Ruth Maddison

There was a shift in artistic endeavors within the latter part of her career. In a 2015 interview by Estelle Pigot, Maddison expresses her concerns for the news on public broadcasting channels, which she believes cause a drift in the community. Her focus now resides mainly in the unknown stories that unite people as well as themes of death, decay, and mortality. Although she started with photography, Maddison now also use the mediums of textiles, sculptures, and the moving-image. Some of her experimental works in 2009, belonging to a project called There is a time, include: 'Dead to the world', inkjet print on cotton/silk fabric, found fabric flowers sewn with cotton thread, 'Coming to the Monaro', silent video loop, 'The day I left my garden #1 & #2', perspex, glass, wood, neon light, with pressed and dried flowers on paper and 'There is a time', 2009, archival pigment prints on 100% cotton rag.

In 2013, Maddison was the recipient of a 3-months residency at the Artspace Visual Arts Centre in Sydney. This is a program made possible by the collaboration between Regional Arts New South Wales and Sydney Gallery, and sponsored by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund. It offers regional artists the space, finance, and curatorial assistance to create and exhibit their works in an urban environment, and to make contributions to the visual arts community at large.

Her list of accolades include the Hobart City Art Prize (2007) and the Josephine Ulrick National Photography Prize for Portraiture (2002).

Her work can also be found in many important publications by major national galleries. These include: Recent Australian Photography: From the KODAK Fund, 1985; Living in the 70s: Contemporary Photographers by the National Gallery of Victoria, 1987; The Thousand Mile Stare: A Photographic Exhibition by the Victorian Centre for Photography, Melbourne, 1988; Australian Photography: the 1980s by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1988; Shades of Light by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1988; Indecent Exposures: Twenty Years of Australian Feminist Photography by the Power Institute of Fine Arts, Sydney, 1994 and 2nd Sight: Australian Photography by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2002.

Maddison's career as a freelance photographer encompasses commissioned projects for theater companies, governmental organizations, and newspaper agencies. From 1984 to 1985, she became involved in a project called artists-in-community, which was funded by the Victorian Ministry for the Arts. As her professional interests lie in portraiture and social documentary, there is a strong sense of intimacy in Maddison's work. Throughout the 1980s, most of her photographs were of people in social environments within the metropolitan Melbourne area. Since moving from the city to a more rural, sea-side location in 1996, and being a prolific photographer, her portfolio has expanded to include many recognized series from then to now focusing on the stories of people in the Eden and Pambula district in New South Wales. These include: Now A River Went Out of Eden (2002) and Girt by Sea (2008).

In an article published by The Australian, 1983, 'Abstract painters point the way to an improving economy', Sandra McGrath commented on Maddison's work in a group exhibition titled Survey 83' at the Watters Gallery in Sydney. The photographs shown in this exhibition belonged to the series Some Men, of the same year, by the photographer. McGrath made an observation on the use of the technique of hand-coloring employed by Maddison, which is not to add glamour to the subject matter as commercial photographers often do, but to create a sense of surrealism and painting-like effect to the images. By utilizing oil-paint, Maddison changed the tonality of the background, texture, skin tones and colors. Furthermore, McGrath noted the absence of sexual overtones, except in two instances, in Maddison's work, although these are very candid shots of male models. This is attributed to the fact that Maddison spent time to establish a relationship with her subjects before photographing them..

In her first solo exhibition in 1979, Christmas Holiday with Bob's Family, Maddison produced a series of hand-coloured images. This is a technique that was popular in the 19th century, as well as the start of the 20th century. Photographers added paints, dyes or other materials and mediums to infuse colours to black and white images, extend the longevity of existing colours in images, increase the monetary value of their works, correct mistakes that have been made, and imbue a uniqueness to their photographs as a mean of creative expression. However, with the advancement of technology and the introduction of the modern prints, the practice of hand-colouring photographs lost its popularity until recent times where there has been a revival. Now, it is considered to be an important facet of contemporary Australian photography. In 2015, the National Gallery of Victoria held an exhibition featuring works by various artists, including Maddison's, that celebrates the beauty of this medium.

Maddison has held solo-exhibitions within and outside of Australia since 1979. Some of these include:

She continues to explore themes of relationships, communities and families. Maddison's projects often speak of the ties-that-bind, offering the viewers glimpses into the daily lives and rituals of ordinary citizens within their homes and neighbourhoods. Furthermore, her endeavors as a feminist photographer have given a voice to women in the community and the feminist movement within Australia in the 1970s and 1980s at large. These include: And so...we joined the Union (1985), Women over 60 (1991) and Single Mothers (1995).

Ruth Maddison is an Australian photographer born in 1945. She started photography in the 1970s and continues to make contributions to the Australian visual arts community.

Maddison is an Australian photographer who now resides at Eden on the south coast of New South Wales. She was born on 18 November 1945. As a first-year physiotherapy student, and a mother of three children, Maddison held various miscellaneous jobs before venturing into photography in 1976. Her friend, Ponch Hawkes, who was a photographer, encouraged her to use an available camera and a home set-up darkroom. This would lead to a commercial project six months later and a solo exhibition to follow within a period of three years. Although self-taught, she has seen both commercial and critical success nationally.