Ponch Hawkes


Ponch Hawkes is an Australian photographer whose work explores intergenerational relationships, queer identity and LGBTQI+ rights, the female body, masculinity, and women at work, capturing key moments in Australia's cultural and social histories.
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Early life and education

Hawkes was born in Abbotsford, Victoria, in 1946 and educated at University High School. She is self-taught, having never formally studied photography. Upon returning to Australia from the United States in the early 1970s, Hawkes, who was working as a journalist for the magazine The Digger, took up photography to enhance her journalistic work.

Work

Her work has been included in major Australian exhibitions such as Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria and Know My Name at the National Gallery of Australia. Hawke's work is represented in the collections of numerous significant institutions including the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, State Library of Victoria, City of Melbourne, Horsham Regional Gallery, Monash Gallery of Art, the Women's Art Register, and the Jewish Museum of Australia. Hawkes has collaborated with the Pram factory and Circus Oz, and was the first administrator of the Women's Theatre Group in the 1970s.
Hawkes' photographic work is broad in its scope, including the portrayal of artists, feminists, sportspeople, public figures and candid street-photographs. The photographs are often exhibited as a series or multiples, and the subjects in the work are often invited to actively participate in the process. Through this method, Hawkes pursues a sustained interest in the way individuals use their bodies and the way individuals relate, through their bodies, to each other. Hawke's first exhibited body of work, the 1976 photo essay Our Mums and Us, featured her female friends and their mothers, among them the writer Helen Garner. More recent projects have explored the ageing female body such as in the monumental work 500 strong, that reclaims bodies from shame, empowers the subjects portrayed, and normalises images of older women. The under-representation of women in politics is explored in the humorous work Changing Faces: Reframing Women in Local Democracy '','' that depicts 171 local women wearing fake moustaches and beards to challenge gender stereotypes. Hawkes' extensive career is considered an influential part of the Australian feminist art movement.

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

500 Strong, Geelong Art Gallery, Shepparton Art Museum, curated by Jane Scott, 2022Changing Faces, Bayside City Council Chambers, Melbourne, 2020Our Mums and Us and These Women have Just Run 26 Miles, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia, 2013

Selected group exhibitions

Flesh After Fifty, Changing Images of Older Women in Art, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, Australia, 2021Photography Meets Feminism: Australian women photographers 1970s–80s, A Monash Gallery of Art travelling exhibition, 2014–2015Beyond Borders, MAP Group, Ballarat International Photo Biennale, 2015Melbourne Now National Gallery of Victoria, 2013–2014KHEM, Strange Neighbour, Melbourne, Curated by Linsey Gosper, April 11 – May 3, 2014Take A Bow, Ballarat Mechanics Institute, 2013

Publications

  • Beyond Reasonable Drought, The Map Group of Photographers, Five Mile Press, 2009
  • Trading Places, text by David Crofts, photos by Ponch Hawkes, City of Greater Dandenong,2006
  • Art of Reconciliation, edited by Ponch Hawkes, City of Melbourne, 2002
  • Australian Water Polo, A Celebration, by Shane Maloney and Ponch Hawkes, Australian Water Polo Inc. 1998
  • Women of Substance, Sue Jackson and Gael Wallace with photographs by Ponch Hawkes, Allen and Unwin, 1998
  • Unfolding: The Story of the Australian and New Zealand AIDS Quilt Projects, by Ponch Hawkes with text by Ainsley Yardley and Kim Langley, McPhee Gribble, 1994
  • Best Mates, A Study of Male Friendship, by Ponch Hawkes, McPhee Gribble and Penguin Books, 1990
  • Generations: Grandmothers, Mothers and Daughters, by Diane Bell with Ponch Hawkes, McPhee Gribble & Penguin Books, Melbourne, 1987
  • Pay to Play, by Wendy Milson, Helen Thomas and Ponch Hawkes, Penguin,1976