“Strike a Pose”
National Archive of Australia, Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes.
Until October 12.
Reviewed by Garry Raffaele

WE are, I hope you understand, in the middle of a photographic frenzy in Canberra.
The Vivid National Photography Festival is well underway and, up until October 12, this town is hosting more than 100 exhibitions. The website is a help in keeping touch with what’s on when – http://www.nla.gov.au/vivid.
The National Archive is now housed in what used be the Parliament House (the old one) Post Office.  It is one of my favourite places to see photos. The galleries are clean and open, the general selection of exhibitions thoughtful.
“Strike a Pose” is a challenging exhibition in that it has been curated by an SBS newsreader moonlighting as a fashionista. Lee Lin Chin has selected photos for “Strike a Pose”, not on any photographic basis but to record the history of Australian fashion in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
But, seen in another light, “Pose” is like many other photo shows – indeed many in the vast Vivid collection.
It attempts to define a period in history; a period of changing social and political practices that she suggests led to changes in fashion. I’d argue that, in some cases, the reverse was true – consider English model Jean Shrimpton’s showing of the miniskirt in Melbourne and its cultural consequences.
The “Pose” pictures are drawn from various sources – advertising, government photographers, news snappers.
The stronger images come from advertising, for instance, from the House of Osti in 1975, a very formal shot of models in granny dresses. The colour is strong, the design imaginative.
A set of four pix from what must have been the shoot from hell – Central Australian Fashion safaris – stand out. The photos rely much on the landscapes, but stand up in their own right because of the skill of the picture maker.
Even the “Woman’s Day” contribution imparts great elegance to a set of four frames with a consistency of style.
But, judging this set of many images on photo criteria entirely would be a mistake.
If you lived through the period (as I did) or if fashion is your bent, you’ll quickly understand that the curator has adopted an historical perspective.
The exhibition reflects the fashion changes faithfully, from the boring formality of an early ‘60s Melbourne race crowd to the emerging value of people such as Prue Acton. Australia, to use one of the great clichés, was on the move. And Chin’s large collection of images shows that to a great degree.