Mervyn Bishop (1945– ) is a Murri man, from Brewarrina, New South Wales. He became Australia’s first Aboriginal press photographer when he commenced a four year cadetship with The Sydney Morning Herald in 1962, and was announced Press Photographer of the Year in 1971 on the strength of his image Life and death dash, which appeared on the front cover of The Sydney Morning Herald on 22 January 1971. In 1974 he commenced work as a photographer with the newly established Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Canberra, where as a staff photographer he documented Aboriginal communities Australia-wide. Bishop returned to The Sydney Morning Herald in 1979, working with the paper until 1986. Bishop’s work is represented in major public collections throughout Australia, and several of his images have become icons of Australian photography, recording moments and conveying stories of the social history of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

(2023)