Olive Cotton

Olive Cotton is one of Australia’s most respected photographers, with a career that spanned over six decades. In 1995, the National Library of Australia produced a volume collating over 60 works, from her earliest photographs taken with a box Brownie, her exhibition work in the 1930s and examples of the commercial work from the Max Dupain Studio during the war, through to the ‘country’ years raising a family and photographing nature, her return to public prominence in 1985 with her first solo exhibition, and more recent works.

Each photograph is accompanied by Olive Cotton’s own commentary where she speaks about her compositions. Helen Ennis’s introduction reveals some of the complex factors that have shaped Cotton’s photographs and photographic career, while a biographical memoir written by Cotton’s daughter, Sally McInerney, provides a personal glimpse into the life of a photographer in country Australia.

Olive Cotton reproduces the 1995 edition in a new and affordable format, and is a beautifully produced survey of Olive Cotton’s finest photographs dating from the 1930s up to the late 1990s.

The Olive Cotton collection at the National Library comprises 58 photographic prints, most of which are silver gelatin, three interviews with Olive Cotton in the oral history collection, and the Papers of Olive Cotton in the manuscripts collection.