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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

And then came the night, 2020

Amanda Miller

Living Memory Finalist

And then came the night, 2020

We sit around a fire in the yard. It is autumn during our isolation. She could be inside watching TV. But these odd times invoke primal instincts – hunt and gather, stoke the fire, huddle close. Then out comes the tablet so she can check in with her friends. I muse at the allegorical poignancy that the vision before me conjures about our world: her device-lit, disembodied face, isolated in the darkness, yet still connected to the zeitgeist. Meanwhile the fire, emblematic of a sinister threat, crackles and burns below – contained, but with the potency to potentially jump the lines at any moment.

Courtesy of the artist
© The artist

Living Memory
(More information, View all 79 photos)

Mask on inside
New Year's Eve 2019
Bill
Jayden Bush on the salt pans I played on as a kid (Northern Adelaide, 2019)

Related information

Drought story, 2020 Joel B. Pratley
Drought story, 2020 Joel B. Pratley
Drought story, 2020 Joel B. Pratley
Drought story, 2020 Joel B. Pratley

Living Memory

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2021

Previous exhibition, 2021

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.
The National Portrait Gallery building front entrance
The National Portrait Gallery building front entrance
The National Portrait Gallery building front entrance
The National Portrait Gallery building front entrance

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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