Michal Lewi (OW 1949)

14 March 1931 to October 2025

The Waynflete Office has been informed by John Webb (OW 1972) of the death of Michal Lewi at the age of 94. Michal was a refugee from Europe during the Second World War and arrived in Oxford where he attended MCS. He went onto a varied career in Law, and held a passion for photography.

We are grateful to his daughter Hannah for sharing the following words about Michal’s life:

“Michal Lewi was born in Prague in 1931. He migrated with his parents to England as a child just prior to the outbreak of World War II, where he was educated and received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Hertford College, Oxford University. He worked in insurance, including with Lloyds Bank, before commencing practice as a solicitor in England and later in Singapore in the 1950s. It was in Singapore that he met Roma Teede, who was working there as a social worker, and they married in 1959. After a brief return to England, sunnier climates and a desire for a new Antipodean experience beckoned and he, Roma and two newborn twin sons Rupert and Peter emigrated to Perth, Western Australia, in 1961.

Michal practiced law in Perth for over 30 years, including as a senior partner in the firm Jackson McDonald until 1994. He was made a Life Member of the Law Society of WA in 2007 and was a convenor of the Francis Burt Legal Education Centre.

However, the law was only one of Michal’s interests and occupations. Over decades, his contributions to the cultural life and educational landscape of Western Australia ran deep and wide. He was a founding member of the Senate of Murdoch University from 1973. And this interest in education and the arts continued when he was Chair of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University where he also received an honorary degree and Fellow of the ECU Academy award in 1999.

The conservation of Western Australia’s built and natural heritage also became a passionate cause. Michal was Chair (1992-1997 and 2000-2001) of the National Trust of Western Australia and earned the Margaret Fieldman Medal in 2012. He also served on the Heritage Council of Western Australia, and was active in Perth City Vision and the Environmental Defender’s Office of Western Australia. In recognition of his services to heritage and the environment, Michal was invested as a Member of the Order of Australia in 1999.

Emile Zola wrote in 1901: ‘In my view you cannot claim to have really ‘seen’ something until you have photographed it.’ It is this overriding interest in carefully looking at the world – predominantly architectural and inhabited places – which motivated Michal’s lifelong pursuit of photography. He became interested in taking and printing pictures in Singapore. Here he bought his first camera, an Ihagee Exakta, and joined the Singapore Camera Club. In Perth, Michal turned his lens to the architecture and botany of Western Australia. Among many other subjects, he documented the buildings and streetscapes of the city of Fremantle in the 1970s associated with the Fremantle Society. With conservation architect Robin McKellar Campbell, he spent Saturday mornings in the 1970s playing golf or photographing Rob’s projects including the restoration of the Fremantle Arts Centre and New Norcia.

Michal was an inveterate traveller. He made a number of trips with family, and with business leaders and doctors (including the late Michael Kailis), to South-East Asia. His images of Timor, Indonesia, Burma, India, China and Malaysia became a unique resource that documented both places and people. The only continent Michal did not explore was Antarctica. But summer family holidays in the 1970s were typically spent closer to home at Tinglewood Lodge in Walpole and later Margaret River. When everyone else was at the beach, he would be found fossicking for wildflowers and documenting the colonial buildings of Western Australia.

Michal’s photographs were reproduced in books and online publications showcasing the architecture and landscapes of Western Australia, including illustrations in the book Sense of Place: a response to an environment, the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia (1972) written by his great friend George Seddon. There were many exhibitions including at the Fremantle Prison and UWA. Michal passed on his knowledge of photography to generations of architecture students and at Summer Schools at the University of Western Australia.

Alongside his interests in historic architecture, Michal was also an enthusiastic advocate of modern design. He and Roma built a house in the early 1960s in Perth on the banks of the Canning River and chose to commission the architect Dennis Silver on the strength of seeing the newly built Athlete’s Village for the Commonwealth Games in 1962. The house remained their family home and haven in retirement until 2024. Growing up in this house was a formative influence on their youngest child Hannah who became an architect. The house included a cellar under the floor which housed an extensive wine collection. And the native garden running down to the banks of the river created by Roma and appreciated by Michal – usually with a book in hand – provided a wonderful setting for many a party over the years. The space allowed him to build a dedicated dark room known as ‘the dog house’ at the bottom of the garden where Michal taught himself to print photographs, first in black and white, then later in colour before turning to digital cameras.

After a graceful wrestle with Alzheimer’s, Michal is survived by his wife Roma, sons Rupert and Peter, daughter Hannah and four grandchildren Philippa, Jane, Huw and Leo.”

A video ‘Michal Lewi in focus‘ was produced by the National Trust WA. The video shared more about Michal and his approach to photography. 

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