Girl In A Mirror

Directed by: Kathy Drayton
Country: Australia
Runtime: 55 min.
Language: English

The photographs of Carol Jerrems embody the 70’s in Australia, a decade defined by its challenges to convention, morality and social order. At a precociously young age Carol fixed upon her calling as photographic artist, and with an extraordinary discipline and determination, set out to document the world around her with a relentless and uncompromising honesty. She mixed with the filmmakers, photographers and musicians of the urban counter-cultures in Sydney and Melbourne and they, along with the dispossessed – women, children, Aboriginal people and youth gangs, became the subjects of her work.

Jerrems has become the James Dean of Australian photography. The haunting quality of her work is heightened by the tragedy of her early death, at the age of 30, in 1980. With the passing years, recognition and appreciation of the unique power and beauty of her images continues to grow and Vale St has become the iconic image of Australia in the seventies.

Adventurous and forthright in her sexuality, she had affairs with many of her friends, both men and women. This is reflected in her imagery – at times seductive, at others, frankly post-coital. Carol struggled with a darkness that could drive her into retreat for days, even weeks at a time. Her intimate photographic style demanded a closeness with her subjects and she took risks in getting photographs that at times bordered on the self-destructive. Her relationship with a sharpie gang caused concern to her friends. The sense of sexual menace in these photographs is palpable and riveting, and they are some of the most engaging images in her archive.

In 1979 Carol Jerrems endured months of invasive and painful medical procedures to no avail. Carol confronted death with her camera, photographing her changing body and hospital environment until too weak to continue. The journals she kept throughout this period are a moving and insightful testament to her strength, sensitivity, humour and artistry.

Her decline was slow and relentless and a year later, on February 21st, 1980, she died in the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.