© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
During her stay in Royal Hobart Hospital, Jerrems photographed some of the doctors and nurses who worked on her body. Rather than portraying a sense of camaraderie in the hospital, these photographs convey exclusion and isolation, as well as the anger Jerrems felt at being belittled by doctors who she considered chauvinists. ‘I’m sick of being pushed around by men,’ she wrote in her diary. ‘A doctor is a person in a position of power. Patients liberation! I’m not going to take this anymore. I’m going to fight.’
In this photograph, Jerrems captures that experience of exclusion but also the paltry sense of privacy that hospitals afford. It catches the moment hospital staff pull the curtain on a neighbouring bed, cutting off her view but never offering peace and quiet.
National Library of Australia
© The Estate of Carol Jerrems
Carol Jerrems: Portraits is a major exhibition of one of Australia’s most influential photographers. Jerrems’ intimate portraits of friends, lovers and artistic peers transcend the purely personal and have come to shape Australian visual culture.
Visit us, learn with us, support us or work with us! Here’s a range of information about planning your visit, our history and more!
We depend on your support to keep creating our programs, exhibitions, publications and building the amazing portrait collection!
