Photographic book with foreword by Michael Leunig & introduction by the photographer, John Ogden (2000).

Australienation. Portrait of a Bi-cultural Country draws on three decades of John Ogden’s photographic work in Australia - from 1972 and the beginnings of Aboriginal land rights to the year 2000, the year for reconciliation. The 90 odd duotone prints in the book show another side of Australia not shown in the tourist promotions. With a provocative combination of directness, humanitarianism and humour, the book documents the different tribes, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, and explores themes of alienation, reconciliation and the environment.

Reviews

“A book of photographs can sometimes be so well chosen that turning the pages becomes like reading a poem. Ogden’s black-and-white compilation, Australienation, spanning every mainland Australian state and the years ‘72-’99, is so exquisitely apt that it achieves this effect. As intimate as a personal diary and profound as a state-of-the nation address, the collection speaks volumes.”

​​​​​Nick Dent, Black and White magazine review.

“If photos really do rack up 1000 words apiece, John Ogden’s stark black-and-white opus, Australienation: Portrait of a Bi-Cultural Country, says more about this big, brown land in the years from 1972 to 1999 than all the words in the Hansards combined.“

​​​​​​​​The Australian Magazine.

"John Ogden’s work, in the tradition of the best humanist photographers, stands as a valuable and compelling reference point by which we may, as a culture, understand ourselves and by which, as a nation, we may not be so alienated from the truth of who we really are."​ ​​​​​​​​

Michael Leunig