2024 Annual Appeal

In 1998, acclaimed artist Tracey Moffatt gifted her portrait Some Lads #1 (Russell Page) to the National Portrait Gallery. A black and white photograph of young dancer and actor Russell Page, from the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh Nation of south-east Queensland, it was one of the first two photographs acquired for the national collection. Twenty-five years later we have the extraordinary opportunity to acquire the full body of work, adding Some Lads #2, Some Lads #3, Some Lads #4 and Some Lads #5 to the collection.

Moffatt took Some Lads #1 when Page was with the Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre in Sydney, and the portrait shows his physicality and natural grace.

It is the first in a series of five photographs that powerfully and playfully depicts Russell Page, Larrakia man Gary Lang, Muruwari man Matthew Doyle, and Graham Blanco, a descendant of the Mer (Murray Island) people – all who went on to have significant careers in dance.

To only hold one portrait from such a key series – and by an artist whose practice is characterised by working in series – is not in keeping with the spirit of the work. The Some Lads series should be read as a group portrait, one which speaks to the relationships between the sitters as well as to their being part of a groundbreaking community of First Nations artists whose creative influence and impact continues to resonate.

Bree Pickering, Director, National Portrait Gallery

With your support, the works can finally be presented and viewed as the artist intended – a complete series. Help us reunite Some Lads #1 with the rest of the portraits in the series.