Talk:Greg Weight

Early life and education

Weight was born in Sydney, Australia and raised in the beachside suburb of Dee Why, New South Wales. He grew up in a creative household: his elder siblings studied art at the National Art School. Sister Diana Weight (married name Diana Webber) created the bronze surf lifesaver scupture at Bondi Beach. His brother Richard (Dickie) Weight was also a member of the Yellow House. His grandfather maintained a backyard darkroom, introducing Weight to photographic processes at an early age.

Weight's middle name, Herepath, references his ancestor William Bird Herapath, a 19th-century scientist associated with the discovery of herapathite crystals used in polarizing filters—an anecdote Weight later linked symbolically to his fascination with light and photography.

As a teenager in the early 1960s, Weight was influenced by Sydney’s shifting cultural landscape, including surf culture, modern art, and the emerging countercultural scene. Kmazin (talk) 02:37, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

Early career

Weight’s first employment was at an advertising agency in Sydney, where he worked in art filing and dispatch. Dissatisfied with advertising, he gravitated toward the city’s artistic circles, particularly the Royal George Hotel, a gathering place for members of the Sydney Push and other writers, musicians, and visual artists. Through connections in this milieu, Weight became a studio assistant to artist and satirist Martin Sharp in the mid-1960s. During this period, he assisted in preparing works for Sharp’s exhibition Art for Mart’s Sake and contributed to studio production, including painting and fabrication. The experience marked Weight’s formal initiation into the professional art world.

After leaving Sharp’s studio, Weight worked as a waiter before being recruited as an assistant to fashion photographer Alan Nye at Studio 49 in East Sydney. Over approximately two years, he learned darkroom techniques, black-and-white printing, portrait lighting, and the practical demands of fashion and commercial photography. This apprenticeship provided the technical foundation for his later career as a photographer. He later described this period as both formative and demanding, crediting the experience with refining his discipline and craft in photographic printing and studio practice. Kmazin (talk) 02:40, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

Portraiture and writing

Weight's brother-in-law John Webber purchased an old building in Darlinghurst in 1969. Intending to open his studio, Weight was delayed by a serious scooter accident that required surgery. However, the studio opened several months later and Weight took on fashion photography for large retailers David Jones and Grace Bros, agencies such as Pat Woodley Model Agency and artistic clients like The Australian Ballet.

He was the only photographer of the Yellow House collective when it was opened by Martin Sharp in 1971, in Potts Point and his images of the surrealist rooms and artworks have been published in his memoir.

By the mid 1970s, Weight became known for photographing artists, writers, and cultural figures, often situating them within their studios or environments. He was also called upon to photograph their works for galleries, archival records and publicity. His approach emphasized psychological presence as well as likeness, drawing attention to contextual details—such as studio walls, works in progress, and personal artifacts—to illuminate the sitter’s creative identity.

Among his most noted portraits are those of artists Martin Sharp, Brett Whiteley, Reg Mombassa, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Johnny Bell, John Olsen, Garry Shead, Margaret Olley, Tracey Moffatt, Jeffrey Smart, Bruce Goold, Peter Kingston, Cressida Campbell, Albie Thoms, Lloyd Rees, Arthur Boyd, Robert Klippel, Bronwyn Oliver, Michael Johnson, Suzy Petyarre Hunter, Judith Inkamala Pungkarta, Lin Utzon, Euan Macleod, Michael Nelson Jagamarra and Jack Jagamara, Mike Parr, Queenie McKenzie, Carol Ruff, John Wolseley, Jim Conway, Mick Conway and Shen Jaiwei.

In his memoir, Weight describes his work as an exploration of light, personality, and artistic process, shaped by early exposure to painting, modernism, and Sydney’s 1960s counterculture.

"The Weight moment" refers to a phrase coined by artist John Olsen to describe photographer Greg Weight’s unique ability to capture the authentic, candid essence of his subjects and is mentioned in Weight's books.

He was written two books: Australian Artists: Photographs (2004) published by Chapter & Verse, and Exposure A photographic memoir (2025) published by Piper Press. Kmazin (talk) 03:00, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

References

Kmazin (talk) 03:46, 13 February 2026 (UTC)