Public Curators Building
First Floor

A focus of the Gallery’s Collection of photographs are images capturing the people and places of the region, offering a unique cultural and social perspective on the way we experience individual and collective identity.

The artists represented in Captured are from different cultures and periods of time and, together use the power of photography to tell compelling narratives about belonging, place, social and cultural life and history.

Charles Page is one of Queensland’s most important documentary photographers. In 2000 he was commissioned by the Cairns Art Gallery to produce a portfolio of photographs of people and places of Far North Queensland. It is an intriguing collection of photographs of the well-known and not so well-known figures of the day.

Born and raised in Dimbulah, William Yang’s photographs examine the influx of Chinese in the north since the 1870s and document the significant cultural, social and economic impact of Chinese migration and settlement in the north.

Kerry Trapnell, a Cairns based photographer was commissioned in 1995 by the Cape York Land Council to take a series of portraits of senior Elders on Country and in community, discussing business, harvesting food and celebrating cultural rituals. These images are historically significant as they were used to promote the voices of Indigenous peoples to support native title land claims following the Mabo Case in 1992.

Gunggandji woman Simone Arnol's compelling portraits of three men from Yarrabah - Arthur Malcolm, Anglican bishop; David Mundraby, Elder and keeper of the Law and Song; and Nathan Schrieber, a traditional owner captures identity, not as a fixed representation, but rather as a changing representation that is shaped by context and different histories.

In a series of photographic portraits, entitled January First, Naomi Hobson (Southern Kaantju and Umpila), documents a contemporary local custom related to a new year and captures the essence of renewal and reiterates local bonds and relationships with special kin in Cape York Peninsula.