Telphia Joseph, a Wajarri Yamatji woman from Western Australia, is an Associate Lecturer at the University of New South Wales School of Population Health and Community Medicine, where she teaches Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health focus subjects. In 1990, when Joseph was photographed by Michael Riley for his series Portraits by a Window, she was a model with Lee Madden's Promotions and Model Agency in Redfern, which promoted Aboriginal models on catwalks internationally. She was also a dancer with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, established in 1975 and a central part of the vibrant Aboriginal arts community in the inner west. The AIDT was based in an old church building on Bridge Road, Glebe, and Riley was a regular visitor to the area. Portraits by a Window included several young dancers with the AIDT, capturing them 'at that moment – starting their careers', and was shot at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in Chippendale, in front of a paint-spattered backdrop with a suffused side light. This image is also part of the series Michael Riley Portraits 1984–1990.
Purchased 2013
© Michael Riley/Copyright Agency, 2021
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
