John GOLLINGS: An iceberg in memoriam

2026 MAPh Photography Fair

John GOLLINGS
born Australia 1944
An iceberg in memoriam 1991
ink-jet print
unframed
78.0 x 135.5 cm
ed. of 10 
collection of the artist
courtesy of the artist

John Gollings (1944 - )

John Gollings is Australia’s most pre-eminent and prolific photographer of the built environment. For the past 50 years he has been synthesising his parallel interests in photography and architecture to explore the cultural construction of social spaces. From sacred rock art sites and ancient temples to suburban dream homes and the monuments of corporate architecture, Gollings’s catalogue of images provides a remarkable visual history of human habitats. The history of the built world was the first major survey of Gollings photographic practice and was exhibited at MAPh in 2018 before touring across Australia and to India. It offered a much anticipated opportunity to appreciate the full breadth of his unique photographic vision. Gollings's work is currently the focus of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria John Gollings | Artists Room (28 Feb – 26 Aug 2026).

Gollings made his first photographs and received darkroom tuition at age 11. He later studied architecture at the University of Melbourne and completed a Masters in Architecture at RMIT. He worked as a freelance advertising photographer, specialising in fashion and, as his contemporaries in architecture developed their practices, he increasingly focused on architectural photography for which he is now well-known. He has subsequently lectured on architecture and photography. He has recently spent more time on longer term projects with academic or cultural significance for books, exhibitions and fine prints, including the documentation of dead cities in countries such as India, Cambodia and Libya. Each of the works on offer are from the artist's studio.