Our image collections have been significantly enhanced by two recent donations.

Les Smith Collection

A fantastic collection of posters has been donated by Brisbane-based DJ Les Smith. The collection is a wonderful overview of Les’s career and the venues that he DJ’d at, like Brisbane clubs the Roxy, the Sportsman Hotel, Options, the Wickham Hotel, Mu Mu Land and Meeting Place, as well as raves and street parties such as Tropical Fruits in Lismore. Les Smith was interviewed about his 30 year DJ career earlier this year by GNN (dead link).

The Les Smith Collection significantly extends ALGA’s preservation of posters relating to Brisbane venues in particular, and is a great complement to two other recently received collections, those of Sydney-based DJs Stephen Allkins and Bill Morley.

Evolution Publishing Collection

The Evolution Publishing Collection was received from Evolution’s Melbourne office prior to its recent name change to Evo Media. The collection has just been rehoused and is progressively being catalogued and digitised.

The collection principally documents Melbourne LGBT life from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. It’s particularly strong in its coverage of Pride March, scene photographs, portraits of community leaders, and performing arts photographs. Also notable is the collection of proofs of cartoons by Kenton Penley Miller and Brett Willis. The collection comprises 1209 photographs, 105 cartoon proofs, 53 transparencies, 50 negatives, 35 slides, 6 photographic postcards and a small collection of ephemera.

You can read more about additions to our photographic collection in our May 2013 newsletter.