© National Portrait Gallery 2025
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The word ‘iconic’ is often applied to this photograph. Made when Jerrems was only 26, Vale Street quickly gained a place in the visual culture of 1970s Australia. It was included in the survey publication Australian Photography, edited by Laurence Le Guay, a year after it was made and later graced the front cover of Australian Photographers: The Philip Morris collection (1979), paired with Max Dupain’s Sunbaker (1937) on the back cover.
Vale Street was initially exhibited in 1975 at Brummels Gallery, Melbourne, where it sold for $45 to the National Gallery of Australia. Over subsequent years, it has entered most major collections in Australia, and in 2020 it made headlines as the most expensive Australian photograph sold at auction.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1976.
© 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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