Black, White + Colour

A biography of Mervyn Bishop
Australia’s first indigenous professional photographer

by Tim Dobbyn

This illustrated biography offers an intimate portrait of the triumphs and struggles of Mervyn Bishop, Australia’s groundbreaking indigenous photographer, and one of the nation’s most treasured artists.

Born in Brewarrina NSW in 1945, he used chance, charm and talent to join the staff of the Sydney Morning Herald at just 17. He won a top news photography award but never received the customary pay increase. Disillusioned, Bishop moved to Canberra as a government photographer and took the iconic photo of Gough Whitlam pouring earth into the hands of traditional owner Vincent Lingiari.

He later returned to Sydney and was eventually befriended by the arts scene, leading to his first solo exhibition in 1991. But this victory was clouded by the death of his wife on the day of the opening. While often celebrated for chronicling the rising visibility of Indigenous Australians, Bishop is also proud of what he calls his “Whitefella pictures”. He carved his own path, deftly navigating the Black and White worlds of post-war Australia.

Read Aedeen Cremin’s review for ARR.News and her interview with the author Tim Dobbyn:

The biography starts with a road trip to Mervyn’s birthplace of Brewarrina―home of the famous fish traps and a traditional meeting place for Morowori/Murri and Ngemba people. En route we get to know Mervyn, who comes across as a man of great charm, and some idiosyncrasies: he owned “a perfectly good mid-sized SUV, with a roo bar” but preferred to let Tim drive a less useful rented car, on the grounds he wasn’t about to have his “new car covered in insects and dust” (pp. 20, 23). And so they drove, visiting old friends and revisiting places of memory. It is absolutely charming and we get to know and – to an extent – understand Mervyn’s life and achievements.