Reflections on Francisco Goya & Frank Hurley

I've just completed a NGV online workshop for 5 weeks on, 10 Artists you should know.. And I found it interesting that there was a reading disucssion between Goya and Frank Hurley. The journalistic aspect of both their works. I had long been an admirer of Hurley's life and work and documenting war. the book on the story of the doomed expedition to Antartica, Endurance, is one of the great survival stories of all time. In an article by Eric Campbell June 2021 for the NGV wrote on the comparison between Australia’s first war photographer Frank Hurley and Francisco Goya. The art critic Robert Hughes on Goya wrote, “the first modern visual reporter on warfare.”

As photographers are we to record, document or interpret, or all three? Different genres of photography require different approaches.

Frank Hurley 1917

There was a great controversy in Australia and England over this image above taken by Frank Hurley on the western front in France during WW1. Hurley who was the photographer for the Australian Defence Force at the time resigned

over this issue. Hurley had combined 2 images, one of he trenches and one of the biplanes in the sky. He labelled it a photo illustration saying that a single photograph could not capture the scale of the battlefield. Hence the need to combine in the darkroom. But the ADF at the time felt it was an issue of war reproting integrity.

Frank Jurley 1910

Reading : Meditations by Krishnamurti

Watching : Apollo has Fallen

Listening : New Order

Eating : yoghurt & blueberries

Drinking : sparkling water and lemon