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PHOTOGRAPHER: Charles J Page

Charles Page is an exhibiting photographer with numerous solo and group exhibitions of Social Documentary photography. His work has been exhibited in the Queensland Art Gallery and the Australian National Gallery as well as many other major venues and has been included in major public collections throughout Australia. He has also been the recipient of numerous major photographic commissions. These have included; The New Parliament House project in Canberra (1984-86), Journeys North, Australian Bicentennial project (1986-88) Queensland Art Gallery, The Centenary Of Federation, Cairns Art Gallery (2000-01)

He began his photographic education in 1965 at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. After deferring studies to travel overseas he completed an Associate Diploma of Arts in 1976 and completed his final Bachelor of Arts there in 1980. Dispersed between photographic study he worked as a freelance Advertising, Fashion and Industrial Photographer in Melbourne. Charles moved to Queensland in 1981 to teach with the Department of Photography, Queensland College of Art and completed a Diploma of Teaching (TAFE) in 1983. In 1991 the College of Art merged with Griffith University where he was appointed to a lecturing position. In 2004 he completed his PhD.

He has traveled extensively having photographed in more than 60 countries. He has also been involved with the International Red Cross to document crisis activities in various conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Malawi and Somalia and Chechnya. In the late 1980’s he completed a documentation of life inside the notorious Boggo Road Prison. These images were shown at Graham Galleries in 1991 and subsequently traveled by Arts Queensland in 1992 and 1993.

In 1993 Charles journeyed to the Antarctic under the auspices of the Australian Antarctic Division. At Christmas 1994 he was again photographing under the auspices of the Australian Red Cross, this time in Thailand.

In July 1995 he undertook a one-month International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) project in Chechnya in the Russian Federation.

He returned to Chechnya in July 1996 as an ICRC-contracted photographer to document the ICRC humanitarian activities in that devastated country.

In 1997 he undertook a project for the Federation of the Red Cross to document urbanisation in India, Jordan, Colombia and Peru.

Over period 2001 – 2004 Charles documented the construction of the new Alice Springs to Darwin railway. The three-year commission was for the Northern Territory government. Throughout his career he has maintained an interest in the decline of steam locomotion, “the last element of the Industrial Revolution”. This national and international pursuit has extended over 40 years, but only entered the public arena in 2000 at the Ipswich Art Gallery.