What they're saying...
Foundation Chair, Adelaide Fringe • Founder, Adelaide Cabaret Festival • Board member, Adelaide Festival • "The Godfather of Cabaret"
(dec. 2018)
Robert McGrath’s beautiful PhotoMotions capture the spirit and nature of a live event... they capture the ambience of an event through a musically backed collage of striking and sensitive photos that stimulate emotional responses that linger on in the memory.
Senior Editor, HarperCollinsPublishers
Robert brings to his writings the same artist’s sensibilities that imbue his visual imagery. His stories sparkle with intelligence and wit. They brim with the cultural and historical resonances that make his thoughtful analyses of contemporary creative endeavours unique, and always compelling.
"Father" of the Marriage Equality Bill, Australian Parliament
The Marriage Equality PhotoArchive is a unique and enduring record of the activities and emotions that have come to represent this truly significant period of Australian social and political history.
...The measure of trust extended to Robert McGrath [by other Parliamentarians] is reflected in the immediacy and personal nature of his images.
...Robert McGrath's work captures [the] powerful and all too rare element of parliamentary cooperation, and will stand as a reminder to parliamentarians and the public alike of the virtues of parliamentary cooperation in our public discourse.
Director, Quaracchi Editions, medieval historian, Rome
We couldn’t have asked for a better pro than yourself, not just at the technical level (lots of people have good technical knowledge) but someone with a “feel” for [our] ethos and [our] quirky nature... That is better than gold, and you are one of the few (are there more than one of you?) with that background.
Producer, Australian tour, A Clockwork Orange
I marvelled at the jaw-dropping reviews [of A Clockwork Orange from Edinburgh], and Robert McGrath’s visceral photos. I immediately felt this show could have the potential to go way beyond the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and started booking venues in anticipation of bringing it to Australia…
—Programme notes, Australian tour
Producer, co-writer (with director Li Cheng) of JOSÉ
Winner of Queer Lion Award, an official in-competition award of the 78th Venice Film Festival
[JOSÉ has kept] rolling along, and become really the top independent film of the year on the international festival film circuit with leading premieres in 30+ countries, 50+ festival cities in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Pacific and Middle East.
Of course you played no small part. Thank you.
Former Archbishop of Sydney & disgraced cultural warrior
The music and singing at theMessiah[by the Sydney Philharmonia at Sydney Opera House] was excellent as always, but the large projections on the screen above the stage were something else, ranging from distractions to disaster.
—George Pell, Sunday Telegraph, Sydney
Cardinal Pell fails to comprehend the meaning of the PhotoMotions commissioned to contemporise the original Messiah story and projected to accompany the performance.
Handel's Messiah Slideshow: Unto Us a Child Is Born
From a series of 53 PhotoMotions that ran for 2.5 hours. Commissioned by Sydney Philharmonia and projected during their performances at the Sydney Opera House.
The task was to visualise the storyline of Handel’s Messiah within a contemporary and localised resonance.