© National Portrait Gallery 2025
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2020 Finalist
On a warm spring day in 1967, seventeen year-old Peter McEwan was arrested by undercover police officers on Melbourne’s Brighton Beach for being with another man. In the following months, Peter had to endure court appearances, psychiatric assessments and having his name published on the front pages of the newspaper, among other things. But the experience eventually propelled Peter’s involvement in the early Gay Liberation Movement in Melbourne during the early 1970s. Peter and I return to the spot where he was arrested to reclaim the space as one of victory and triumph.
The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
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