Liz Ham

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Liz Ham
Born1975 (age 48–49)
NationalityAustralian
Known forPhotography

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.

Career[edit]

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 VogueElleRusshOysterDazed & Confused and i-D.[13]

Exhibitions[edit]

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[edit]

Ham has received the following awards for her work.[18][2][19]

  • Yen Young Woman of the Year Award for Photography
  • The National Youth Media Award
  • The CCP/Leica Documentary Photography Award

Photographic collections[edit]

Fashion[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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]

Personal life[edit]

Born in London in 1975, she emigrated with her parents to Sydney in 1980.[34] Ham lives with her husband and two children in Sydney.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b English, Bonnie; Pomazan, Liliana (2010). Australian Fashion Unstitched: The Last 60 Years. Cambridge University Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-521-75649-5. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Australian Photographer Liz Ham". viola.bz. 16 November 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  3. ^ "Liz Ham - Fashion Photographer". www.fashionmodeldirectory.com. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Punk girls: portraits from the underground – in pictures". The Guardian. 13 November 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  5. ^ "Liz Ham Work". lizham.com/work/. Liz Ham. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  6. ^ "Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake". abc.net.au. 24 June 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  7. ^ a b c "liz ham". sl.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  8. ^ a b "Collection 01: Urban life in Newtown and East Sydney, 1994-1996 / photographed by Liz Ham". archival.sl.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  9. ^ "Agender: Celebrating the Best in Australian Female Photography". www.canon.com.au. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  10. ^ National Library of Australia News. Vol. 15. National Library of Australia. 2004. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  11. ^ "Looking back on EOS: Liz Ham". vimeo.com. Sun Studios. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  12. ^ a b c "PUNK GIRLS". manuscriptdaily. 6 November 2017. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  13. ^ Ham, Liz (November 2017). Punk Girls. Manuscript Publishing. ISBN 978-0-6480598-1-3.
  14. ^ "Liz Ham - Photographs 1995-1999". www.stillsgallery.com. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  15. ^ a b c Kubler, Alison. "Liz Ham: Punk Girls". Vault Australasian Art & Culture. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  16. ^ "This Time it's Personal – Exhibition of Sydney Photographers". wollongongphotographer.com. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  17. ^ a b "International Women's Day 2018 - Liz Ham". store.mca.com.au. 9 March 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  18. ^ "Liz Ham Life". lizham.com/life/. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  19. ^ "Exhibitions 23 Jul-21: Open-Entry Photo Based Exhibition: Leica/ Ccp Documentary Photography Exhibition + Award". ccp.org.au. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  20. ^ "Bag Lady - Oyster". www.fashionmodeldirectory.com. Oyster Magazine. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  21. ^ Tzenkova, Ani (20 May 2010). "Teddy Girls for Oyster Mag by Liz Ham". trendland.com. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  22. ^ O'Riordan, Maurice, ed. (August 2011). "Art Meets Fashion" (PDF). Art Monthly Australia. No. 242. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  23. ^ "Be Good for Goodness' Sake". www.fashionmodeldirectory.com. Vogue Australia. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  24. ^ "The Apple Of My Eye by Liz Ham for Helmet". Design Scene. 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  25. ^ Grishin, Sasha (16 January 2015). "Celebrating Melbourne bohemians at the State Library of Victoria". theconversation.com. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  26. ^ Ennis, Helen (2007). "Made in Australia". Photography and Australia. Reaktion Books. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-86189-323-9. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  27. ^ "Liz Ham 1975- photographer". slv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  28. ^ "Brett working in a basement sweat shop in Surry Hills, Sydney, 1997 [picture]". nla.gov.au. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  29. ^ Ham, Liz (2017). Punk Girls. Manuscript Publishing. ISBN 978-0-648-05981-3. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  30. ^ "Punk Girls: taking fetishism out of the subculture". Australian Broadcasting Company. 10 June 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  31. ^ ""PUNK GIRLS" Book to Be Released By Liz Ham". restassuredzine.com. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  32. ^ Ennis, Helen (2004). "Looking Natural". Intersections: Photography, History and the National Library of Australia. National Library Australia. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-642-10792-3. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  33. ^ "Liz Ham's EASTERN SUBURBS GIRLS is now part of the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive". photobookarchive.com. 18 April 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  34. ^ Besorio, Mia (7 December 2017). "'Punk Girls' captures the strength, spirit, and solidarity of women in punk". acclaimmag.com. Retrieved 4 August 2019.

External links[edit]