Women Photographers: Julie Rrap

In this episode of NGA Art Talks, Anne O’Hehir, Curator of Photography at the Gallery, speaks to Julie Rrap as part of a series of conversations recorded for the exhibition, Women Photographers 1853-2018 – a celebration of how women have shaped and redefined the medium, that recognises the strength of Australian photographers in a global context.

Julie Rrap, born in Lismore in 1950 and now based in Sydney, has been a central figure in Australian contemporary art for more than four decades. Emerging in the mid-1970s through body art and performance, she developed a practice that has since expanded to include photography, painting, sculpture, and video, all anchored in a sustained investigation of how the body is seen, represented, and interpreted. Her early engagement with performance laid the foundation for an oeuvre that often places her own body at the centre, using it as both subject and tool to question conventions of gender, identity, and power.

Women Photographers 1853-2018 is on display at the National Gallery until 1 March 2026.

This exhibition and podcast are supported by The Bowness Family Foundation.

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