Ms Anne-Marie Van de Ven
TBA
Janice Wakely: Model and Photographer
Janice Wakely began her modelling career in Melbourne in 1954. She went on to work with many top Australian and international photographers including Helmut Newton, Terence Donovan, Athol Shmith, Henry Talbot, Bruno Benini and David Franklin. Highlights of the first decade of Wakely's career included the much publicized 'Australian Arrives' fashion tour to New Zealand sponsored by the Commonwealth Department of Trade in 1956; success in London where the press nicknamed her 'The Girl of the Moment'; and the 'All Australian Fashion Parades' of 1962. By 1959, Janice was taking her own photographs, and snapping photographers (including Helmut Newton, Henry Talbot and Athol Shmith) working with models on location. In 1963, when it was still rare for women to work professionally as photographers, Janice established the Penthouse modelling agency and photographic studio in Flinders Lane, Melbourne with co-model Helen Homewood. Helmut Newtons' 1959 'Australian Wool Board' photograph of Janice Wakely reveals Wakely's cool modelling confidence (as well as Newton's ability to encapsulate modernity by using cityscapes and contemporary architecture as back drops for fashion shots). A fascinating story and great photographs!
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