Jennie Boddington and Melanie Le Guay, 1974

This double portrait was taken in an exhibition of work by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson at the National Gallery of Victoria. Jennie Boddington (1922–2015) had recently been appointed inaugural curator of photography at the NGV – the first Australian state gallery to have a dedicated photography department. This appointment, and the others that followed, signalled photography’s ascendance as a serious artform in Australia.

Melanie Le Guay (1951–1975), seen in the background, is the daughter of fashion photographer and critic Laurence Le Guay, who would later include Jerrems’ Vale Street in the publication Australian Photography, a contemporary view in 1976. Prior to Melanie’s tragic death in 1975, she exhibited alongside Jerrems at the Australian Centre for Photography, in what were potentially the first concurrent solo exhibitions by women photographers in Australia.

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981.
© The Estate of Carol Jerrems