Workshop: Rod McNicol on the Photographic Portrait

Centre for Contemporary Photography. Fitzroy 7 July 2018

This unique workshop and studio visit will offer the rare opportunity to gain insight into Rod McNicol’s portraiture practice, while exploring his extraordinary home studio in the heart of Fitzroy. Rod has worked in this studio for over 3 decades and it is the location and backdrop for many of his portraits. The class will begin with a presentation by Rod on his process, influences, and long-standing practice; followed by conversation over a cup of coffee and ending with a round table discussion and review of participants’ work with Rod and CCP Gallery Manager and artist, Linsey Gosper.

Rod McNicol (b. 1946) is a Melbourne-based photographic artist, known for his intimate and existential formalist portraiture. For over four decades, McNicol has been inviting people from his ‘urban village’ in Fitzroy/Collingwood, to put their lives on pause for a few moments and stare into the lens of his camera. McNicol founded The Photographers Gallery in South Yarra in 1975, and has held numerous solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas. McNicol has been awarded the Australian Photographic Portrait Prize in 2004, and the National Photographic Portrait Prize in 2012, with a portrait of his friend, actor Jack Charles, whom McNicol has been photographing since the 1970s. McNicol’s works are held in major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Monash Gallery of Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, France. 

Main image above: Maryan, 2010 by Rod McNicol