Photography in focus

How does a photographer represent ideas, tell stories and challenge our perspectives? And how does the viewer make sense of the photographs presented to them? Join photo-historian Helen Ennis and Gallery educators as we launch our professional learning programs for 2025 with a free session that explores ways to engage students with photography. This is the perfect opportunity to kick off the new school year.

First, you’ll step into the Gallery and discover practical strategies to use when approaching photographic works with students. Explore opportunities to develop students’ visual analysis skills and initiate discussions around the photographer’s decisions and the impact of photographs on the viewer.

The second part of the session will concentrate on the work of influential Australian photographer Carol Jerrems, whose work is on show in our major summer exhibition, Carol Jerrems: Portraits, as well as contemporary Australian photographers Ying Ang, Katrin Koenning and Anu Kumar. Delve into the exhibition content, looking at photographs in societal, cultural and artistic terms and considering historical photographs from contemporary perspectives.

Professional Learning Outcomes:

• Explore teaching strategies to develop students’ ability to view, analyse and interpret photography
• Develop knowledge and understanding of photography from societal, cultural and artistic contexts
• Investigate historical photographic material and consider from contemporary perspectives

AITSL Standards:

• 2.1 Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities
• 3.3 Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking
• 6.2 Participate in learning to update knowledge and practice, targeted to professional needs and school and/or system priorities

This professional learning session is recommended for secondary visual arts teachers and educators. Can’t make it in-person? Why not attend virtually on Thursday 30 January or sign up to our education newsletter to receive access to On Demand programs and find out about upcoming professional learning at the National Portrait Gallery.

Helen Ennis biography

Helen Ennis is a photography curator, writer and historian. She is Emeritus Professor, Australian National University, where she was Director of the Centre for Art History and Art Theory and Sir William Dobell Chair of Art History from 2014–18. Helen has worked extensively as a freelance curator and headed the Department of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia from 1985–92. Her numerous publications include Photography and Australia; Intersections: Photography, history and the National Library of Australia; Reveries: Photography and mortality, Wolfgang Sievers; and award-winning biographies of Margaret Michaelis and Olive Cotton. Helen is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and in 2021 was awarded the J Dudley Johnson Medal by the British Royal Photographic Society for her contribution to the history of photography. Helen’s latest book Max Dupain: A portrait (2024) is her third biography.