Telphia Joseph, a Wajarri Yamatji woman from Western Australia, is an Associate Lecturer at the University of New South Wales School of Population Health and Community Medicine, where she teaches Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health focus subjects. In 1990, when Joseph was photographed by Michael Riley for his series Portraits by a Window, she was a model with Lee Madden's Promotions and Model Agency in Redfern, which promoted Aboriginal models on catwalks internationally. She was also a dancer with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, established in 1975 and a central part of the vibrant Aboriginal arts community in the inner west. The AIDT was based in an old church building on Bridge Road, Glebe, and Riley was a regular visitor to the area. Portraits by a Window included several young dancers with the AIDT, capturing them 'at that moment – starting their careers', and was shot at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in Chippendale, in front of a paint-spattered backdrop with a suffused side light. This image is also part of the series Michael Riley Portraits 1984–1990.
Purchased 2013
© Michael Riley/Copyright Agency, 2024
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Linda Burney, Brenda Croft and Darrell Sibosado share memories of Michael Riley and his photographic practice.
Michael Riley’s early portraits by Amanda Rowell.
