Decade

Decade: 1970-1980 is a photography book showcasing Rennie Ellis' (1940-2003) contribution to photography and social history. The photographs in the book are edited by multi-award winning photographer, Stephen Dupont and are introduced by Susan van Wyk, Senior Curator of Photography at the NGV, and Ellis' contemporary, award-winning filmmaker and photographer, Paul Cox. Decade highlights Ellis as one of Australia's most important chroniclers of the seventies. The photographs, predominantly black and white, are drawn from a core selection originally made by Rennie for his own unpublished book, and are supplemented by other significant and iconic images from the Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive and the State Library of Victoria's collection. Many of the photographs are accompanied by extended captions written by Rennie Ellis and are published here for the first time. Decade, published in association with the State Library of Victoria, explores the cultures and sub-cultures of the seventies: the political upheavals, alternative lifestyles and counter culture, the women's movement, gay liberation, the new religions and cults, pop festivals, Vietnam and other protests, massage parlours, the disco scene, the blossoming of Australia's film industry, the new sexual freedom, Aboriginal rights, street festivals, the new theatre, fashion, drugs and the emergence of a decadent and hedonistic society that would come to characterise the eighties.