PhotoWEST

To be opened by noted Writer/Historian Nic Haygarth  

Exhibition – Opening Friday 16th October 5.30 – 7pm.

Open until 1st November 2026, Monday to Sunday 2-4pm or by appointment: 0407 527 330

The West Coast Photography Club presents their skills in image-making and storytelling. Their debut exhibition, brings together the work of local photographers as they develop their skills. This first exhibition is a chance to see the West Coast through their eyes. 

Andrew ‘Bomber’ Shea, Bob Cartledge, Warren Donnelly, Mathew Faulkner, Renee Nannette Miller, Pete Shegog

Special thanks to Soggy Brolly, West Coast Council, PressWest, Truwala Connections, Jack McLain, and Mountain Heights School.

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.