Changing the Gaze: A Photographic Representation of the Australian Wine Identities

Abstract

This research project took as its premise that Australian winemakers have contributed to Australia’s modern identity yet they remain, photographically, an unrepresented sector of Australian society, indeed almost a cliché. The photographic representation and promotion of the Australian wine industry it was argued created a wine gaze, but that imagery of winemakers took a secondary role to imagery projecting the cultural and industrial significance of that industry. Thus this project argues that the graphic documentation of Australian winemakers in contemporary Australia remains deeply inadequate and mono-dimensional but came about for three primary reasons. First, like beer, wine was seen as being a part of civilised society. However, despite wine gaining international recognition in the C19th it was beer that became the national drink. Second, given the strength of moral and wowser objections to alcohol consumption from the C19th as a potential danger to the family unit, the promotion of wine consumption focused on creating a positive image. This imagery emphasises as a counterpoint the economic and industrial basis of the wine industry in popular advertising, (particularly from the 1960’s) assigning people as props to wine’s industrial or agricultural process. The third aspect, was that the evolving Australian wine gaze was strongly educative. When the winemaker was featured invariably the image was that of a person holding a glass of wine up to the viewer. This became a photographic stereotype, a wine gaze educating a largely unfamiliar public how to act appreciatively with wine, and stressed the product more than the person. These factors fashioned a lack of an interpretative, photographic document of significant Australian winemakers. Given the rise of wine culture from the 1960s and its contribution to multiculturalism in Australia this inadequate photographic representation of Australian winemakers needed to be rectified.