MICHAEL RILEY
Michael Riley (1960-2004) was a Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi photographer and filmmaker whose conceptual and documentary photographs and films mark an important shift in contemporary Aboriginal art and socio-political cultural developments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. Riley created images which are now icons of Australian contemporary art.
Riley was a prominent member of an extraodinary generation, a generation of talented, often tertiary-educated, artists/activists whose pursuit of their chosen profession (art, literature, dance, acting, law, politics, cultural administration and academia) changed history through the advent of strong, positive voices speaking for themselves on their own terms against the prejudice of non-Indigenous Australia. These individuals, Riley’s family, friends and peers, are the subjects of his early portraits.
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