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Wendy McDougall is a freelance photographer based in Sydney. She shoots theatre and film stills, documentary photographs, portraits, books, and produces her own projects though Wendy began her career working solely in the music industry.
It was a fortunate and ripe time in the Australian music industry in 1980, with a growing choice of bands to photograph like Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, Divinyls, The Angels and INXS establishing their place. Wendy had her first photo published, a picture of Doc Neeson from The Angels live in concert in late 1980. As this burgeoning era of Australian rock went on, Wendy added Crowded House, Iva Davies, Paul Kelly, Hoodoo Voodoos, GANGgajang, Chris Bailey [of The Saints] Boom Crash Opera, Noiseworks, and Diesel amongst others to her folio of images.
Her live images opened the door to work with many bands, creating their album covers and publicity images. Eventually composed portrait images became the main component of her work. During this time, Wendy was also the Sydney photographer for the teen magazine Smash Hits.
The 1980’s is also remembered for the emergence of the music video and Wendy was again fortunate to be part of this new industry. One of her most memorable jobs was shooting stills during the making of ‘Don’t Dream Its Over’ by Crowded House, directed by Alex Proyas – kick starting the band’s international career and thus assuring a full time career as a freelance photographer for Wendy.
Wendy has remained attached to the music industry; working with several artists she established relationships with early in her career, though the bulk of her work today is in theatre, film and documentary work. She has also exhibited her photographs in 12 solo and 50 group shows since 1984, with ‘Solid Rock’ becoming the 51st group exhibition.
Photographs by Wendy are held in the collections of National Library of Australia, NSW State Library, Museum of Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum.