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Mirrors offered Jerrems a way to manipulate space and project herself into the action. In this photograph, Ambrose Campbell (1919–2006), a Nigerian musician who toured Australia with American singer-songwriter Leon Russell, lies in a rumpled bed underneath Jerrems’ reflection. She anchors the centre of the scene but stands at a significant remove. It is as if she looks in on the image through a small distanced window. Her camera is held in front of her face as another instrument of separation. Here, she is both a lover and an observer. For Jerrems, the two could not be disentangled.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981.
© The Estate of Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems: Portraits is a major exhibition of one of Australia’s most influential photographers. Jerrems’ intimate portraits of friends, lovers and artistic peers transcend the purely personal and have come to shape Australian visual culture.
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