Jerry Galea

Jerry Galea lives and works in Melbourne Australia. He is a photographer, visual communicator, and arts educator who engages with collaborative, participatory, and photo documentary practices. His practice emerged out of a concern with issues in truth, representations, identity and authorship in photojournalism and documentary practices. He is interested in better ways in photography to represent ‘the other.’

Jerry has had a long career in photojournalism and documentary practices working for Australian and international media outlets like The Age Newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax and Syme media more generally. Jerry has worked extensively in humanitarian aid, for organisations like World Vision Australia, World Vision International, Oxfam Australia, Red Cross Australia, WaterAid Australia and Australian Business Volunteers.

Jerry’s PhD research, completed in 2023, investigates the uptake of photography in developing countries. More specifically it explores the uses of photography and portraiture in Mongolian herder communities. It explores the roles of photographer and subject and how they contribute to concepts of representation and archetype. The research also seeks to understand how photography has helped displaced Mongolian herder communities connect with their traditional lifestyles while negotiating transitions to an urban lifestyle in large cities.

Throughout his photojournalist and photodocumentary career, Jerry has been extensively published in newspapers, magazines and media outlets. In more recent times, Jerry’s research-focus sees him:

- curate a group exhibition of 25 Indigenous Mongolian documentary photographers that investigates globalisation in Mongolia, titled Mongolian
Lens 1 (2016), Magnet Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
- produce and exhibit Harnessing Difference: Two Photographers – Two Cultures (2018) which investigates practices of co-contribution, Ulaanbaatar
Modern Museum, Ulaanbaatar,
- curate and exhibit Photovoice Mongolia (2018), a photovoice public art show, Narantuul Two Market, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
- produce Photovoice_Mongolia (2023) – a Photovoice photobook taken by Mongolian herder communities.
- produce and exhibit Mongolia: Back to the Country (2023), Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, Jinzhong, Shanxi, China.
- produce Displaced (2023) – a photobook of photographs that represent my photojournalism and photodocumentary practices and their changing
nature during my twenty-two relationship with Mongolia.
- curate and exhibit a group show Street Photography Mongolia (2023) at the inaugural ‘Ulaanbaatar Photo Week’ photography festival in Mongolia,
and later at the Mongolian Art Gallery.