Ricky Maynard: portrait of a distant land

Exhibition organised and toured by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Curator: Keith Munro

This exhibition comprises 60 works by the Tasmanian photographer, Ricky Maynard, who resides on Flinders Island in Bass Strait.

Through his practice, Maynard documents, records and rewrites the history of Indigenous Australia by creating an alternative, collaborative record of Indigenous Australian people. He positions his work firmly within the tradition of the documentary photographer as social activist, and his subjects are always strongly connected to his own life as an Aboriginal person.

For Maynard, documentary photography is about truth and honesty in the pursuit of social justice. His photography is witness to history, and an exploration of the connection between place, story, and feeling. This survey was first presented in 2007 at the Australian Embassy in Paris, as part of the inaugural Photoquai Biennale organised by the Musée du Quai Branly.