Beechworth Arts Council Family Albums are an ongoing photographic project that has been produced in each decade from 1984. The fifth edition in this insightful and popular community initiative is titled, The Byamotha People – Beechworth Family Album 2024, will be exhibited in the Beechworth Historic precinct in 2024/25 to celebrate the arts council’s 50th anniversary.
Beechworth Family Album 2014
The album for this edition was created in four parts:
24 hours: Artist-photographer Pam Magennis was commissioned to produce a collection of 24 photographs taken over 24 hours during the Winter solstice in Beechworth.
Work. Rest. Play. Gail Smith and Bruce Forrest took photographs of Beechworth traders, sporting groups, clubs and service groups, and families, couples and single people who were established residents and those new to the district.
Postcards. Images from both projects were reproduced on postcards, distributed across the community and mailed out to create a Beechworth ‘heritage trail’.
New year’s day sports. Family Album photographs depicting Stanley’s new year’s day sports were exhibited at Stanley Athenaeum.
There was also a Wangaratta Art Gallery exhibition of the album project with images drawn from its 1984, 1994, 2004 and 2014 editions.
Beechworth Family Album 2004
‘Through the eyes of youth‘ was the theme for this edition of Beechworth Family Album.
Stanley-based photographer Stephen Routledge encouraged the facilitation of the project by working with young people, their school communities, parents, carers and peers in the documentation of their world.
Stephen also produced a suite of photographs ‘Siblings’ for exhibition as part of the project.
Family Album 2004 project (click here)
Beechworth Family Album 1994
For the 1994 Family Album edition, photographer Richard Williams worked closely with the heritage collection of Beechworth’s Burke Museum
In reworking images from the Burke Museum collection, Mr Williams created an important link between commuity groups of 1994 and those of the past.
Mr Williams recorded and reinterpreted images of the Freemasons, Beechworth Singers, fire brigade and schools, creating a suite of contemporary photographs that are now part of the Burke Museum image collection.
Beechworth Family Album 1984
The first album was a strong community-based project led by photographer Stephen Henderson.
The collection focused on Beechworth traders and storekeepers, recording the activities of many who had businesses, shops and offices. Mr Henderson’s work was displayed in the stores in which the images were made. In addition and inspired by the Family Album project, a large number of amateur photographers documented community groups and events in Beechworth, Stanley and Wooragee.
The project also included the establishment of a dark room and work on the historic photographic collection of the Burke Museum. The photographs and related material are archived in the museum.
Beechworth Arts Council Membership details (click here)