AWM will henceforth credit ADF photographers

G’Day Brian,

Love the work you do at CONTACT Magazine, keeping the stories of our serving personnel authentic.   

We’ve had an impressive and significant win for the ADF community which I think you and your readers would be interested in.

For years, there’s been a massive double standard at the Australian War Memorial. While civilian photographers get their names up on the gallery walls, uniformed ADF imagery specialists and military reporters who embedded on high-risk patrols and disaster zones, have had their names completely erased from their important work, replaced by a cold, corporate “Photo Credit: Department of Defence” stamp. 

I experienced this firsthand when my panoramic shot of the Afghan mountains was used as a massive floor-to-ceiling installation in the ‘From the Shadows‘ exhibition, yet my name was nowhere to be found.

My mother, Kathleen Moore, decided she’d had enough of watching our frontline storytellers get written out of history, so, she took the fight directly to the AWM executive team, citing C.E.W. Bean’s original charter. 

I’m stoked to tell you that she won.

The AWM’s Director of Gallery Development has officially confirmed they have overhauled their Graphic and Editorial Style Guides to line up with Approved Moral Rights Policy. From now on, across all new galleries and exhibitions, ADF photographers must be credited by name. 

With the new AWM pavilion openings right around the corner, this is a massive victory for every imagery specialist who ever put their life on the line to capture ADF history. 

Given your own background as a military reporter in the Australian Army Public Relations Service, I figured you might want to run with this story.

Heck, with this policy shift, some of your own historical work might finally get displayed with your name on it, too!

I think this is an important and significant win, so close to the highly anticipated War in Afghanistan gallery scheduled to open by 22 June 2026.

For your consideration,

Kind Cheers,
Chris Moore

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FILE PHOTO: A famous and widely used photo of Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) members entering a training compound at Multi National Base Tarin Kowt (MNBTK). Photo by Corporal Chris Moore.

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