https://www.nfsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-02/Colour%20TV%20Mega%20Menu%203%20TVs_1000x745%20px.jpg
Archie Roach portrait
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/10-2019/358786.jpg
Title:
Archie Roach portrait
NFSA ID
358786
Year
1990
Warnings
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons
This stark black-and-white portrait of Archie Roach, taken by music photographer Tony Mott, is absolutely arresting.
It resembles a piece of photojournalism, capturing a fleeting moment on an unidentified street. The technique of blurring the background used here renders the immediate physical context of the photo unimportant compared with the emotion in Archie's face.
The image was taken as a publicity shot for Hightone Records in California before Archie embarked on a tour of the United States in the early 1990s.
Notes by Beth Taylor and Adam Blackshaw
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.