This spring, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB) presents a major coup for Australian photography lovers: Enninful x Mapplethorpe, an exclusive national premiere bringing together two visionary talents in one compelling exhibition.
Curated by acclaimed Ghanaian-British editor Edward Enninful OBE, this unique presentation reimagines the iconic work of celebrated American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Running from 23 August to 19 October 2025 at the Ballarat Post Office Gallery, the exhibition offers a fresh dialogue between images and eras — and is set to be a major highlight of this year’s festival.
Ballarat International Foto Biennale
- When: 23 August – 19 October 2025
- Where: Various locations, Ballarat
- Enninful x Mapplethorpe: Post Office Gallery
- More info here
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Robert Mapplethorpe was a master photographer whose work created tension between light and dark, celebrity and underground, sacred and profane, ripple and form.
Born in Queens, New York, in 1946, Mapplethorpe studied graphic arts at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before dropping out to become a portraitist, documentarian, and art and fashion photographer. He began by experimenting with Polaroid cameras, but by the mid-1970s had moved on to a medium format camera, a Hasselblad 500.
Mapplethorpe captured New York in the 1970s and ’80s with an unflinching eye, documenting a city pulsing with art, nightlife, rebellion and reinvention. His subjects included musicians, models, designers and cultural icons, many of whom appear in Enninful x Mapplethorpe: from Isabella Rossellini and Grace Jones (painted by Keith Haring) to a young Richard Gere, a poised Princess Margaret on Mustique, and a striking silhouette of Karl Lagerfeld in couture.
Also featured is a powerful series of Mapplethorpe’s self-portraits — shape-shifting, confident and evocative — showcasing the artist’s exploration of persona, gender and identity at a time when such subjects were far from mainstream.
Rather than following a traditional retrospective format, Enninful has selected 46 photographs, carefully pairing them to explore new narratives and contrasts. The result is an exhibition that invites viewers to see Mapplethorpe’s work — often admired for its striking formal beauty and subversive intimacy — through a bold, contemporary lens.
Presented as part of the 11th edition of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, this exhibition will sit alongside other major names including Campbell Addy, continuing the festival’s tradition of bringing world-class photography to regional Victoria.
Elegant, provocative and carefully curated, Enninful x Mapplethorpe is more than a tribute to a groundbreaking artist — it’s an opportunity to reframe a legacy through the eyes of one of fashion and culture’s most influential contemporary voices.
