John Gollings
View John’s recent exhibition “Summer Focus” Catalogue here
John Gollings holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from RMIT University and an Honorary Fellowship of the Australian Institute of Architects. He works in the Asia-Pacific region as an architectural photographer, much of the work involving long-term cultural projects especially in India, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Libya and New Guinea. He specialises in the documentation of cities, old and new, often from the air. He has had a particular interest in the cyclic fires and floods that characterise the Australian landscape and he documents these with aerial photography. He was co-creative director of the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2010.
Books include two volumes of New Australia Style published by Thames & Hudson; City of Victory, Aperture; and Kashgar, Oasis City on China’s Old Silk Road, Frances Lincoln Limited. In 2012 Thames & Hudson published Beautiful Ugly a monograph of his contemporary architectural photography.
His work is held in national and international collections including: Asia Society, New York; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; Australian National Gallery, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne; State Library of Queensland, Brisbane; Janet Holmes á Court Collection, Cowaramup; Gold Coast City Gallery, Surfers Paradise; Rockhampton Art Gallery, Rockhampton and the National Library of Australia,Canberra. The Kaladham Museum in Karnataka, India was built by the Jindal Steel Company to house his life’s work at the Hampi Ruins.
His work has recently been included in exhibitions at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Gold Coast City Gallery, Surfers Paradise; Immigration Museum, Melbourne; Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. In 2013, McClelland Gallery exhibited Aftermath, Gollings’ bushfire series from Black Saturday. The Lyon House Museum completed a major acquisition of large architectural images in 2024 which are on display for the next 12 months. Gollings retrospective, A History of the Built World , opened at the Monash Gallery of Art in 2018 and is now showing throughout India. His documentation of Nawala Garbarnang Rock Art,called Spirit of Place, was at Heide Gallery of Modern Art in 2019
He has twice received the Australian Institute of Architects Presidents Prize and in 2013 he was awarded the inaugural William J. Mitchell International Committee Prize by the Australian Institute of Architects. In 2016 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for ‘Significant service to photography through the documentation of iconic architectural landmarks in Australia and the Asia Pacific region’.
The title ‘Summer Focus’ is a play on both the season and the technique.
This body of work has evolved from my experiments with a 1970’s Russian designed 800 mm catadioptic mirror lens that has unique optical properties. It allowed me to manipulate the annular bokeh (the rings of light in some of the images) using focus, or blurring the image with slow shutter speeds.
I hope the result, whether to only see pure colour fields, or engage in the struggle to comprehend the forms, is to captivate the viewer.
Whilst I was always proud of my technically perfect photographs, and especially well focussed images that froze a moment in time, producing this rule breaking series has been creatively liberating.
John Gollings
August 2024
All works also available in 950 x 1400 mm framed glazed & mounted on Dibond $ 4,000 or mounted onto Dibond (no glazed frame) $3,000
Summer Focus Black Rock Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus Black Rock #2 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus Dusk St Kilda #2 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Soft Focus St Kilda Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Soft Focus Luna Park Vicinity Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #1 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #2 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus Elwood St Kilda Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus Elwood St Kilda #2 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #3 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #4 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Dendy Street Beach #4 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus Elwood St Kilda #4 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Soft Focus Elwood Beach Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Soft Focus Dendy Street #2 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Soft Focus Dendy Street Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine Paper, Glazed Framed Edition of 10 950 x 1400 mm $ 4,000 Available in 610 x 860mm scale $1,750
Summer Focus Seaford #3 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #4 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus Seaford #2 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #5 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #6 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus Flinders Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #7 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #8 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #9 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750
Summer Focus #10 Archival inkjet print on Canson Platine paper mounted on Dibond Edition of 10 610 x 860mm $1,750