Artists

Lives and works Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Anne Ferran has been exhibiting since the 1980s when her landmark series Scenes on the Death of Nature established her as one of Australia's leading photographic artists. In the mid 1990s she began working with the often meagre residues of Australian colonial past, paying particular attention to the lives of women and children.

"I might start with a museum collection or an archive or a site, but it's less the history I'm interested in than the historical record and how it comes down to us. Especially I'm drawn to the gaps, for what else they reveal."

Intellectually and emotionally engaging, beautiful, sometimes austere, her photographs have explored histories of incarceration in prisons, asylums, hospitals and nurseries. They play with invisibility and anonymity, and are often haunted by things unseen. Among these works are her celebrated series of large scale photograms of nineteenth century women's and children's clothing.

Anne Ferran's work is held in most major Australian public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery, Monash University, Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of NSW. It is also in the collection of the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York.

Downloads

Anne Ferran CV (PDF)

Anne Ferran_In the ground, on the air_Artist Statement (PDF)