Michel Lawrence has been a journalist (The Australian), a band manager (The Bushwackers) an advertising executive (J.Walter Thompson), photographer and more recently a video writer/director.
To CONTACT Michel Lawrence : michel.lawrence4@gmail.com
Michel has continued his parallel career in photography focusing on portraiture. His largest single portraiture project was All of Us, featuring around 200 portraits of Australians, not born here.
It was a counter-project to racial intolerance across Australia in the first decade of the 2000s, culminating in a large format book with a major installation at Melbourne’s Federation Square, launched by the then Victorian Premier, John Brumby for Australia Day 2008.
All of Us by Michel Lawrence was exhibited at Federation Square Melbourne before travelling across India.
A subsequent project, Indian Aussies was commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs and is currently still touring India after its launch in New Delhi 18 months ago.
Click to View- All of Us: 7.30 Report
His work is represented in various private and public collections, most notably the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, The National Library in Canberra, The Queensland Art Gallery, The Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne University and a various regional galleries.
His portrait of the Boys Next Door, the breakout post-punk group featuring the incandescent emerging talent of a young Nick Cave was included as a feature photograph in the national Portrait Gallery’s Pub Rock exhibition of 2020 through 2021.
A group of the Boys Next Door photographs also featured in Mark Mordue’s 2020 biography of the Young Nick Cave, Boy in Fire published by Allen and Unwin.
An early band shot, this one of Nick Cave and The Boys Next Door in the collections of the Performing Arts Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. Portrait of Nick Cave by Michel Lawrence.
A large collection of his photographs of musicians, actors and performing artists is also in the permanent collection of the Melbourne Performing Arts Museum.
Michel’s portrait of Barry Jones was selected as the cover image of Barry’s latest book, What is to be Done, published by Scribe Books in December 2020.
Michel has also produced three large format photographic books:
- Remarkable. Australia’s National Living Treasures.
- Written by Melinda Williams and Photography by Michel Lawrence. Published by Thames and Hudson
- ‘The Best Books of 2018’ Australian Financial Review Magazine – Summer edition..
- Framed: Portraits of Australian Painters
- Written and Photographed by Michel Lawrence. With an introduction by Janet Hawley. Designed by James Woollett
- Published by Hardie Grant in 1998 and is now out of print
- All of Us: Written and Photographed by Michel Lawrence
- Published by Scribe Books in 2008 and is also now out of print
Other Media:
Michel Lawrence’s photography has also been reproduced in major metropolitan newspapers and magazines such as The Australian, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald, the Herald Sun, Good Weekend and Harpers Bazaar.
Contact:
You can contact Michel by email: michel@mirofilms.tv
Or by ordinary, old-fashioned mail: 263/45 Glenferrie Rd Malvern 3144, VIC. Australia