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                    Snap!

                    Sporting images
                    Press photos from the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.

                    15 November 2006 to 18 January 2007

                    Snap! marked the 50th anniversary of the Melbourne Olympic Games, held in 1956. The exhibition's main content came from a collection of press photographs of the games held by the City of Melbourne.

                    With television and newsreel material limited in scope and coverage, the contemporary image of the Olympics was provided by press photographers. Snap! sought insights into the way photographers created this Olympic image and the vast audience sport enjoyed by the mid-20th century in the era before television became pervasive.

                    Home-movie footage was also used in the show to give a view of the games from the spectator's point of view. While focusing on the event itself, Snap! also explored aspects of the Olympics' relationship to the Cold War, Australian sport and other relevant issues.

                    Download exhibition catalogue

                    Curated by Charles Pickett

                    Charles Pickett is a curator at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. He has curated and co-curated 25 exhibitions on Australian design and culture for the Powerhouse and other institutions, including Sydney Customs House, Sydney Opera House, the Justice & Police Museum and the Museum of Sydney. His The 80s are Back opened in late-2009 at the Powerhouse.

                    Charles has also published extensively, his Homes in the Sky: Apartment living in Australia winning the 2008 Bates Smart Award for Architecture in the Media.

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