PhotoWEST
To be opened by noted Writer/Historian Nic Haygarth Exhibition – Opening Friday 16th October 5.30 – 7pm.
Exhibition open until 1st November 2026 Hours Wednesday to Sunday 2.30 – 4.30pm
The West Coast Photographic Group are working towards their first exhibition of Members photographs picking up skills in image making and presentation. They require funds for materials to frame and mount their photographs and are applying to the Trawalla Foundation for material support – framing, mounting etc., promotional costs and labelling.ore details about this event will be coming soon.
John (Jackie) Robinson captured moments that have encapsulated daily life in Tasmania’s west in the early 20th Century. His main ‘focus’ was on the Waratah/Mt Bischoff area but he occasionally ventured to Queenstown and photographed its mining infrastructure.
For 40 years John Henry (‘Jackie’) Robinson (1883–1953) framed Waratah and the West Coast from a tripod. Robinson and two of his brothers were highly skilled photographers. From 1913 Jackie was an outstanding amateur based in Waratah. However, he appears to have lent many of his plates to his brother Robert Vaudry (‘Bert’), hence their lodgement in the Robinson Photographic Collection at the Devonport Regional Gallery. Jackie produced so many portraits in Waratah that semi-professional might be a better tag for him than amateur. He developed his plates at night when his job was done for the day. No golden wedding anniversary, vice-regal visit or patriotic demonstration escaped his shutter.
The Jackie Robinson exhibition is curated by Author and Historian, Nic Haygarth and will be on loan from the Devonport Regional Gallery.
Dave Carswell is a photographer currently based in lutruwita/Tasmania. He grew up initially in Queenstown. His photographic practice is rooted in documentary image making with his interests motivated by the intersection between nature, humanity and the built environment. Carswell’s work is concerned with the manner of anthropological intervention on the built landscape with a recent focus towards public space and the way economic, social and ecological influences shape contested spaces.
His work has been shown in solo and group shows internationally and nationally as well as in festivals and print. In 2024 Carswell won the Devonport Regional Gallery’s acquisitive Tidal Art Prize with the image ‘Flocculation #15’. Work from this series was also awarded the Judges Commendation at the 2024 Clip Award hosted by the Perth Centre for Photography as well as being shortlisted for the Bowness Photographic Prize (2025), Mullins Conceptual Photographic Prize (2023) and the Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize (2024). In recent years Carswell has also been shortlisted for other art prizes including the Australian Photobook Awards, Olive Cotton Award (portraiture), Wyndham Art Prize, Heysen Landscape Prize, Perth Centre for Photography’s IRIS (portraiture) Award as well as the Moran Prize.
Frankie Munro originally went to university to study history but has emerged as a photographer living in Queenstown and working at the Unconformity.
Jack McLain (b. 1963, Seattle, Washington; lives and works in Queenstown, Tasmania) is a photographer and artist who explores nature, place, and found beauty utilising a variety of photographic processes and media.His work in early photographic processes stems from his belief that there is a quantitive difference between a digital and physical manifestation of a photograph. Both are valid, but prints, whatever their origin, are how photographs are best experienced and read.
