The ABC TV two-part series about Prime Minister Gough Whitlam brought back memories for this writer who was present when the above photograph was taken showing Gough delivering a speech in the packed Darwin Greek Hall before the fateful 1975 election. The NT Administrator , Jock Nelson , had resigned from this post to contest the election. In the media group at the right of the stage , a scarf about her head, is the prominent international photojournalist , Penny Tweedie . Though British , she spent much time in Australia and had dual nationality . She had covered wars , did splendid shoots of Australian Aborigines for books and contributed to the work of welfare agencies in Africa. Feeling unwanted, she committed suicide in 2011, aged 70.
The editor of ProPhoto , Paul Burrows , said
Penny Tweedie’s suicide should
cause all photographers
to stop and think. " Here was an immensely passionate and dedicated
photographer with an outstanding body of
work to her name who felt she had no meaningful place in the world of digital
imaging. According to those who knew
her, Penny put her heart and soul into her photography and believed
wholeheartedly in the
integrity of photojournalism and its
capacity to tell stories powerfully
Graham McCarter, who knew Penny from his college days back in the early
1960s, was quoted as saying , “I think it would have been very hard for her
to accept that she wasn’t wanted. The
thing I most remember about her was her
amazing obsession with photography and so, once things began to
change – and all the people she’d worked
with moved on to be replaced by people
who didn’t want what she did – that obsession became something
of a two-edged sword. I can see how the honesty of
photography coming into question would have upset her greatly.” Also covered
in ProPhoto at the same time was the death
of Australian photographer, Jeff Carter, who also suicided after the return of
cancer. Carter’s contribution to Australian documentary photography had been quickly
recognised with an exhibition at the State Library of NSW.
