Waiting Under Southern Skies

In Waiting Under Southern Skies, Colin Abbott shares images made over a lifetime of photographic observation. Many of the photographs included are drawn from his personal archive and are published or exhibited here for the first time. These images are not simply historical records—they are fragments of lived experience, distilled through Abbott’s particular way of seeing.

Together, they form a visual storyboard of Abbott’s life—where the actors, scenes, and narratives are open to re-interpretation. Abbott allows space for the viewer to bring their own memories, feelings, and associations to the images. For those of us who lived through the eras represented, these photographs will stir recollections—triggered by the familiar details of the time: the fashion, the cars, the street scenes, the gestures and expressions of people engaged in everyday life. These details are both evocative and nostalgic.

For others, these images may function as a time capsule—a window into an Australia that no longer exists, yet still resonates. Abbott’s photographs reveal subtle social insights: how culture was expressed through clothing and posture, how suburban life revolved around front porches and civic spaces, and how community was experienced on the street and in the shared rituals of daily life.

Abbott began his photographic journey in early 1970s Sydney under the mentorship of photographer John Wong, working alongside peers such as Ian Dodd, Stephen Crowfoot, and Rodney Scherer. Between 1974 and 1976, he studied at the celebrated Prahran College of Advanced Education—then a hub for innovative and influential Australian photography. Abbott was part of a generation that included Andrew Chapman, Jess Ward, Julie Millowick, and James McArdle, and studied under renowned practitioners such as Athol Shmith, John Cato, Paul Cox, Norbert Loeffler, and Brian Gracey. This was the era of Carol Jerrems, Bill Henson, and Sue Ford—photographers who reshaped Australian visual culture and documentary storytelling.

Abbott’s early work, shot on monochrome film, reflects the discipline and deliberation of an analogue era. With only 36 exposures per roll and the requirement for darkroom processing, each frame was made with intent. His photographs, then and now, are marked by a sense of intellectual and visual clarity—carefully observed, deeply felt.

Working in the tradition of social documentary photography, Abbott has undertaken several long-term projects. A six-week commission documenting Melbourne’s Prahran Market in the 1970s was later acknowledged for its cultural significance in an exhibition and publication celebrating the Market’s 150th anniversary. Another key series spans decades of Anzac Day marches, beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the 2010s. These images form a powerful comparative archive, revealing how public commemorations shift over time—reflecting evolving identities, national narratives, and cultural attitudes toward war and memory.

Though Abbott pursued a professional career outside photography, he never let go of the camera. Photography has remained a constant, quiet companion—a way of looking, remembering, and sharing. Through Waiting Under Southern Skies, we are offered a rare and generous gift: the chance to witness not only Abbott’s Australia, but our own, reimagined through his lens.