Jacqueline Mitelman

Jacqueline Mitelman was born Jacqueline MacGreggor in Scotland in 1948, and has since lived in Melbourne and in France for a few years. She was briefly married to Polish emigrant the painter/printmaker Allan Mitelman.[1] She studied for a Diploma of Art and Design at Prahran College of Advanced Education 1973-76, where her lecturers were Athol Shmith, Paul Cox, and John Cato.

After graduation, Mitelman practiced as a freelance photographer specialising in portraiture for magazines and newspapers,[2] album and book covers, and for theatre and music posters.[3] During her career she has sought out Australia's significant writers, artists and personalities for her subjects, thus creating a valuable pantheon of the country's culture.[4]

The National Portrait Gallery holds twenty of her photographs[5] including those of Dorothy Hewett, Helen Garner, Judith Wright, Jack Hibberd,[6] Peter Carey, Michael Leunig, Christina Stead,[7] Brett Whiteley, Germaine Greer, Ruby Hunter, Murray Bail,[8] Alan Marshall, Kylie Tennant, Susan Ryan, Ita Buttrose and Max Dupain.[9] Her depiction of Miss Alesandra[10] won the Gallery’s National Photographic Portrait prize,[11][12] for which she received $25,000 provided by Visa International.[4] Mitelman says of her approach[13] that;

“taking photographs is a bit like a temporary infatuation, for me, because, I'm not interested in taking awkward pictures of somebody, so it's a bit like...that process when you fall in love with somebody.”[5]

Of Mitelman’s portraits of dogs, critic Anna Clabburn wrote;

“These subjects are approached with reverence and deliberation and, like a human portrait, strive towards an inner essence by mapping the creature’s eyes and body language. There’s much to be learnt from Mitelman’s comic yet serious transposition of dogs into human guise. The anthropomorphic quality of her subjects is both inviting and vaguely disturbing…”[14]

• 2019/20, 21 September-20 January: A Dog’s Life, curators Maudie Palmer AO and Eugene Howard, Hamilton Gallery[15]
• 2016: Finalist, Bowness Prize, Monash Gallery of Art
• 2014: Finalist, Pinnacles Gallery Portrait Prize
• 2013, May: On Cockatoo Island, Mars Gallery
• 2012: Smith Street Portrait Project, Gertrude Street Projection Festival[16]
• 2011/12, October–February: Tarra Warra Museum of Art[17][18][19]
• 2010: Finalist, National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery
• 2008: Finalist, Olive Cotton Award, Tweed River Art Gallery
• 2007: Finalist, Olive Cotton Award, Tweed River Art Gallery
• 2008, April: Some Dogs, MARS Gallery Port Melbourne
• 2005, April: Mostly Strange, MARS Gallery Port Melbourne
• 2002, January 3-February 10: Investigations, Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park
• 2002, October 8–25: Photomontage, J-Space Centre for Contemporary Art, Chisholm Institute
• 1998/9, November–January: Dog Portraiture, Monash Gallery of Art
• 1995, March 8-June 8: Beyond the Picket Fence: Australian women's art in the National Library collections, National Library of Australia, Canberra, opened by Andrea Stretton, 7 March 1995[20][21]
• 1989, July 20–August 27: Jacqueline Mitelman, Jeff Busby, Greg Elms, Peter Leiss, Resurgence, The Photographers' Gallery
• 1975, October 1-September 6: Wimmin: six wimmin photographers, National Gallery of Victoria, for International Women's Year[21]
• 1975: Woman 1975, touring exhibition of the Women's Christian Association of Australia, Victoria, for International Women's Year[21]

• 2011: National Photographic Portrait Prize National Portrait Gallery
• 2004: Josephine Ulrick National Photography Prize

• National Portrait Gallery[22]
• National Library of Australia[23]
• Australia Defence Force Academy Library[24]
• National Gallery of Victoria[25]
• Art Gallery of New South Wales[26]
• State Library of Victoria[27]
• Museum of Modern Art at Heide[28]
• Monash Gallery of Art[29]
• Tweed River Art Gallery[30]

• Mitelman, Jacqueline; Horne, Donald, 1921-2005 (1988), Faces of Australia, Lothian, ISBN 978-0-85091-343-9CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Mitelman, Jacqueline; Gaston, Vivien; TarraWarra Museum of Art (2011), Jacqueline Mitelman : facetime, TarraWarra Museum of Art, retrieved 26 January 2020
• Horn, Michael; Hanover Welfare Services; Stegley Foundation (1995), Women alone ... : stepping forward : a report on homelessness experienced by lone women (1995 ed.), Hanover Welfare Services, ISBN 978-0-9588815-2-4