An exhibition of photos exploring the history of PIX magazine, Australia’s first pictorial news weekly, is on display free of charge at the State Library of NSW until 30 August 2026.
Dancer Katrin Rosselle, taken 27 June 1939. This photograph would go on to become an acclaimed PIX cover image. Photo by Ray Olson. (Source: State Library of NSW.)
Launched on 26 January 1938, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the colony of New South Wales, PIX was Australia’s first pictures-only news weekly and a publishing landmark. The weekly pictorial magazine, modelled on the popular Life magazine in America, was the brainchild of Sir Hugh Denison, proprietor of Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL). It was produced in The Sun building, ANL’s headquarters, on Sydney’s Castlereagh Street by an expert team of experienced editors, writers and photographers and designed for Australian readers. PIX set out to shock by letting its pictures tell their own daring stories through careful sequencing and brief, incisive and informative captions.
PIX’s trademark gave prominence to its pictures. With an emphasis on immediacy and the perceived authenticity of its photographs, which were sourced locally as well as from agencies around the world. Key PIX photographers included Ray Olson, Ivan Ive, Alec Iverson, Vic Johnston, Norman Herfort and Charles Wakeford. Its popularity lasted for three decades until, in 1968, when it merged with People, becoming PIX/People, before disappearing from the People masthead altogether. Click here for more information about this exhibition.
