National Gallery of Victoria Exhibition by Ashley Gilbertson

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square

Until Aug 22, 2022

Open 10am–5pm daily

“Looking back over the photographs that he made of New York in 2020 Ashley Gilbertson wrote, ‘The resulting photo essay is my requiem to the New York that we knew before the pandemic, but also a love letter to the resilient people who never gave up.’ One of the leading photojournalists of his generation, Gilbertson has been recognised for his photographs in conflict zones, empathetic pictures of the global refugee crisis and his humanist approach to photography as a documentary medium. Born in Melbourne, Gilbertson has been based in New York City for more than twenty years, but the trajectory of his career has often taken him away from the city. One consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic was the shutting down of much of New York and the suspension of national and international travel, for Gilbertson, this enforced shift in his focus had a profound impact on his life and work.”

Link to a story by Susan Van Wyk, Curator

Mount Sinai Campaign by Ashley Gilbertson

“We Find A Way” Developed by SS&K and captured by award-winning photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Ashley Gilbertson, the campaign captures distinctive, human moments between the staff and real patients in life-and-death scenarios. Mr. Gilbertson captured Mount Sinai’s response to the pandemic for The New York Times for a piece titled “A City Ruptured” where he embedded on a COVID-19 unit. He jumped at the opportunity to work with Mount Sinai again. The people and stories captured by Mr. Gilbertson are illustrative of an organization that goes far beyond what it means to be a health system and evokes the emotional struggle and triumph of academic medicine.

60 second television advertisment

Street and Billboards

The New York Times - Raft by Raft, a Rainforest Loses Its Trees by Ashley Gilbertson

The mighty Congo River has become a highway for sprawling flotillas of logs — African teak, wenge and bomanga in colors of licorice, candy bars and carrot sticks. For months at a time, crews in the Democratic Republic of Congo live aboard these perilous rafts, piloting the timber in pursuit of a sliver of profit from the dismantling of a crucial forest. Dionne Searcey, a climate reporter at The New York Times, and photographer Ashley Gilbertson traveled 500 miles along the Congo River and its tributaries to explore the forces driving deforestation.

A City Ruptured by Ashley Gilbertson

Since August, I’ve been working on a major series documenting the changes taking place throughout New York City, as the very texture of the streets frayed. When things were really bad, neighborhoods changed day by day. Today it ran in a special 40 page section in the Sunday paper.

A City Ruptured - The New York Times

We’ve lost tens of thousands of New Yorkers to Covid-19. More than half a million people nationwide. As vaccines were developed and a potential end to the health disaster seemed within grasp, I felt it was critical to focus attention on another element of this crisis: the deep recession we’ve found ourselves in. I needed to photograph our decimated economy in a way that brought the various elements to life — through the people living it. The resulting photo essay is my requiem to the New York that we knew before the pandemic, but also a love letter to the resilient people who never gave up.

For additional background, in a Times Insider piece, click here.

a visit to the classrooms the kids left behind / NY Times by Ashley Gilbertson

From a story just published in The New York Times Opinion pages:

“This was an epicenter of the virus. We have a lot of teachers that lost family and got sick themselves, and they’re scared to death to come back,” said Principal Keane. “I basically cried at my budget meeting on Friday — I’ve got teacher salaries and that’s pretty much it. I keep asking where the tape is for the floor, to measure six feet, but it’s not here. We might have to furlough cleaning staff though we only have two now. We only have one nurse. We need more of these people, not less.”

In the South Bronx, Principal Keane has taken to parking out of sight behind the building when she comes to work. If the neighborhood kids see her car out front they try to come to school.

“It turns out the one place they didn’t think they wanted to be,” she said, “is the place they want to be more than anywhere else.”







TRACKSMITH by Ashley Gilbertson

Above all else, I respect integrity. So, working on this Tracksmith shoot that ran as an advertisement in the NY Times with the courageous Mary Cain and the writer Malcolm Gladwell and the team at Tracksmith was a dream come true. 

Story here.


Black Lives Matter, NYT by Ashley Gilbertson

The Curfew Is Over. New York City’s Fight Is Not.

Thousands continue to take to the streets in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx.

By ASHLEY GILBERTSON

June 8, 202

For nearly two weeks thousands of protesters have marched in cities and towns across the United States to denounce police brutality and systemic racism.

In New York, people marched until police officers with cans of pepper spray advanced into the crowd, followed by officers swinging batons. The sounds of screaming and chanting mixed with that of bodies hitting the pavement and zip ties being tightened around wrists. For a moment, the demonstration would subside.

But then they would return, more forcefully than before.

“I fought to be free for 17 years of my life,” said Hammond Ells, an Army veteran. “We export freedom overseas. Why don’t we have it at home?”

On Tuesday, just south of Union Square, a figure emerged from the crowd and implored the police officers to understand the pain he had experienced as a black man. He then asked them repeatedly to kneel in solidarity. Without a word, an officer took a knee. Then another. The protester cried.

Well after curfew on Thursday night, I followed a small group as they fled the police, ducking into Central Park. They had started out at least 1,000 strong, but as they made their way uptown their numbers had been thinned by arrests. A large group of police officers gave chase before retreating and leaving the protesters alone in the darkness, and silence, of the park at night.

After a peaceful weekend the curfew has been lifted. The insistence on change will remain.

This New York pastor says his parish lost 44 people to coronavirus - CNN by Ashley Gilbertson

From CNN: Raul Luis Lopez is No. 33 on a list that keeps growing.

The 39-year-old restaurant deliveryman died last month in a New York hospital.

And at Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan, he’s part of a devastating tally: Coronavirus Deaths from Our Parish.

The list sits on the Rev. Fabian Arias’ desk, beneath the N95 mask he plans to wear to the next funeral he’s presiding over. There are dozens of names on it, and he fears soon there will be more.

Arias and other church leaders say the pandemic has killed 44 people from their parish.

The Birth of the Coronavirus Economy by Ashley Gilbertson

New York was still making money a week ago. A few people wearing masks, some closings, but generally business as usual. And then we tumbled down a cliff. By Friday, commuters arriving at Grand Central Terminal paused as they entered the main concourse — stunned by its emptiness, the usual din quieted by stay-at-home orders from companies and the government. For the first time, the vast, star-covered ceiling seemed appropriate.

Earlier this month, I started to travel the city to document the onset of one type of economic activity — the anxious purchase of emergency supplies — and the collapse of many, many others.

Read here.

Running Into the Night — and Traffic by Ashley Gilbertson

From an ongoing series about running in New York City with the Orchard Street Runners.

“We have to know the streets, and more important, how they work. Aim for the center point of the approaching car and look beyond it to find a line. Be ready to jump. Watch rear vision mirrors for intent. Never make eye contact with New Yorkers when you’re threading through a packed cross walk — they panic and stop like prey. Never disturb the city’s cadence. Use its flow. Find your line.”