Artists of the Western Desert: Greg Weight

Greg Weight (born 1945) opened his studio in the late 1960s and quickly gained a reputation for having a progressive eye; photographing objects, personalities and landscapes. He has captured portraits of some of Australia’s most significant artists including Arthur Boyd, Margaret Olley and Brett Whiteley.

His photographs have been exhibited at Old Parliament House, the Brett Whiteley Studio and the National Portrait Gallery. Weight was awarded a residency at Hill End in NSW in 1999 and 2017 as well as the Citigroup Australian Photographic Portrait Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2003.

In 2004, a book of Weight’s photographs titled ‘Australian Artists’ was released, accompanied by an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.

Weight’s work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; the National Library of Australia, Canberra and the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.

The thirty portraits in the exhibition were taken during Weight’s trips to Central Australia with philanthropist and curator Ken McGregor between 2006 and 2011. Their collaboration resulted in a monograph, Artists of the Western Desert (published by MacMillan in 2011), which features most of the exhibited portraits and related works.