Graham S. Burstow

He was known for his documentation of Queensland's Gold Coast's beach culture.

• Name — Graham S. Burstow OAM • Born — 8 February 1927 • Birthplace — Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia • Died — 12 August 2022 • Occupation — photographer, engineer, company director

Graham Stephen Burstow was born in the Queensland regional city of Toowoomba on 8 February 1927. He was educated at the Toowoomba Grammar School and the University of Queensland, where he studied mechanical engineering. He completed his engineering studies at the Toowoomba Foundry.

Burstow worked as an engineer at the Toowoomba Foundry for 15 years, before joining the family business in 1961 to manage its floor covering operations.

At 17 years of age, Burstow learnt some camera and darkroom techniques from his younger brother, Sydney, who had joined the Toowoomba Grammar School's newly-formed camera club. Burstow soon became the official photographer of his local tennis club and choral society. Determined to explore the medium further, he joined the Toowoomba Photographic Society in 1947 and was encouraged by winning awards at several international photographic salons with his black and white landscape prints.

Between 1982 and 1988, Burstow exhibited seven times at the Imagery Gallery in South Brisbane, a photography gallery directed by Ruby and Doug Spowart. This included his first solo exhibition Within Reach, in 1982, showing 55 black and white prints that were predominantly images of people.

In the mid-1980s, the Queensland Art Gallery (now QAGOMA) commissioned six photographers, including Burstow, to produce portfolios on the theme of community life in Queensland. The resulting exhibition, titled Journeys North, was held in 1988 with a re-staging, Journeys North Revisited, in 2016. In the foreword to the original exhibition's publication, Doug Hall, AM, then director of the Gallery, wrote that Journeys North was "one of the most adventurous commissions undertaken by the Queensland Art Gallery". The other commissioned photographers were Lin Martin, Rob Mercer, Glen O’Malley, Charles Page, and Max Pam. For his portfolio, Burstow mostly photographed at small-scale outdoor events in south-east Queensland with his photographs giving prominence to onlookers as well as participants. The gallery acquired 57 prints from Burstow's portfolio for its permanent collection. The Queensland Art Gallery also included Burstow's work in its 1995 survey exhibition: The Power to Move, Aspects of Australian Photography.

Staged at the Cobb & Co branch of the Queensland Museum, Toowoomba, Icons on Icons was a particularly significant group exhibition for Burstow. The exhibition, held in 2013, featured the work of five photographers with strong connections to Toowoomba whose work had achieved national and international recognition. Aside from Burstow, the other photographers were John Elliott, Victoria Cooper, Doug Spowart and David Seeto. For this exhibition, Burstow, as well as showing recent work, returned to family portraits taken in the 1960s, and for the first time made large inkjet prints, without cropping, from the original medium format negatives. These prints are now in the collection of the State Library of Queensland.

A retrospective exhibition of Burstow's work, titled Sometimes a Light, was staged in 2002 by the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, curated by photographer Charles J. Page. Images taken over many decades at the Gold Coast were included in this exhibition and positive responses from viewers encouraged Burstow to research a survey of his Gold Coast photography. With the assistance of his daughter, and author, Narelle Oliver, this research resulted in the exhibition Flesh: The Gold Coast in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, held at the Brisbane Powerhouse in 2014. The exhibition showcased 84 black and white prints and was accompanied by the publication of the book of the same title by the University of Queensland Press. An expanded iteration of the exhibition, which included an extensive public program of talks and workshops, was curated by Virginia Rigney, and staged at the Gold Coast City Gallery (now HOTA) in 2015.

Burstow joined the Toowoomba Photographic Society in 1947 and in 1962 became one of the founding members of the Australian Photographic Society (APS). He went on to serve as APS President from 1982 to 1984 and was the APS Print Division chairman for ten years. In 2006 he was made an Honorary Life Member of APS and on 25 May 2022, he participated in the APS LIVE 2022 online 60th anniversary event.

Between 1962 and 1974, Burstow was the chairman of one national, and six international photographic salons. Although staged in the regional centre of Toowoomba, these salons regularly attracted thousands of international as well as local entries. Burstow's longest association with a photographic competition was with the Heritage Bank Photographic Awards, established in 1988, for which he performed various roles, including chief judge, up until 2022.

Burstow's annual holiday visits to Queensland's Gold Coast, that began when he was a child and continued with his wife and three children, were crucial for his photography.

In addition to Burstow's Gold Coast photo book, he published two other books of his photography: Touch Me in 1998, and Closer in 2020. His images can also be found in many image-based anthologies and books surveying photography in Australia.

• Touch Me: photographs by Graham Burstow Toowoomba, Queensland: Top Shelf Publications, 1998. • Flesh: The Gold Coast in the 1960s, 70s and 80s St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 2014. • Closer Balmain, New South Wales: Graham Burstow, 2020.

• Australian Photography Sydney, New South Wales: Globe Publishing, 1976. Edited by Laurence Le Guay. • Australian Photography: a contemporary view Sydney, New South Wales: Globe Publishing, 1978. Edited by Laurence Le Guay. • Christmas in Australia Sydney, New South Wales: Hutchison, 1990. Edited by Malcolm McGregor. • Gold Coast: City and Architecture London, England: Lund Humphries, 2018. By Andrew Leach

In 1973 there was a major shift in Burstow's photography through the intervention of friend and photographer, John F. Williams. Up to this time, Burstow had been using medium format film in comparatively bulky, twin lens reflex cameras. Unsolicited, Williams sent Burstow a 35mm Pentax ES camera, including a wide angled 28mm lens. With the camera came the message: “Graham, this is your new camera… I want you to discover the world of the 28mm lens.” Burstow credited this lighter weight camera and wider lens with inspiring his exploration of social documentary photography, enabling him to move closer to his subjects, engaging people face-to-face and observing complex social interactions. He became known for his documentation of the Gold Coast's beach culture.

Living in a regional area, Burstow became aware of the need to create opportunities for communication between photographers through photographic organisations. He also understood the importance of establishing exhibitions, competitions and events for them to show their work.

• Home of the Arts (HOTA) Gold Coast, Queensland. • Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Queensland • Queensland State Library, Brisbane, Queensland • National Library of Australia, Canberra • Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Queensland • Private collections