The exhibition Focus and the book Contact were launched simultaneously on 7 December 2006. Present on the day were a number of photographers featured in the book and exhibition: Mrs Barbara Beck (Second World War Army Directorate of Public Relations photographer), John Fairley and Mike Coleridge (Vietnam War Army Directorate of Public Relations photographers), Tim Page and Denis Gibbons (Vietnam War photojournalists), David Dare Parker and Stephen Dupont (photojournalists and Australian War Memorial official photographers), and the commercial photographer Heide Smith. The book and exhibition were launched by the distinguished Australian Broadcasting Commission journalist (and former Vietnam War correspondent) Tim Bowden and the AWM’s Director, Major General Steve Gower, in front of a large crowd. Tim Page photographed the proceedings, and a selection of these images is included below.

Tim Bowers and Patricia Sabine, Head of Photographs, Film and Sound, AWM

Tim Bowden and Patricia Sabine, Head of Photographs, Film and Sound at the Australian War Memorial. Photograph by Tim Page.

Major General Steve Gower, Director of the Australian War Memorial, speaking at the launch

Major General Steve Gower speaking at the launch of the book Contact and the exhibition Focus. Photograph by Tim Page.

Mike Coleridge and Shaune Lakin, author of Contact

Mike Coleridge, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, looks at Contact with the book’s author Shaune Lakin. Photograph by Tim Page.

Official photographers Mike Coleridge and David Dare Parker

Mike Coleridge, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, talks with the Perth-based photojournalist David Dare Parker. Joss Jensen, the designer of the exhibition, and Nola Anderson, Assistant Director, National Collections, Australian War Memorial, are in the background. Photograph by Tim Page.

Official photographer John Fairley in front of his work

John Fairley, a photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Vietnam War, stands in front of his work, some of which he was seeing for the first time since leaving Vietnam in 1970. Photograph by Tim Page.

Photojournalist Denis Gibbons, signing copies of Contact

The photojournalist Denis Gibbons signs copies of the book Contact. Photograph by Tim Page.

Photojournalist Stephen Dupont, speaking at the media launch of the book and exhibition

The Walkley award-winning photojournalist Stephen Dupont discusses one of his photographs taken in Dili, East Timor, during 1999, at the media launch for the book and the exhibition. Photograph by Tim Page.

Official WW2 photographer Mrs Barbara Beck

Barbara Beck (nee Isaacson) listens to Tim Bowden at the launch of the book and exhibition. Mrs Beck was an official photographer with the Australian Army’s Directorate of Public Relations during the Second World War, when she photographed the work undertaken by Australia’s women’s services. Photograph by Tim Page.

Photojournalist David Dare Parker, in front of his work

The photojournalist David Dare Parker stands in front of his portrait of the Australian peacekeeper, Private Anthony Meixner of A Company, 1RAR, in Dili in June 2006. Photograph by Tim Page.

View of audience, including AWM photographer Steve Burton

View of the crowd listening to Tim Bowden’s address at the launch of the book and the exhibition. Standing in front is Steve Burton, one the Australian War Memorial’s own photographers. Photograph by Tim Page.

Install view

Installation view of Focus. A viewer considers Allan Cuthbert’s photographs of Hiroshima, taken in February 1946. Photograph by Tim Page.

Install view with introductory panel

Installation view of Focus. Photograph by Tim Page.