Lovers and misfits is an exhibition of portraits by Peter Milne taken during the formative years of his artistic practice. Milne first began taking photographs of his friends, family and the Melbourne punk scene in the 1970s and over the subsequent decades captured a flow of figures including Nick Cave, Anita Lane, Rowland S Howard and Polly Borland. These iconic and warm portraits document Milne’s friends before they would go on to play pivotal roles in Australia’s music and art scene.
When we think about the Melbourne music scene from the 1970s and 1980s, it is often with Milne’s images in mind. His photographs from this time have been so widely circulated they have become part of Australia’s cultural psyche and helped to define how we see the period through music. The earliest of the photographs included in this exhibition was taken in 1977, when Milne was 16 years old. It features a young Rowland S Howard, happy to pose for Milne’s developing lens.
This exhibition captures the transitory moments of the first wave of punk in Melbourne. They offer a vulnerability and a rawness of an intoxicating milieu of friends, lovers and misfits forging their paths forward. While some are still alive, others have passed – leaving only the remnants of their creative outputs. These photographs provide an important historical record that will live on – long past Milne or any of us.
FAC – Mezzanine Gallery
Main Foyer
Free Entry
Saturday 10 May to Saturday 26 July
Tue-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-2
Closed Monday, Sunday, public holidays
Image Credits:
Peter MILNE, Nick Cave The Boys Next Door gig, Swinburne 1977,pigment ink-jet print,30.0 x 20.0 cm, Museum of Australian Photography, City of Monash Collection, donated by Helen Frajman 2021, MAPh 2021.106, courtesy of the artist and M.33 (Melbourne)
Peter MILNE, Rowland S Howard 1977 from the series A day in the life of Rowland S Howard, pigment ink-jet print 31.0 x 46.0 cm, courtesy of the artist and M.33 (Melbourne)
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