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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Katherine, NT / Harrietville, VIC, 2017

by Rhett Hammerton

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 Finalist

Katherine, NT / Harrietville, VIC, 2017

This pairing of images forms part of a larger portrait series titled Cold Drinks/ Hot Showers. A portable portrait studio was established in some of the Northern Territory's more isolated roadhouses, with passers-by approached to be sitters. The subsequent imagery provides an insight into the conflicting contexts of Northern Australia – home and escape, adventure and malaise, affluence and penury. With the roadhouse providing both literal backdrop and metaphorical axis between cultures, classes and identities, themes of transience and disparity emerge to be explored. Individual portraits are named after each sitter’s home and paired in contrasting diptychs, further highlighting tensions amid inconsistent and often incongruous Australian identities and ideologies.

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018
(More information, View all 43 photos)

Look at me (I)
Meagan Pelham
Scarred

Other NPPP photos from Rhett Hammerton
(More information)

Pulangkita pitjangu (When the blanket came), 2019 Rene Kulitja and Rhett Hammerton
2020 Finalist
Cliffy, 2015 by Rhett Hammerton
2016 Finalist
Kumantjayi, 2010 by Rhett Hammerton
2011 Finalist

Related information

Charlie, 2017 by Lee Grant
Charlie, 2017 by Lee Grant
Charlie, 2017 by Lee Grant
Charlie, 2017 by Lee Grant

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

Previous exhibition, 2018

The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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