E-Photo
Issue #208  10/20/2014
 
Passing of Photography Baton at National Gallery of Australia
Gael Newton and Dr Shaune Lakin
Gael Newton and Dr Shaune Lakin

Dr Shaune Lakin, director of Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne has been appointed as senior curator, photography, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, succeeding Gael Newton who has retired after 29 years in various roles at the NGA, to concentrate on writing and other Asia-Pacific projects, http://www.photo-web.com.au/gael/default.htm.

Prior to becoming director of the Monash Gallery of Art, a regional gallery branded under Lakin's guidance as "The home of Australian Photography", Lakin was senior curator of photographs at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, where he worked on many exhibitions, and the major show and book "Contact: Photographs from the Australian War Memorial Collection" (2006), the first history of Australian war photography.

Before his appointment with the Australian War Memorial, Dr Lakin was curator of international painting and sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia. Dr Lakin's doctoral thesis (the University of Melbourne) examined the American photographic book; he also taught art history and theory at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Lakin and Newton will be attending the Oracle photocurators meeting in Vienna in November this year.

The National Gallery of Australia's Director, Ron Radford also retires this month. Under his direction Newton worked from 2006 on building the Gallery's now 10,000 strong survey collection of the history of Asia-Pacific photography, and mounted two shows
Picture Paradise: Asia-Pacific Photography 1840s-1940s, which can be seen at http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/PictureParadise/; and Garden of the East: Photography in Indonesia 1850s- 1940s at http://www.nga.gov.au/gardeneast.