It’s helped launch some of our biggest names in photography. Now it faces a ‘disaster’

One of Melbourne’s most important arts spaces, an incubator for photographic talent for almost 40 years, has lost its government funding, putting its future in doubt.

Since 1986 the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) has staged exhibitions and artist talks and held workshops for professionals as well as school students and publishing. It serves as both a launching pad for emerging artists and a place to showcase the work of established photographers.

Daniel Boetker-Smith (left), director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography, with artist Patrick Pound at the centre’s recently closed building in Fitzroy.

Award-winning photographer Hoda Afshar has work held in permanent gallery collections across Australia. “CCP has been a place we can share our work, where our work can be seen and taken seriously. There’s no other space for it,” she says.

“Over the years of living and working here, I’ve witnessed the closure of many photographic galleries around the country. CCP remains one of the only places for photographers to dream of showing at – as an emerging artist, for me that was my biggest dream, to exhibit at the CCP.”

Originally established by a group of photographers with support from the Victorian government, this year the organisation lost its four-year funding from Creative Australia (approximately $110,000 per year across four years). Five other federal project applications for funding over the past three years have failed.

In 2022, they lost their Creative Victoria funding, $168,000 a year across three years.

Anne Zahalka’s The New Bathers, 2013.

The centre’s director, Daniel Boetker-Smith, says two staff lost their jobs as a result of the loss of funding – only he remains – and the centre’s home in Fitzroy of nearly 20 years will be closed.

Artist and chair of the organisation Patrick Pound says photography is the medium that pays closest attention to the world.

“The decision is bewildering. Photography is the medium of our age; it’s central to everything. It’s the medium that pays closest attention to the world and it’s the medium that everyone is turning to,” he says.

Exhibited early in their careers at the centre, artists such as Afshar, Polixeni Papapetrou, Christian Thompson, Zahalka and the late Destiny Deacon have become some of our most acclaimed photographic artists. The centre was also key in launching the careers of photojournalists Trent Parke, Narelle Autio, Matthew Sleeth and Tamara Dean.

Hoda Afshar’s photograph of men in a bath house (Untitled #4).Credit:

The centre last year raised $100,000 through fundraising, donations and sponsorships and showed the work of over 500 artists. Artist Tony Albert donated a work from his ASHTRALIA series to raise much-needed funds for the Centre for Contemporary Photography.

Board member Myles Russell-Cook, also NGV’s senior Australian and First Nations curator, says photography changed the way human beings perceive the world. “As we’re encountering more truth decay and fake news, digitally manipulated images, it’s more important than ever to fund places like CCP that re-centre us and bring us back to the importance of photography. It’s a trusted place to encounter the art form – to look at and learn about it.”

Creative Australia funding decisions are made based on industry advice at arm’s length from government. It enlists panels made up of artists to make recommendations, but anyone who has exhibited at the centre in the last few years, or who has a connection to the organisation, is asked to recuse themselves – effectively ruling out most specialist photographers.

Responding to questions about the CCP, a spokesperson for the Victorian government said in a statement: “The centre was not defunded. Creative Victoria runs rigorous and competitive processes that all applicants must navigate.”

Artist Tony Albert donated a work from his ASHTRALIA series to raise much needed funds for the Centre for Contemporary Photography. Pictured is a detail of Ashtralia #6, 2023.Credit: Courtesy of the artist

There is a strange knock-on effect in funding for arts organisations – because the CCP had been unsuccessful getting a grant from Creative Victoria, it was not invited to apply for a tranche of funding from Creative Australia.

The news comes at a time when arts organisations around the state are reeling from a loss of government funding. La Mama has had to pause its operations for a year, despite owning the building it works from, and St Martins Theatre group is also struggling after losing funding.

“The lack of government support is confronting, particularly given the high levels of achievement and impact in recent years, however rally we must, and we will,” said Boetker-Smith.

Pound and board members Afshar, Russell-Cook and Isobel Crombie have worked with Boetker-Smith to ensure this does not mean the end. New premises have been secured at the Collingwood Yards, fundraisers are underway and a smaller program of exhibitions and events is being planned.

Pound argues no major city committed to the arts should be without a centre for contemporary photography, citing as examples the Photographers Gallery in London and the International Centre of Photography in New York. “We are on a par with these people and we are internationally recognised,” he says. “For us to disappear would be a disaster and we won’t let that happen.”

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