Home to one of the finest collections of Australian photography, the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) also presents an extensive variety of exhibitions, educational programs, talks and special events. Three gallery spaces feature a diverse temporary program of historical, contemporary, local and international exhibitions in photography, fine art, craft and design.
An initiative of the City of Monash, the MGA opened in 1990. Boasting a nationally significant collection of Australian photography, the Gallery’s permanent collection comprises over 2,000 works illustrating the development and evolution of the photographic medium in Australia.
Included in the collection are late 19th century images of exploration and colonial endeavour by Nicholas Caire and Charles Bayliss; works representative of a Pictorialist approach to photography by Harold Cazneaux, J.B. Eaton and Jack Cato; and examples of 20th century Modernism by icons in photography Max Dupain, Olive Cotton and Wolfgang Sievers. The collection also includes strong holdings of documentary photography by David Moore, Jeff Carter, Mark Strizic, Roger Scott, Mervyn Bishop, Robert Whitaker, Rennie Ellis and Bruce Postle.
Examples of works by Anne Zahalka, Julie Rrap, Anne Ferran, Patricia Piccinini, Rose Farrell and George Parkin, Destiny Deacon, Tracey Moffatt and Bill Henson reflect the diversity of approach, processes and styles in contemporary photographic practice.
The emergence of the new digital photography at the start of the 21st century is exemplified by works in the collection by Pat Brassington, Michael Riley and Charmaine Hardy.
The remarkable breadth of MGA’s photography collection allows us to reflect on the multiple roles of photography - as a medium of communication and artistic expression, as a documenter of life, and as a medium that occupies a vital and central place in contemporary culture. | 
