Shooters

Title of Work: Shooters' (Exhibition Curatorial text) Reference: Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga, live exhibition November-December 2005. Research Background The Shooters exhibition was the first public exhibition of the photographic works of Daily Advertiser Photojournalists, Brett Koschel, Kerrie Stewart, Leanne Santoro and Les Smith. The exhibition at the Museum of the Riverina consisted of images arranged in monthly themes that created a photographic portrait of the preceding twelve months in Wagga Wagga. The images were accompanied by labels that encapsulated the media topic and provided the date and photographer. An introductory panel explained the photographic vision of each of the journalists.Research Contribution Jen Thompson prepared the textual material for the exhibition and curated the hanging of the images. This required digitally recorded one hour interviews with each of the photographers, research into the press articles and media events of the year, identification of photographic models and subjects. The material collected was then written into the panel and labels, edited and published. Publication of the text required the researcher to select and oversee the production of laminates and poster materials.Research SignificanceThe Shooters Exhibition proved to be a very successful local event attracting hundreds of visitors. It was the first time the work of the photojournalists had been recognised and it allowed the community to reflect upon the news stories of the previous twelve months. The artistic development of country news photographers has not been documented in this type of a public exhibition before, and the Daily Advertiser was at that time an independently owned newspaper. The stories of these photographers document a social history, not only of the subjects they photographed, but also of the photographers that work in regional and rural communities to capture the news. The research was part of a suite of photographicexhibitions hosted and sometimes developed by the Museum of the Riverina: the Bridges (2002) photographic exhibition juxtaposed the national tour photographs of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with elderly Riverina resident, Henry Mallard's photographs which chronicled the same event; the ABC Snapshot (2004) exhibition, which toured Australia, included a number of Wagga Wagga amateur photographers; the Not Just Black and White (2008) exhibition revealed the life in pictures of the renowned Daily Advertiser photographer, Tom Lennon. As part of her ongoing connection with the Museum of the Riverina, the researcher, Jen Thompson, also advised on and edited the introductory panel for the Thirteen Faces of Edel Quin (2009) exhibition.