Robert Ashton (1950) is an Australian photographer and photojournalist.
Early life and education
Robert Ashton was born on August 11, 1950, in Melbourne. He studied Photography at Prahran College 1969-71 and graduated with a Diploma of Visual Arts and Design.
"Robert Ashton's work is typical of the highly personalised documentary photographs that began to emerge in the 1970s."[7]
His subject matter includes urban indigenous, life and incidents in inner suburbia in Melbourne,[8] particularly Fitzroy.[9][10] Writer and musician Mark Gillespie, who had become involved in a new publishing venture, Outback Press, with Fred Milgrom Colin Talbot and Morry Schwartz, commissioned Ashton for the book Into the Hollow Mountain. Its images,[11] of "kids on the prowl, the old Salvo street bands, the Koorie clans, the card joint kaphenois",[12] were first shown at Brummels in an exhibition of that title in 1974, and when re-exhibited forty years later at Colour Factory, "serve as a rare documentation of day-to-day Melbourne and glimpse into an era that, while not actually all that distant, is most definitely a thing of the past."[13]
Ashton has published several other books, of portraits and close-up, abstracted landscape, and exhibited widely in Australia. His photograph Bernard Diving[14] featured in the 1988 exhibition, and on the cover its catalogue, The Thousand Mile Stare, a survey of Australian photography published by the Victorian Centre for Photography.[15]
In pursuing the best quality output for his imagery, Ashton adopted, and currently uses, hand-built large format cameras and advanced printing techniques including photogravure and the Collodion process.[16]
He lives on Victoria's Surf Coast, and imagery of the ocean and landscape is a consistent interest.
Phillip Morris Collection, Australian National Gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
John Sands Collection
Charles Darwin University
Publications
Ashton, Robert; Gillespie, Mark (1974), Into the hollow mountains, Outback Press, ISBN978-0-86888-006-8
Park, Andy; Smolan, Rick (1981), A day in the life of Australia, A Day in the life of Australia Pty Ltd, ISBN978-0-9594244-0-9[27]
Smolan, Rick; Park, Andy; O'Loughlin, Peter (1983), A day in the life of Victoria, DITLA, ISBN978-0-9594244-3-0
Bennett, David; Agee, Joyce; Victorian Centre for Photography (1988), The thousand mile stare : a photographic exhibition, The Victorian Centre for Photography Inc, ISBN978-0-7316-2054-8
Crombie, Isobel; Byron, Sandra; National Gallery of Victoria (1990), Twenty contemporary Australian photographers : from the Hallmark Cards Australian Photographic Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, ISBN978-0-7241-0142-9
Blackmore, Paul; Malouf, David, 1934-; Juan Davila collection (1999), Australians : responses to the land, St Martin Press, ISBN978-0-646-37815-2{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)[28]
Calado, Jorge; Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon, Portugal); 100 Days Festival ((1998 : Lisbon, Portugal)) (1998), Waterproof : water in photography since 1852 ([Hardcover ed.] ed.), Edition Stemmle, ISBN978-3-908161-26-4{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Crombie, Isobel; Blainey, Geoffrey, 1930-; National Gallery of Victoria (1992), Sites of the imagination : contemporary photographers view Melbourne and its people (English language ed.), National Gallery of Victoria, ISBN978-0-7241-0161-0{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Art Gallery of New South Wales; Annear, Judy (2007), Photography : Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, ISBN978-1-74174-006-6
^Smith, A. (2014). Photography: A portrait of Fitzroy in 1974. Arena Magazine (Fitzroy, Vic), (132), 50.
^Munro, Craig (ed); Sheahan-Bright, Robyn (ed); University of Queensland (2006), Paper empires : a history of the book in Australia 1946-2005, ISBN978-0-7022-3559-7{{citation}}: |author1= has generic name (help)
^ abBennett, David; Agee, Joyce; Victorian Centre for Photography (1988), The thousand mile stare : a photographic exhibition, The Victorian Centre for Photography Inc, ISBN978-0-7316-2054-8
^Calado, Jorge; Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon, Portugal); 100 Days Festival ((1998 : Lisbon, Portugal)) (1998), Waterproof : water in photography since 1852 ([Hardcover ed.] ed.), Edition Stemmle, ISBN978-3-908161-26-4{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)