Powerhouse acquires photography archive worth $1.6 million

Posted On October 25th, 2022

The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) in NSW has been in hibernation since 16 December 2020 following a decision to ‘stem the risk of ongoing financial losses and protect the capital in an investment fund it considers vital to its long-term viability’.

Throughout 2021, the ACP held extensive consultations with the community to assist the Board in identifying future pathways and use of the ACP Fund.

Today, that future has been delivered by Powerhouse, which announced the acquisition of the archive and fund of ACP. Valued at approximately $1.6 million, the archive and fund will take on a new name, Powerhouse Photography.

Powerhouse Chief Executive Lisa Havilah said: ‘This transformational acquisition will enrich the diversity of the Powerhouse collection and invest into Australian photography. For nearly 50 years, ACP has cemented the importance of photography in contemporary culture by championing a diverse range of artists.’

Central to Powerhouse Photography is the establishment of the Powerhouse Photography Advisory Group, comprising photographers, and industry and community representatives.

Co-chaired by photographer and University of Technology Sydney Associate Professor, Cherine Fahd and Powerhouse Senior Curator Sarah Rees, the panel includes photographer, filmmaker and ACP Board member Merilyn Fairskye; Friends of ACP member Lisa Moore; photographers Garry Trinh, Hugh Stewart, Meng-Yu Yan and Tom Blachford; Powerhouse Director First Nations Emily McDaniel; Powerhouse Head of Curatorial Jacqui Strecker and Powerhouse Artistic Associate Zan Wimberley.

From the series Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge by Henri Mallard (print by David Moore), 1924-1932. Courtesy of the Australian Centre for Photography.

Powerhouse will work to digitise the ACP archive and make it available to the public for the first time. It will also expand upon Powerhouse’s existing photography collection to develop an Australian Photography Archive.

Fahd added: ‘Today everyone’s a photographer. Making, sharing and looking at photographic images is something we all do. Photography’s pervasiveness across all aspects of human experience means we can take this powerful technology for granted; it is everywhere and nowhere, so ubiquitous as to be invisible.

‘The Powerhouse Photography initiative declares photography’s cultural value at the precise moment we may have forgotten its significance in art and design, through to science, medicine, law, communication and commerce. This critical and timely initiative offers a renewed focus on photography as a social and creative practice with a significant history and an even more vital future,’ concluded Fahd.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of ACP in 2024, Powerhouse will collaborate with the newly established Photography Advisory Group to deliver a curated digital program and a major publication on Australian photography via Powerhouse Publishing.

The Powerhouse Photography annual program will include a photography research fellowship, tertiary internship program, contemporary photography acquisition program and industry day.

Original Post: Powerhouse acquires photography archive worth $1.6 million