An exhibition focusing on an Australian artist’s a career of only 12 years before her death at the age of 30 opened on Saturday as the National Portrait Gallery’s main summer exhibition.

Carol Jerrems: Portraits covers the breadth and scope of the late Jerrems’ portraiture against the backdrop of social change in the 1970s.

Jerrems’ intimate portraits of friends, lovers and artistic peers charted the women’s movement, documented First Nations activism, put a spotlight on youth subcultures and explored the music and arts scenes of the era.

Since her death in 1980 from a rare condition affecting the liver, Jerrems’ work has been celebrated in surveys across Australia, but this will be the first exhibition to draw attention to her portraiture.

Drawn from the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery, the show features more than 140 photographs and coincides with the 50th anniversary of Jerrems’ admired book about Australian women.

Featuring portraits of cultural figures and prominent players from the heyday of Australian pop, as well as Jerrems’ many friends and contemporaries, the exhibition looks at how her work defined a decade.

Born in Melbourne in 1949, she was one of the first photography students to graduate from Prahran Technical College under filmmaker Paul Cox and photographer Athol Shmith. As a fresh graduate, in 1971, several works from her student portfolio were acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria for its new photography collection.

Jerrems’ swift rise to prominence was cemented in her 1975 silver gelatin print, Vale Street, sold for $122,000 to the NGA, a record price for an Australian photograph in 2023.

“She photographed with a playful candour but also a solemnity,” said Isobel Parker Philip, co-curator and director, curatorial and collection at the NPG.

Staged alongside the Jerrems show is another exhibition, if only we could take the time: contemporary Australian photography, which takes its title from the preface to Jerrems’ 1974 publication and features the work of contemporary Australian artists, Ying Ang, Katrin Koenning and Anu Kumar.

Carol Jerrems: Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery, until March 2.