Image: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
‘Passage: The Art of Atong Atem’ presents new and existing photographic works by the artist.
The opening launches ‘Passage: The Art of Atong Atem’, a fully illustrated monograph produced by the National Gallery of Victoria in partnership with Thames & Hudson Australia to accompany the exhibition.
The accompanying conversation explores Atem’s vibrant photography, including her combination of South Sudanese Dinka Bor culture, community and bold self-portraiture.
The publication spans Atem’s earliest works through recent series and presents her richly staged portrait photography as a way of exploring inherited memory, identity, displacement, war and colonialism.
Drawing on African studio traditions, feminist aesthetics and diasporic narratives, the practice frames photography as a site of agency and self-representation.
Atem is an Ethiopian-born, South Sudanese artist living in Naarm/Melbourne.
In 2025, she exhibited at Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France, in partnership with PHOTO Australia and was selected as one of six nominees for the Prix de La Photo Madame Figaro-Arles.
