Ricky Maynard: Australian Aboriginal Photographer

Whether it's portraits of Wik elders, images providing insight into the despair and recovery of Aborigines from rehabilitation centres or the mutton birding traditions of his own community, Ricky Maynard's unique documentary photography sheds light on his culture, bringing attention to Aboriginal social and political realities. His passion and meticulous attention to detail encapsulates an honest and deeply felt interpretation of his people and the land they inhabit.

Maynard, of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent, is a documentary photographer who lives on Flinders Island in Bass Strait between Tasmania and the southeast Australian mainland. This exhibition presents his latest developing body of work which he began in 2005, as well as a selection of earlier works from the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1990 Maynard was the recipient of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Arts Board grant which assisted him to undertake a year's full time study as part of the degree program in Documentary Photography at the International Centre of Photography, New York. In 1994 his series No More Than What You See probed indigenous deaths in custody in South Australian prisons and he was awarded the 1994 Mother Jones International Prizes for Documentary Photography and the Human Rights Commission Photography Award. In 2003 he received the Kate Challis RAKA Ward for Indigenous Contemporary Creative Arts for his portrait Arthur. In 2004 he was awarded the Australian Council for the Arts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts board membership.

Image: Ricky Maynard - Gladys, Wik Elder.