Ricky Maynard Interview
with Kelly Gellatly 1 September 1998

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of the Interview (aprox 15 minutes 424KB)

 

KG: You are perhaps most well known for your series The Moonbird People. How do you feel about this work today.

RM: Looking back over the years, now I've come back in '98 now to, just under eight or nine years later, to reprint the series; and looking back at your work is a very interesting thing to do. It sort of follows the very tradition of documentary photography I think in the way that because it automatically lends itself to an historical context today that you sort of realise just how really important that is - some of those people in that series have passed away, some of those work situations have changed a little bit, not much, well I think there's one island that's closed down, so things are changing all the time but it becomes more important that I actually get that at the time. Plus I know about the amount of work that's been accessed, and the way I'd like to continue that serious documentary mode of representation which is that way - it seems it's becoming more important than ever now between groups of us.

KG: Great. And that was part of the After 200 Years project. Do you want to speak a little about being involved in that?

RM: Yeah, okay. Well, the After 200 Years project in the mid '80s was coordinated and edited by Penny Taylor. Now, what was interesting about that was working collaborative process which involved a number, say nineteen photographers, so it was a new way, and it was aimed to have the collaboration of the pictures being directed mainly from the community. So the community had a whole say in the way, the direction of those photographs and how they were used. Now that obviously hasn't been done before in Australia, so those two things and especially the photography mode of that collaborative process, and bringing in a new standard or a new way of working and approach to photography in Australia. So it was very interesting to learn about that and see how you can work in that mode.

KG: You were commissioned by the South Australian Department of Correctional Services in 1993 to document Aboriginal experiences of imprisonment. This resulted in the series No More Than What You See. Tell me a little bit about that.

RM: Well the Prison series was happening in 1993, now it was the Year of Indigenous Peoples; but mainly it was at a stage when I was looking back at something that had really affected me personally, not only simply as an Aboriginal person, but also as an Aboriginal documentary photographer. Four years after the Royal Commission there had virtually been hardly anything done whatsoever on it so, I felt, just out of a sheer urge, I had to go and do this project; that's why it became important, a really good project, a really successful project, because it came out of that real desire to want and go to produce a body of work in there. And that was to show, to keep people's awareness up, about still a very serious problem of black deaths in custody. It was a very important period to be able to show that.

KG: You received the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography for this work. Firstly, how did this make you feel, and what did the Fund enable you to do?

RM: Firstly, how did I feel? I just couldn't believe it, 'coz it's usually, I mean this is probably the most prestigious award in the world. I mean of all the previous winners like Sergado, Mary Ellen Mark, ... , so it's had a history of some of the greats of the world, and to be seen in that sort of light, in that sort of company; and we all sort of one day hope we can win a Mother Jones; but yeah, I mean, I was completely overwhelmed by that. But the greatest thing, that was really important to me was that I was judged by my peers, so that really was, so that when you sort of look back and see all the time you've spent learning your craft and your medium - 'coz it's a very lonely life as a documentary photographer - nights burning the midnight oil in the darkroom, going out with your camera and trying to battle the world just to get things done; so it was all worthwhile when you come to be judged by peers. So that was the most important thing to me, so personally, it was more of a personal thing to me, rather than say "Oh", you know, "You won the Mother Jones Award". Well that's not as important as the way I felt that I was judged by my peers, so that was really important to me as an artist.

KG: Great. And what did the Fund involve?

RM: Well, it's just a small amount of money that - there are only five recipients per year - and it just enables you to be able to carry on the same series of work, or it may be a little bit different, but an ongoing part of that particular project. So yeah, so that's what it really does - it creates, you know, some sponsorship money to be able to continue that work, which of course, is the biggest battle in documentary photography; being able just to seek sponsorship to go out and actually do the work.

KG: You're a committed documentary photographer, obviously. What does documentary photography mean to you? A hard one ...

RM: So many things. I don't know, I think, well it's become, well, it's your life. It's not something I chose lightly; I knew from the, sort of early '80s when I made a real sort of direction towards documentary. I understood about the commitments, the personal struggles, advocating the medium as an artform itself, and the very nature of documentary, that you know, pictures have a purpose, and its relating to social attitudes, changing social attitudes, I'm sorry. So I knew all those sorts of things going into it so it wasn't a light decision, I mean I really made sure I was going to give it 100% commitment. Work to it, because that's what you have to do. So to me it's sort of, you have to make that sort of decision about your personal life too, I mean you can either sort of settle down and get married (which I nearly did) and become a commercial photographer; but you know, I couldn't even contemplate that. The importance of the work and being able to use an artform, and a craft; being able to help Aboriginal people in the struggle for recognition and addressing certain social injustices, to me was sort of a goal that I dedicate myself to. So work became my life, and it was important that I become fully committed.

 

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