New Light: Photography Now + Then

New Light: Photography Now + Then is a captivating free exhibition at Museum of Brisbane (MoB) that captures Brisbane across 134 years with evocative imagery, now showing until July 13, 2025. 

New Light: Photography Now + Then spans stills, camera equipment and techniques from 1890 to 2024, including a fascinating spectrum of past and present photography, drawing on MoB's most prolific historic archive, The Alfred Elliott Collection, contrasted with fresh takes from contemporary local image-makers.

The Elliott Collection collates the work of amateur photographer Alfred Henrie Elliott (1870 – 1954) whose black-and-white imagery capturing a bygone era of Brisbane lay dormant for decades until discovered preserved in cedar cigar boxes under a Red Hill residence in 1983.

This photography exhibition also highlights seven Brisbane visual creatives who reframe Elliott’s singular gaze within their diverse perspectives as women, Indigenous, migrant and queer artists.

The new compositions by Marian Drew, Jo-Anne Driessens, Joachim Froese, Tammy Law, Carl Warner, Nina White and Keemon Williams add scope, texture and depth to the historic and moody black-and-white photography, complementing notions of time, place, fragility and memory.

According to Exhibition Curator Elena Dias-Jayasinha "New Light: Photography Now + Then offers an exciting opportunity to reexamine one of Museum of Brisbane’s most significant historic photography archives through the lens of local visionaries".

From archival footage to contemporary compositions and public submissions, New Light: Photography Now + Then is a multi-layered and moving visual representation of Brisbane’s past and present.

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