launched in December 2023. It concentrates on the alumni of Prahran and their distinguished and varied careers that represent developments in the medium since the 1970s, with an emphasis on its status as an art medium, and on artistry in its other uses.

James is known for OnThisDateInPhotography.com which he has been publishing since 2016 and which is devoted to discovery and representation of photography and photographers, ideas expressed in the medium or provoked by it, and exercises the notion that photography is about everything. Prahran Legacy may be considered an offshoot of the continuing OnThisDateInPhotography.com on which many of the Prahran Legacy posts appear repeated with additional context. In his doctorate James discovered technical and aesthetic means to represent the observer effect in environmental photography.

Merle Hathaway draws on many talents, and is an arts administrator, curator of photography, innovator of exhibitions and mentor to artists and the inheritors of their oeuvre. Merle has been an invaluable member of the team through contributions of her expertise and by bringing the project to the attention of stakeholders through her professional networks.

How we started:

We value and continue research started in 2012 by our colleagues, the alumni Jon Conte, Phil Quirk and Peter Leiss, later advised by Graham Howe. Through their investigations, and via a Facebook group, they make contact with increasing numbers of alumni (around one hundred of whom have joined us) and collect and painstakingly catalogue examples of their photography.

In an allied effort, since 2018, Peter Leiss has been producing a series of video interviews with past students to which links are provided within the relevant profiles and from which some material here has been drawn.

Achieving recognition:

A 2014 exhibition Prahran 40, devoted mostly to the 1974 cohort, was conceived by alumnus Colin Abbott and realised by Michael and Susanne Silver of MAGNET Galleries in their earlier-established Photonet Gallery in Fairfield.

Now we are proud to have had the historical importance and influence of Prahran College photography recognised by Senior Curator Angela Connor and Curator Stella Loftus-HIlls of the Museum of Australian Photography who are soon to exhibit the work of its alumni and their teachers, with an accompanying book of their images and essays by distinguished theorists and historians [further information here].

Generous contributors:

The format and scope of these posts varies with input from the subjects. We thank them for providing the low-resolution copies of their imagery used in illustration and their copyright is recognised. All have been generous in providing personal information. Some consent to have their careers discussed in the third person, while others have provided insightful first-person accounts, either undertaking to write them, or in interview with James or Merle acting as editors and commentators.

A Resource:

This is a work-in-progress and has the ambition to provide profiles of some 80 alumni who continued, and many who continue, practising photography, publishing, exhibiting and teaching. Prahran Legacy is intended as a resource for students, researchers and practitioners of photography..

In Memoriam:

With Prahran Legacy as a tribute to them, we lament the passing-away of numbers of our colleagues from the 1960s and 1970s, including lecturers Ian McKenzie, Gordon De’Lisle, John Cato, Paul Cox and Athol Shmith, and they are affectionately remembered here.