Julie Millowick began her photographic career working in the darkroom of Athol Shmith, John Cato and Peter Barr. After completing her studies at Prahran College of Advanced Education she worked for 3 years as a press/public relations photographer. The direction of her commercial folio then changed and she worked as a corporate industrial photographer – lighting, both in the studio, and on location became the basis around which her imagery revolved.
Julie achieved early recognition for her photo journalism when she exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria and Australian Centre for Photography in 1977 [Australian New Work] She has exhibited and published regularly since then, with work being purchased by major photography collections in Australia and internationally. In 1993 her work was exhibited in ‘Intimate Lives’ with Sally Mann, Nan Goldin and Jaques Henri Lartigue at the International Fotofeis in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Julie Millowick’s Melbourne studio specialised in corporate/industrial photography from 1978 with clients that include Shell, Mayne Nickless, Westpac,Victorian Arts Centre, Victorian Ministry For The Arts, R.E.I.V.,Australian Wheat Board, Fluid Freight, Australian Wool Corporation and Fruehauf Semitrailers.
CV
Julie Millowick, OAM, Photographer and Lecturer
Contact: www.juliemillowick.com / julie@juliemillowick.com
Current
Personal Photographic Practice
Previous
Senior Lecturer, Photojournalism/photography, La Trobe University, Bendigo
Directed the Online Photojournalism Course
Commercial Photographer
Academic Qualifications
1977 Diploma of Art and Design Prahran College of Advanced Education
2000 Master of Arts, RMIT.
2020 Queens Birthday Honours List
Recipient, Medal of the Order of Australia [OAM]Citation: For Service to the Visual Arts, particularly Photography
2015 Panel, Walkley Foundation Event:
In Focus: The State of Photojournalism, State Library of Victoria
2011-Current
One of 6 Australian nominators for Prix Pictet
The global award in Photography and Sustainability
Collections.
National Gallery of Australia,
Accession Numbers: 83.2533, 83.2534
Child, Housing Commission Flats, Silver Gelatin Print, 1977
Himumi, [also referred to as Thisal] Silver Gelatin Print,1976
National Gallery of Victoria,
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/2505/
Portrait of Athol Shmith, Silver Gelatin Print,1976
Portrait of Bill, Silver Gelatin Print, 1977
Portrait of Mavis, Silver Gelatin Print, 1977
Laurence Industries, Silver Gelatin Print, 1977
Factory Worker, Laurence Industries, Silver Gelatin Print, 1977
Tammy and Baby, Silver Gelatin Print, 1977
National Library of Australia,
https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/241158?lookfor=title:(noel%20counihan)&offset=16&max=46
https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1763574?lookfor=title:(athol%20shmith)&offset=8&max=481
Portrait of Noel Counihan, Silver Gelatin Print, 1976
Portrait of Athol Shmith, Silver Gelatin Print, 1976
State Library Victoria,
http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,julie%20millowick&tab=default_tab&group=ALL&vid=MAIN&search_scope=Pictures
Castlemaine Art Museum,
https://collection.castlemainegallery.com/?s=millowick%2C+julie
Portrait of Noel Counihan, Silver Gelatin Print, 1976
Portrait of Athol Shmith, Silver Gelatin Print, 1976
Horsham Regional Art Gallery
Portrait of Athol Shmith, Silver Gelatin Print, 1976
The Dress, Sequence of Silver Gelatin Prints with text, 1990
Kale, Silver Gelatin Photogram, 2004
Bendigo Art Gallery
Big Sister, Sequence of Silver Gelatin Prints with text, 1989
Warrnambool Regional Art Gallery
Drought, Silver Gelatin Print, 2003
Museum of Australian Photography MAPh
Drought, Silver Gelatin Print, 2003
The Day the Drought Broke, Silver Gelatin Print, 2004
Plus recently acquired Images from the 1970’s
2010 Look: Australian Contemporary Photography since 1980, Author Anne Marsh, Macmillan Art Publishing. One of the most extensive research projects on contemporary Australian photography undertaken, together with critical essays.
http://www.australianphotographers.org/artists/julie-millowick
2010 Selected for inclusion in –
Look : Australian Contemporary Photography since 1980
Dr Anne Marsh, Macmillan Art Publishing.
ISBN: 9781921394102
http://www.australianphotographers.org/artists/julie-millowick
Photographer and Lecturer
1974-76
2 days a week in Darkroom & Studio Assisting of AtholShmith,John Cato, Peter Barr, Rue de la Paix building, 125 Collins Street Studio, Melbourne.
1978 onwards
Julie Millowick’s Melbourne studio specialised in corporate/industrial photography with clients that included Shell, Mayne Nickless, Westpac, Victorian Arts Centre, State Bank, R.E.I.V., Australian Wheat Board, Fluid Freight, Australian Wool Corporation, Shell Petroleum and Fruehauf Semitrailers.
Julie was part of a group exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and Australian Centre for Photography in 1977 [Australian New Work]. She has exhibited and published regularly since then, with work being purchased by major photography collections in Australia and internationally. In 1993 her work was exhibitied in Intimate Lives with Sally Mann, Nan Goldin and Jaques Henri Lartigue at the International Fotofeis in Edinburgh, Scotland. “…the Stygian blackness of a humour of Australia’s Julie Millowick…”
(Ian Black in The Sunday Times UK), 1993
On 6th March, 1981, Julie was part of A Day In The Life of Australia, initiated & led by Rick Smolan. Smolan self-published the book and sold 200,000 copies in a market that considered sales of 5,000 copies to be a major coup. These sales enabled Rick Smolan to continue on and organise several Day In The Life books world-wide.
‘Love is the Drug’ is J4 on the juke box at the Kookaburra Café, Frankston, as Linda Jannsen & Michelle Keys enjoy lunch. Page 224-225 A Day In The Life of Australia book
Now retired from her Board commitments, Julie has served on the following:
Regional Arts Victoria
Ballarat International Foto Biennale, including 2 years as Chair
Bendigo Art Gallery, including 4 years as Deputy Chair
Castlemaine State Festival, including 4 years as Chair
Finalist, Wyndham Art Prize, 2026
Exhibitions
Selected One Person
2026 Very Good Drying Weather, Castlemaine State Festival, Frederick St, Castlemaine,
2024 Local, Mechanics Lane, Castlemaine, Satellite exhibition of Head On Photo Festival
2024, Photo 2024, Surrounding, Castlemaine Art Museum
2016 Living in the 70’s, Magnet Galleries, Melbourne
2016 Added Light, Arts Open, Castlemaine
2015 Before and Beyond, Castlemaine State Festival
2015 Before and Beyond, 69Smith Street, Collingwood
2014 Many Journeys, Many Stories, Arts Open, Castlemaine
2013 The Photographer’s Presence, Castlemaine State Festival
2012 Very Good Drying Weather, Arts Open, Castlemaine
2011 Castlemaine : of Cars & Christmas Lights, Castlemaine State Festival
2011 Quotations, Ansonia, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Vic.
2010 Close to Home, Artlab, Adelaide Fringe Feb-March, [Finalist Eran Svigos Award for Best Visual Art Exhibition]2009 Close to Home, Gold Museum, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Vic.
2009 Traces of Memory, In Their Own Words, Castlemaine State Festival, Vic.
2008 Traces of Memory, VIVID:The National Photography Festival, Canberra, ACT
2007 Traces of Memory, La Trobe Exhibition Centre, Vic.
2006 Traces of Memory, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Vic
https://www.mga.org.au/exhibition/view/exhibition/62
2006 Looking Forward- Looking Back, City of Bendigo, banners, Vic.
2005 A Garden for Hazel, Span Galleries, Melbourne, Vic.
2003 A Year in our lives, Span Galleries, Melbourne. Vic.
2002 Loveletters of a Chinese Lady, Span Galleries, Melbourne, Vic.
2001 A Year in Our Lives, Bendigo Regional Art Gallery, Vic.
“Millowick’s exhibition is a tour de force in the medium….”
Robert Nelson, The Age, “A Year in our Lives” April 2003
2001 Loveletters of a Chinese Lady, Golden Dragon Museum, Bendigo, Vic.
2000 Paraphernalia, Warnambool Regional Art Gallery, Vic.
2000 Paraphernalia, Photography Gallery of Western Australia, WA
2000 Paraphernalia, Span Galleries, Melbourne, Vic.
“…mysteriously seductive images.”
Robert Nelson, The Age, “Paraphernalia” April 2000
1992/3 Familiar Stories, Watershed Gallery, Bristol, UK & touring the UK under Watershed programme.
1990 Familiar Stories, Victorian Centre For Photography. Vic
Selected Group
2026 Wyndham Art Prize
2026 Plant Life, Stockroom, Kyneton
2025 Long Exposure, Alumni of Prahran College, Core Program Ballarat Foto Biennale
2023 MIRROR: New views on photography, State Library of Victoria
2023, The Real Thing, Core Program Ballarat Foto Biennale
2021 Photo 2021 Eye to Eye, Footscray Community Arts Centre
2021 The New Normal, Public Records Office, Victoria
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/a-new-normal-public-record-office-victoria-prov/VAISWRcgJo1ELA?hl=en
2021 Reflections, Castlemaine Art Museum, Exhibition and online Reflection by Angela Connor of Athol Shmith portrait
2021 Photograms to Photoshop, Focal Point Gallery, Geelong
2020 Masters of Photojournalism, Focal Point Gallery, Geelong
2014 Plenty, Arts Open, Castlemaine Market Building, Curated Robyn Walton
2013 Beyond Reasonable Drought, Mildura Art Gallery, Gallery 101 Melbourne
2010 Finalist Bowness Award, Monash Gallery of Art
2009 Finalist Bowness Award, Monash Gallery of Art
2009 The Edge of Reason : Australian Women Photographers, Bendigo Art Gallery, Vic
2008 Beyond Reasonable Drought, OPH, Canberra [touring through Australia thru to ‘13]2004, National Gallery of Victoria, Vic.
[Julie Millowick image, Gardens 2003, from Re-Generation included in the NGV 2003-04 Annual Report, Page 53]. The show received a short but positive review in “The Age” on Friday May 28, with a specific favourable reference to Julie Millowick
2004 New Social Commentaries, Curator Jason Smith, Warrnambool Art Gallery
1998/9 A Day in the Life of Ararat, MAPGroup Ararat Regional Gallery, Vic
1993-1994 Beneath the Shadow, travelling exhibition from Horsham Art Gallery
1993 Intimate Lives, Fotofeis, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.
1991 The Jo Spence Show, Cameraworks Gallery, London, U.K.
1990 Familiar Stories, Victorian Centre For Photography. Vic
1992/3 Familiar Stories, Watershed Gallery, Bristol, UK & touring UK under Watershed programme.
1993 Familiar Stories was exhibited in Intimate Lives with Sally Mann, Nan Goldin and Jaques Henri Lartigue at the International Fotofeis in Edinburgh, Scotland. Director Alasdair Forster
“…the Stygian blackness of a humour of Australia’s Julie Millowick…”
(Ian Black in The Sunday Times UK), 1993
1977 Australian New Work, National Gallery of Victoria, Vic
Selected Reviews – please see the separate document expanding information on Reviews
The Age, 14 October, 2006, Chris Beck
The Age, 2 May, 2005, Louise Bellamy
The Age, 28 May, 2004, Robert Nelson
ABC Radio National, March 21, 2004., The Sunday Show, Julie Copeland
The Age, May 28, 2004, Re-Generation Group Show, NGV with a specific reference to Julie Millowick
The Age, April 16, 2003, Robert Nelson
ABC Radio National, The Makers, 2002, The Sunday Show, Julie Copeland Antiques & Art in Victoria, Aug/Sept, 2001
ABC Radio Feb 19, 2001
The Age, 5 April, 2000
Reviews of Significant Group Exhibitions
2004, “The Age”, 28 May, ReGeneration, National Gallery of Victoria
2006, “TheAge”, 15 Nov, Making Hay
Significant Group Exhibitions
2004, National Gallery of Victoria, ReGeneration
2004, Warrnambool Regional Art Gallery, New Social Çommentaries, curated by Jason Smith, Senior Curator Çontemporary Åustralian Art, National Gallery of Vic
2006, Span Galleries, Making Hay
2006, Ebden Small Gallery, The Starving Artist
2007, Various Galleries, S.A. & Vic on Touring Programme, Double Vision
2008, VIVID;The National Photography Festival, Canberra, Traces of Memory
2008, VIVID;The National Photography Festival, Canberra, Close to Home
2008, Old Parliament House, Beyond Reasonable Drought
2008, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Beyond Reasonable Drought
2009, Gold Museum Ballarat, Faces, Places,
2009, Kyneton Regional Art Museum, Faces, Places,
2009, Goldfields Gallery, Faces, Places,
Reviews
“In Julie Millowick’s Familiar Stories images and handwritten text are a visual autobiographical diary reflecting on childhood memory , mothering and significant events like a death in the family. They are a narrative on domestic life and relationships told with frankness and a sense of humour. This encircles all her themes which capture the laughter, love and tragedy of family stories. Intimate Lives affirms the idea of autobiography as creative fiction, a fashioning of a story, subjective and with multiple meanings in which the photographer can suggest, not control what is revealed and what remains hidden.”
Lorna Waite in Variant magazine UK
Review: Julie Millowick, A Year in our Lives
Millowick’s exhibition is a tour de force in the medium, recalling in a sustained and poignant way the early photograms of Anna Atkins. Like the best photograms in First Impressions, Millowick’s images not only work historically, but exploit the archaic and mysterious character of the technology in order to retrieve something primitive in a given motif.
Her snakes, with their ghastly reflective scales, seem to trade natures with the mineral; her heart – assembled from dismembered petals – destroys the complacent archetype of romantic love; a wig thrashes around with the rhythms of nature as a perfect symbol of vanity. These are not mere studies of nature; nor do they simply recall old archives, but involve a personal expression of signs that have a haunting meaning for the artist.
Robert Nelson in The Age (Wednesday, 16th April 2003.)
“…the Stygian blackness of a humour of Australia’s Julie Millowick…”
Ian Black in The Sunday Times UK
Pushing the right buttons
…Textiles also feature in beautiful photograms in Julie Millowick’s Paraphernalia at Span Galleries. Photograms are photographs taken without a camera. An object is placed directly on a photo-sensitive sheet and exposed to light, leaving silhouette and traces within the form, depending on the transparency of the motif. It helps to have semi-transparent motifs.
Millowick relishes the translucency of voile underwear or lilies, sometimes juxtaposed with sheer silhouettes, in mysteriously seductive images.The “touch-and-go” technique and the intimate subject matter are actually nothing new. The Australian artist Anne Ferran and the American Adam Fuss havebeen creating photograms of clothing for some time. But Millowick’s contribution is to use the exquisitely feeble lineaments of the technique to reflect on the fragility of the body. The child’s dress in Nursery and the underwear of Paraphernalia are touchingly ghostly.
In Fruit, Millowick exposes a slice of pear to the x-rayish lights of her technique. The core is maddeningly clitoral but evasive, resisting capture and weak in optical senses.
These fugitive signs of the body are paralleled with speculations about a woman’s body and property from archaic times to the present.
My only criticism of this profound show is that the philological content – which is sound in itself – could have been left out of the image-zone and kept either to the titles or to Dr John Pigot’s eloquent catalogue essay. When constructed as counterparts to the delicate images, the quotes and definitions seem pedantic and belonging to the language of graphic design, typographic tricks that trivialise the content.
Robert Nelson reviewing Paraphernalia in The Age (Wednesday, 5th April 2000.)
Pain is the spur in building the image
Five-and-a-half years ago Julie Millowick’s career was flourishing.
Working as a press industrial photographer, she had established a considerable reputation for herself. As an artistic photographer, she had had several major, prestigious exhibitions in Australia and Britain. She was also working as a lecturer and enjoying family life with her husband and child in the hamlet of Fryerstown, near Castlemaine.But then her life unravelled. Bending one day at work to lift a heavy object, Millowick suffered a disc prolapse that subsequently led to soft-tissue damage. From and then she was confined to her bed and has endured excruciating back pain.
In 1996, after gradual improvement, she carefully made her way downstairs to her darkroom. Still in pain and still unable to lift a camera, she discovered that with some assistance she could just manage to make photograms.
Photograms are made without cameras. They just require a subject, paper, light and chemicals. Millowick had found a way out of her nightmare. Millowlck has based her current exhibition on 29 of these photograms. Starting with beautiful images of a camisole and lilies, she has created a narrative sequence, using both words and pictures, based on the theme of paraphemalia.
“I had all the time in the world to explore the textual possibilities of my art. My bed was always covered in books and newspapers,” she said.
Millowick now sees her injury as a turning point. Time and introspection have allowed her to achieve what has been described by her peers as a stunning exhibition. “This is my first major exhibition after the injury and people are now saying that, besides being strong and confronting, my work has taken on a luscious and sensuous quality,” she said.
Dianne Dempsey in The Age (7th April 2000.)