Adam Ferguson - Big Sky

Adam Ferguson began photographing Australia’s interior in 2013 in an attempt to dispel sentimental and outdated narratives around the ‘Outback’—a place central to the identity and development of modern day Australia. His photographic survey, made over a 10-year period, depicts fading traditional events, shrinking small towns, Aboriginal connection to Country, the impacts of globalisation and the adversity of climate change to illustrate the complex realities of contemporary life in the ‘Outback’. The ‘Outback’ has no demarcated border but refers to Australia’s vast and sparsely populated interior—73 percent of Australia’s territory, more than two million square miles—is inhabited by just 5 percent of its 24 million people. In spite of its relatively small population it is an important and diverse segment which defines the character of the country and has been  mythologised in poetry, song, literature and screen.  Ferguson was originally inspired by Richard Avedon’s portrait project, ‘I