Contemporary Women Photographers from Australia

Tracey Moffat (born 1960)

Tracey is an Australian artist who primarily uses photography and video. In 2017 she represented Australia at the 57th Venice Biennale with her solo exhibition, “My Horizon”. Her works are held in the collections of the Tate, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and National Gallery of Australia.

Hoda Afshar (born 1983)

Hoda is an Iranian documentary photographer who is based in Melbourne who
works at the intersection of conceptual, staged and documentary image-making, exploring the representation of gender, marginality and displacement.

Her first monograph, Speak the Wind, (2015-2020) was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet Prize (Human 202). She lectures in photography and fine art at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.

Katrin Koenning (born 1978)

Katrin is a German born photographer, currently based in Naarm, Melbourne Australia. Situated in the documentary tradition, Katrin’s intimate photographs and sequences are of the everyday. In careful image-dialogues, she explores extended narrative possibilities and the currencies of the document.

Her work is regularly exhibited in Australian and international solo and group exhibitions, and she is a former editor and picture editor of the Australian PhotoJournalist Magazine, an annual photography and human rights publication.

Anne Zahalka (born 1957)

Anne is an Australian artist and photographer. Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, State Library of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia.

Her work came to the fore in the early 80s and questions the myths and prevailing cultural constructs to interrogate identity.

Atong Atem (born 1991)

Atong is a South Sudanese photographer living and working in Melbourne, known for her vibrant portraits, exploring identity and culture.

Narelle Autio (born 1969)

a photojournalist and photographer of coastal areas.

Julie Rrap (born 1950)

Julie Rrap (b. 1950, Widjabul Wia-bal Country/Lismore) has been a major figure in Australian contemporary art for over 40 years. Through photography, video, and performance, she examines representations of the body and explores the invisibility of the aging female body.

In Julie Rrap: Past Continuous (MCA) 2024 her installation Disclosures: A Photographic Construct (1982) is shown, together with new feminist works.

Fiona Hall (born 1953)

Fiona’s environmental work stretches from her well known 1985 series ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ and her 1988 12 x polaroid series ‘Dante’s Divine Comedy’ which uses recycled aluminium cans and found objects, to the still lives of 2006 .

Del Barton (born 1972)

Del is a Sydney based photographer and artist whose work explores the themes of sexuality, motherhood, dreams and the subconscious.

Ponch Hawkes (born 1946)

Ponch began her career as a photojournalist on Rolling Stone magazine in 1972 and produced critical feminist work throughout a long career including the well known series ‘Our mums and us’, 1976

Christine Godden (born 1947)

Christine has played a significant role in Australian photography as a maker, curator and advocate. After studying in Melbourne, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York in 1980 she returned to become director of the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney.