Liz Ham
London-born Australian photographer (born 1975)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liz Ham (born 1975) is an English-born Australian photographer based in Sydney, Australia. Ham has photographed urban life, fashion, music and politics for years and in 2017 published a photography book called Punk Girls. Some of Ham's photographs have been purchased and archived by Australia National Libraries as representations of the culture of Australia.
Liz Ham | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1975 (age 50–51) |
| Known for | Photography |
| Website | lizham |
Career
Ham is one of Australia's contemporary photographers "who often works overseas".[1] Ham began photographing when she was 14, then studied photography at the College of Fine Arts in Sydney.[2] Since then she has documented life in Australia with her photos, from city dwelling, to fashion,[3] to ballet, and punk rock[4] for 20 years. Her work is editorial in nature, portrait, and for advertisers.[5][6][7][8] Ham 'has thrived in the male-dominated industry of fashion photography'[9] but "social advocacy is her motivating factor"[10] as she captures images, using her Canon EOS 5D Mark III[11] and a 4×5 rangefinder Polaroid conversion camera.[12] Her photographs have appeared in Vogue, Elle, Russh, Oyster, Dazed & Confused and i-D.[13]
Exhibitions
In 2000, Ham exhibited her work at Stills Gallery,[14][15] in 2013 at the Sydney Photographer's Exhibition,[16] and in 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney.[17]
Selected awards
Photographic collections
Fashion
Ham has done work for Oyster magazine[20] and in 2009, Teddy Girls images by Ham were published by Oyster[21] and then in Art Monthly Australia in 2010.[22] Ham has photographed for Vogue Australia.[23][15] Design Scene magazine featured a retro style photo shoot by Ham entitled The Apple of My Eye.[24]
Culture of Australia
In 1997 Ham photographed bohemian dancer Vali Myers.[25] To represent the culture of Australia, Ham has photographed people she knows in their natural daily environment, using realism[1] and social documentary photography.[26][4]
Archived
Some of her photographs have been purchased and archived by the State Library of New South Wales[7] and by the State Library of Victoria.[27] The collections archived by Australian state libraries relate to ordinary people in Sydney doing regular things: urban life, people at work,[28] and dance,[7] hairdressing, and shopping.[8]
Publications
Ham spent years working on Punk Girls, a photo-book featuring portraits of women, many of her friends, in punk fashion. It began as a punk zine but was published in 2017 by Manuscript Daily.[29][12][30][15][31] Discrimination against the punk rock subculture is explored with her photographs in the book; these girls who are different, but beautiful in their difference.[32][17]
In 2014 Ham self-published a limited edition of Eastern Suburbs Girls, a small 56-page photo-book showing what it might have been like "growing up in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Australia in the 1980s and 1990s."[33]