Official War Photographers

Hurley and Parer photographs and film

The names of Frank Hurley and Damien Parer are probably as familiar to many people as their photographs, which are often of high aesthetic and technical standard and have been reproduced many times over. Some of their images have achieved icon status, but these men are only two of a large number of war photographers (taking both still and moving images) whose work is held in the Memorial's collection.

War photographers worked under difficult and trying conditions in order to record photographically the story of Australians at war. In many cases they risked their lives to do this. There were happy occasions and heart-wrenching ones to photograph and film, ranging over the whole gamut of the military experience. These varied from battles at sea to aerial shots of RAAF aircraft over steamy jungles, from weddings in churches in exotic locations to funerals held in haste between barrages on the Western Front in France. There is little of the war experience which is not represented in the collection among the work of the official war photographers