Benini was an Italian-born Melbourne-based fashion photographer, who took up photography after a return trip to his homeland with a stop-over in London in the late 1940s.
This mounted gelatine silver photographic print from the Bruno Benini archive is one of Bruno Benini's earliest nude male portraits. It shows Antonio Rodrigues a dancer who originally came to Australia with the Katherine Dunham dance company, an early New York-based African-American modern dance troop. It is one of many photographic portraits from an archive dominated by fashion photography in print, negative, transparency and proof print or contact formats. Taken during the 1960s, the photograph features a textured, wall surface with peeling paint as a key background element. Bruno's widow Hazel Benini recalls that Bruno always 'loved a peely'.
Anne-Marie Van de Ven, Curator 2009
Photograph by Bruno Benini
If Bruno Benini particularly liked a shot he would make a print or as Hazel Benini recalled 'create a blow-up and then put it up on his studio wall'. The walls of the studio were covered with these 20 x 24 inch prints. Unfortunately, some of these prints were damaged over the years and thrown out. In her private file of personal shots Hazel Benini has some photographs showing these studio walls. The Bruno Benini photography archive (2009/43/1) contains references to this wall.
The Bruno Benini photography archive was acquired by the Powerhouse Museum with assistance from the Australian Government through the National Cultural Heritage Account.
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