John Robinson

John Robinson
Australian 1940–2009

In remembrance from your brother Peter 1974
photographic screenprint
Geelong Gallery
FE Richardson and Geelong print purchase award, 1974

In the late 1960s John Robinson travelled to Yugoslavia with his wife Evi. Here he was shown photo albums of Evi’s extended family, images from which Robinson would incorporate into a series of screenprints exploring concepts of identity, memory and the archive.

The photographs reproduced here were taken by Evi’s uncle Peter, who was employed as an apprentice photographer during the Second World War, and who sadly lost his life in a bombardment that struck the studio where he worked. Peter is pictured here at various ages with his brothers Mirko and Max, with his handwritten message from 1938—the year before war was declared—enhancing this work’s powerful evocation of nostalgia and the passage of time.