Liam Lynch Recasts Outlaw Mythology Through Steel and Story: Photography | Text | Cultural Reimagination
“I am a Widow’s Son, outlawed and my orders must be obeyed.” ~ Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly, The Jerilderie Letter (1879)
Liam Lynch’s Kelly Gang Series reimagines one of Australia’s most mythologised figures through a striking intersection of photography, typography and historical narrative.
Set against both black and white voids, these powerful prints resurrect the iconic armour worn by Ned Kelly and his gang — four ghostlike torsos standing in silent solidarity. Upon closer inspection, each surface is inscribed with excerpts from Kelly’s Jerilderie Letter, an 8000-word manifesto that is as much a literary relic as it is a political cry.
Lynch’s work asks viewers to see beyond the familiar silhouette of the iron-clad outlaw — to hear his voice, full of sardonic wit, raw injustice and a demand to be remembered on his own terms. Through this bold interplay of visual and verbal, the series evokes the duality of the Kelly myth: criminal vs folk hero, rebel vs victim, silence vs speech.
Artistic Collaboration
The body armour depicted is based on reproductions by Anna Borghazi, an Australian Film Industry award-winning costume designer. Borghazi’s designs provide a historically grounded and theatrically resonant frame for Lynch’s visual storytelling.
Exhibitions
- The Kelly Gang — March 29 to April 9, 2017 | Longhorn Saloon, Melbourne
- The Kelly Gang — March 17 to March 26, 2017 | The GOV, Old Castlemaine Gaol
Collected & Published
- Acquired by Nelson Woss, Australian film producer (Red Dog, Ned Kelly)
- Featured in The Melbourne Book – A History of Now (2003, 2009, 2010 editions)
- Appeared on Australia’s Best House (2022), “Home Among the Gumtrees” Top 20 Finalist episode
Liam Lynch invites us to revisit the past not as a myth but as a mirror — to see in Ned Kelly not just an outlaw, but a voice still echoing in the national psyche.
Limited edition fine art prints now available in both black and white series.
