POL was unique in the history of publishing in Australia. The magazine began at a time when the possibilities of magazine production seemed limitless with technological advances creating new freedoms for art directors.
Unlike magazines published today, POL had a very informal sense of its niche with high production values. It was unique among women’s magazines in appealing also to men in carrying articles with no gender-specific readership. POL is valuable as a mirror of Australia during the decades in which there was a strong Australian cultural self-belief. The generation of photographers whose work appeared in POL read like a ‘who’s who’ of the profession over the past three decades.
The magazine released at the same time as the exhibition, featured iconic Australian creatives included a 1976 Bruno Benini photograph of artist Neil Douglas wearing his handwoven, handmade suit in his mudbrick home with one of his paintings.
