On Thursday, the 16th of May, Year 11 Photography students travelled by train to the NSW State Library in Sydney. Our visit was to view the new underground photographic gallery and visit the SHOTS exhibition featuring images from the past 3 centuries documenting the development of photography in Australia. 

The Shots exhibition was an impressive display of the Library’s extraordinary collection featuring 400 photographs by 200 photographers spanning three centuries between 1845 and 2022. The exhibition displayed Australia’s oldest photograph, the earliest examples of colour photography, iconic works by some of our most acclaimed photographers, contemporary images and commentary by over 30 living photographers. Students appreciated the immense history of Australian photography stretched out before their eyes. The excursion was highly beneficial to students providing them with the rare opportunity to see early daguerreotypes, glass plate negatives, and early examples of hand colour imagery just to name a few.

In the afternoon students took advantage of the many photographic opportunities around the city capturing hundreds of shots and further developing their photographic knowledge and refining their skills. The day inspired many new ideas and gave students valuable insight in guiding their theoretical and practical studies.