The outback of Australia has long been altered by human hands, and today there’s a real romanticism in what generations before us have left behind in small towns all across the country. Far from the glossy tourist sites, there’s a seemingly forgotten Australia just waiting to be explored and in and around these places, and a wealth of photographic opportunities as well.
So last year, while on a month-long road trip through outback New South Wales, I decided to focus my lens on the man-made and altered landscapes I found on my travels. I enjoyed this so much it inspired a new creative pathway and became the centre of a personal project I called West of Somewhere East – a photographic exploration of the urban environment in small town Australia.
Before we get started on some of my learnings from photographing these places, it’s worth having a quick history lesson.
Back in 1975, a huge. As well as introducing to the world photographers such as Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Frank Gohlke and others, the exhibition had a lasting impact on aesthetic and conceptual approaches to American landscape photography. Before the exhibition, landscape photography was traditionally produced to showcase the pristine, seemingly untouched wilderness, such as the kind of magnificent "American" views championed by photographers like Ansel Adams.
