Reynolds Mark Ellis (11 November 194019 August 2003) was an Australian social and social documentary photographer. He also worked, at various stages of his life, as an advertising copywriter, seaman, lecturer, television presenter and founder of Brummels Gallery of Photography, Australia's first dedicated photography gallery, where he established both a photographic studio and an agency dedicated to his work, published 17 photographic books, and held numerous exhibitions in Australia and overseas.

Early life and education

Born in the

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

beach-side suburb of Brighton and educated at Brighton Grammar School, Ellis won a scholarship to the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb n ...

in 1959. He left during his first year to work as an office boy at Orr Skate & Associates, a Melbourne advertising agency. He subsequently studied advertising at the

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scie ...

, but before obtaining his diploma he spent two years travelling the world, having bought his first camera to record his travels, and worked as a seaman en route. Gregarious and outspoken, Ellis was never shy of controversy; in 1968 he rode a

penny-farthing The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle. It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds (owing to its travelling a large distance for every ...

bicycle along

St Kilda Road St Kilda Road is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the locality of Melbourne which has the postcode of 3004, and along with Swanston Street forms a major spine of the city. St Kilda Road begins at Flinders Street, in ...

in a publicity stunt in protest against Melbourne's air pollution. Later, in his photographic career, he was to become known for his confronting imagery of Australian lifestyles.

Photographer

By 1967 Ellis was creative director at Monahan Dayman Advertising in Melbourne. He was offered the position as Melbourne editor for Gareth Powell's and Jack de Lissa's ''

Chance International ''Chance International''Chanc ...

'' magazine.Elliott, Simon
"Aussies all"
Portrait magazine, Issue. 19, 1 March 2006,

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

Retrieved 15 February 2017 He left Monahan Dayman Advertising in 1969 to become a freelance photographer. An early photo essay was on the then remote mining settlement of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area inclu ...

, which was published in 1970 in a Saturday edition of ''The Age'', and in '' Walkabout'' magazine. His first exhibition and a resultant book in collaboration with fellow photographer Wesley Stacey on Kings Cross, Sydney, followed in 1971. The book was launched in the Yellow House Artist Collective. Part of his work during this period was to guide photographers on 'safaris' into the

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a ...

. In another assignment, he was the stills photographer for Australian director Tim Burstall's sex romp '' Alvin Purple''. After founding Brummels Gallery of Photography'','' in 1974 Ellis went on to form Scoopix Photo Library in Prahran, which later became the exclusive Australian agent for New York's

Black Star Black Star or Blackstar may refer to: Astronomy *Black star (semiclassical gravity), a theoretical star built using semiclassical gravity as an alternative to a black hole *Saturn, referred to as "Black Star" in ancient Judaeic belief Literature ...

. In 1975 he opened his studio, Rennie Ellis & Associates, at the same premises, and operated from there for the rest of his life. Once established as a photographer, Ellis worked, exhibited and published continuously; he showed, for example, in 1976 with Carol Jerrems ''Heroes and Anti-Heroes'' at The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop Magazines to which he contributed were diverse; ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' and ''

The Bulletin Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin Debate, ...

''. His books and exhibitions were on Australian popular culture, including the beach, beer, graffiti, Australian railway stations and the Rio carnival. In 1993 he became a co-presenter on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television ne ...

's lifestyle program ''Looking Good'', continuing in that role for three years and working with Deborah Hutton and Jo Bailey. In the same year his work was also included in Picture Freedom, an exhibition at

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established i ...

in London and also exhibited ''Further Observations''at Melbourne's Photographers' Gallery, February 29–March 17, 1996.

Brummels Gallery

On 14 December 1972, Ellis and deputy director Robert Ashton launched the non-profit ''Brummels Gallery of Photography'', partly funded by two Arts Council grants. It was the first privately run art gallery in the country to be devoted specifically to photography showcasing mainly Australian photographers though it also attracted shows from international photographic artists. Innovations included a Polaroid party in 1978, with cameras, flash bulbs and enough film for 320 exposures supplied by the instant photography company, and champagne to loosen inhibitions as participants pinned their pictures on the wall. The first exhibition, ''Two Views of Erotica: Henry Talbot/Carol Jerrems'' (14 December 1972 – 21 January 1973), was opened by photographer and filmmaker, Paul Cox, who was soon to open ''

'' around the corner in Punt Road,

South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a popu ...

. This period brought a reawakening to the photographic medium as an art form not seen since the Pictorialist era, and saw the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited ar ...

open the first photography department in a government-run institution, under the curatorship of Jennie Boddington. From 1977, the gallery was sponsored by the camera manufacturer

Pentax is a brand name used primarily by the Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh for DSLR cameras, lenses, sport optics (including binoculars and rifle scopes), and CCTV optics. The Pentax brand is also used by Hoya Corpora ...

and was renamed ''Pentax Brummels Gallery of Photography''. The gallery closed in January 1980, having run for eight years, after it had advanced the standing of photography as art and the careers of many Australian photographers.

Reception

Cultural commentator Phillip Adams in discussing ''Australian Graffiti'', dubbed Ellis "Australia's oldest hippy." Art critic Nancy Borlase remarked, in relation to his inclusion, with Warren Breninger and Godwin Bradbeer in a 1978 Australian Centre for Photography show of the Melbourne photographers, that "Ellis, whose assured professionalism, in his ''The Way of Flesh'' series, places him in that class of photographers who use the camera as an extension of themselves, effortlessly and with obvious enjoyment," and quoting him as saying "I like photographing behind the scenes, like Brassaï."

Legacy

Ellis died after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 62. Since his death his second wife, Kerry Oldfield Ellis, and his assistant, Manuela Furci, have established the Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive, and continue to organise exhibitions of his work.Peter Wilmoth
"Redefining Rennie"
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territo ...

'', 12 December 2004. Retrieved 11 October 2016. These have included ''Aussies All: Portrait Photography by Rennie Ellis'' at the

in Canberra (2006), ''No Standing, Only Dancing'' at the Ian Potter Centre in Melbourne (2008), and ''Kings Cross 1970-1971: Rennie Ellis'' in Sydney (2017). Ellis' work was included in Candid Camera: Australian Photography 1950s–1970s at the

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

(2010) which also featured the work of key Australian photographers

Max Dupain Maxwell Spencer Dupain AC OBE (22 April 191127 July 1992) was an Australian modernist photographer. Early life Dupain received his first camera as a gift in 1924, spurring his interest in photography. He later joined the Photographic Society ...

David Moore David Moore may refer to: Politics * David E. Moore (1798-1875), American politician in Virginia * David Moore (Australian politician) (1824–1898), politician in Sandridge, Victoria, Australia * David Moore (Manx politician), member of the H ...

Jeff Carter Jeffrey J. Carter (born January 1, 1985) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Los Angel ...

, Robert McFarlane,

Mervyn Bishop Mervyn Bishop (born July 1945) is an Australian news and documentary photographer. Joining ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' as a cadet in 1962 he was the first Aboriginal Australian to work on a metropolitan daily newspaper and one of the first to b ...

, Carol Jerrems and

Roger Scott Roger Scott (23 October 1943 – 31 October 1989) was a British radio disc jockey. He was best known for presenting an afternoon radio show on London's Capital London from 1973 until 1988 and was also best known for presenting his late nigh ...

Collections

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in t ...

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

(Adelaide) * Horsham Regional Art Gallery

Books with photographs and/or text by Ellis

* ''Kings Cross Sydney: a personal look at the Cross.'' Melbourne: Thomas Nelson (Australia), 1971. Co-authored by Wesley Stacey. * ''Sydney in colour.'' Melbourne: Lansdowne, c. 1971. Photographs by Rennie Ellis and John Carnemolla. * * ''Australian graffiti.'' Melbourne: Sun Books, 1975. Foreword by Ian Turner.Phillip Adams, 'The literature of graffiti,' ''The Age'', 25 October 1975, p.16 * ''Ketut lives in Bali.'' London: Methuen Children's Books and Sydney: Methuen of Australia, 1976. Text by Stan Marks. Photographs by Rennie Ellis. * ''Australian graffiti revisited.'' Melbourne: Sun Books, 1979, c. 1975. Co-authored by Ian Turner. * ''Railway stations of Australia.'' South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1982. Photography by Rennie Ellis. Text by Andrew Ward. * ''We live in Australia.'' Hove: Wayland, 1982. * ''Life's a beach.'' South Yarra, Victoria: Currey O'Neil, 1983. * ''Life's a beer.'' South Yarra, Victoria: Melbourne : Ross Books, 1984. * ''Life's a ball.'' South Yarra, Victoria: Currey O'Neil:, 1985. * ''The all new Australian graffiti.'' South Melbourne, Vic., Australia : Sun Books, 1985. Photographs by Rennie Ellis. * ''Life's a parade.'' Port Melbourne, Victoria: Lothian, 1986. * ''Life's a beach II: the adventure continues.'' Melbourne: Lothian, 1987. * ''Life's still a beach.'' South Yarra, Melbourne: Hardie Grant Books, 1998. * ''Up front: funny, filthy, philosophical advice from the T-shirt.'' South Yarra, Victoria: Hardie Grant Books, 1998. * ''No standing, only dancing.'' Melbourne : National Gallery of Victoria, c. 2008. Photographs by Rennie Ellis and Susan van Wyk. Essay by George Negus. * ''Decadent: 1980-2000.'' London, UK: Hardie Grant, 2014; Richmond, Victoria Hardie Grant Books, in association with the State Library of Victoria, 2014.Foreword by Manuela Furci. Essays by William Yang and Robert McFarlane.

Media

* ''Music Around Us: Silent Music'' with Norbert Loeffler, Athol Shmith, John Cato, Rennie Ellis and

, television broadcast ABV2, Thursday August 9, 1979.'Focussing on silent music,' The Age, Thursday, 09 Aug 1979, p.47

References

Further information

"Rennie Ellis: Aussies All" photograph collection

* National Gallery of Victoria media kit "Rennie Ellis – The Artist" * National Gallery of Victoria media kit "Rennie Ellis – The Exhibition"
Hang Ten with Rennie Ellis
by Janet Austin

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Rennie 1940 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Australian photographers Photographers from Melbourne People from Brighton, Victoria People educated at Brighton Grammar School