Ponch Hawkes (born 1946) 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.[1][2][3][4][5]
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.[6] 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.[citation needed]
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.[2] 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.[10] 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.[11] More recent projects have explored the ageing female body such as in the monumental work 500 strong (2021),[12][13][14] that reclaims bodies from shame, empowers the subjects portrayed, and normalises images of older women.[15][16] The under-representation of women in politics is explored in the humorous work Changing Faces: Reframing Women in Local Democracy (2020),[17] that depicts 171 local women wearing fake moustaches and beards to challenge gender stereotypes.[17] Hawkes' extensive career is considered an influential part of the Australian feminist art movement. [3][18]
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 ISBN9780869143537
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
The Power to Move: Aspects of Australian Photography, Anne Kirker and Clare Williamson, Queensland Art Gallery, 1995
Field of Vision – A Decade of Change: Women's Art in the 70s, Janine Burke, Viking,1990
Twenty Contemporary Australian Photographers: from Hallmark Cards Australian Photographic Collection, Isobel Combie and Sandra Bryon, National Gallery of Victoria, 1990
The Critical Distance – Work with Photography, Virginia Coventry, Hale and Iremonger, 1986
