Trevor Jamieson (b. 1975), Pila Nguru (Spinifex) actor, didgeridoo player, guitarist, singer, dancer and storyteller, grew up in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. A teenager when he won the lead role in Black Swan Theatre's premiere of the musical Bran Nue Day, he has performed professionally for the past 25 years. In 2008 at the Sydney Theatre Awards he was named best actor for Ngapartji Ngapartji. Jamieson conceived the play, about his Central Desert family who were displaced by the Maralinga tests of the 1950s, in collaboration with Scott Rankin. In 2011 he was the star of another collaboration with Rankin, the critically acclaimed Namatjira. Jamieson has appeared in many movies including Rabbit Proof Fence (2002) and Bran Nue Day (2009). In the 2019 remake of the 1976 film Storm Boy he portrayed Fingerbone Bill, originally played by David Gulpilil. The film The Furnace, in which he starred with David Wenham, featured at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
This portrait of Jamieson won the People's Choice Award for the National Photographic Prize of 2017. Brett Canet-Gibson took the photograph in the grounds of the University of Western Australia on a spring-stained Sunday afternoon, using natural light and a portable backdrop. Performing with the Ochre Contemporary Dance Company in a production called Kaya, Trevor was about to go through his warm-up process before mesmerising his sold-out, closing-night audience.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 Finalist
Purchased 2018
© Brett Canét-Gibson
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.
