Light Years

Streaming video - 1991

A unique record of the life and work of eminent Australian photographer, Olive Cotton. In the 1930s and 1940s, Cotton successfully ran a studio in Sydney with renowned Australian photographer Max Dupain. Her work was exhibited both in Australia and overseas. At the end of the war she married and moved to Koorawatha in central New South Wales. As she and her husband struggled to gain a living from the land and raise a family, it seemed that Cotton had left her career as a photographer behind. Living for many years without running water or electricity, she continued to take photographs although she was unable to print them. Eventually friends and family built a darkroom in Cowra, and in the early 1980s Cotton resumed to exhibiting her work to... critical and public acclaim. She then devoted much of her time to printing from her vast personal archive of negatives. As one of Australia's most accomplished photographers with a portfolio spanning sixty years, Olive Cotton's work offers a rich insight into Australian social history and art. This film was completed in 1990, thirteen years before Olive Cotton passed away on 27 September 2003. RESTORED AND REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL FILM MATERIALS. more