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The Library’s collection contains photographs that document the private moments in the lives of everyday Australians. These images show that, since the 1970s, what we wear, where we come from and the ways we address the camera have all changed in many ways.
Formal poses in photographs are still common, but increasingly the subject’s relationship with the photographer has come to feel more intimate and spontaneous. Examples of what were traditionally quintessential Australian figures – shearers, diggers, sporting heroes, bronzed bodies on the beach – are still captured by photographers, but today they are part of a much bigger, and far more inclusive, cast of characters.
