You should be proud of your photos and story Adam. A pleasure to read and yet, at the same time, a worrying reminder of what we are losing. Thanks for all your efforts.
1
Adam
Wonderful photography and stories which do capture one side of the Outback. I spent five years south of Darwin working cattle and it is truly a place out of time in many respects. Don't know how it will fare in the future. Struck by your background story about returning to NYC. You might want to read some Banjo Patterson for perspective -in particular "Clancy of the Overflow". Cheers
Wonderful photography and stories which do capture one side of the Outback. I spent five years south of Darwin working cattle and it is truly a place out of time in many respects. Don't know how it will fare in the future. Struck by your background story about returning to NYC. You might want to read some Banjo Patterson for perspective -in particular "Clancy of the Overflow". Cheers
1
A fascinating special section, but I wish there was more in-depth information. Clearly Mr. Ferguson has plenty to say about the outback, its inhabitants, its culture and its economics. Perhaps smaller pictures and more text?
1
I'm dismayed with this article. The pictures are great, and it's a portrait of a place I love. But like a number of other commentators I take issue with the article's all-too-brief discussion of Indigenous people. To be sure, Aboriginal Australians face considerable challenges related to historical and ongoing colonization of their lands. The stats quoted in the article will be a surprise to no one who has much experience in Indigenous communities in remote Australia. One more challenge is the unrelentingly negative portrayal Aboriginal people receive in stories like this. There is so much to tell, don't end by just sounding an alarm. Tell the same kind of rich story this article tells about white Australians in the Outback. You could look at programs such as the one at the Buku-Larrnggay arts centre in Yirrkala that uses young people's interest in contemporary African American popular music as a wedge to help them get deeper into ancestral Yolngu culture. (You could also note that when older Aboriginal people complain about kids and hip hop they often don't mention how fundamental reggae was to their own generation). You could look at programs in southern WA where Indigenous scholars are helping their communities use music to revitalize Nyungar language. You could look at the relationship between people on APY lands and the University of Adelaide's Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music. There are so many good stories. Don't stop with tired, old, stereotypical ones.
4
Agreed, thank you for making this comment Gabriel.
Great write up and pictures. Thank you.
1
Thanks Adam + the NYT, loved the pictures + article regarding my home country.
Hopefully you will get around to doing a piece on tasmania one day :)
Thanks Adam. This brought back lots of memories, some good, some not so, of the five years I spent working in the Outback. Mt. Isa, Borroloola etc. I always felt like an outsider looking in. Never quite willing to integrate myself into what passes for culture.
1
This is one of the best pieces of journalism I can recall. It's just beautiful.
1
I loved this. I loved the photos, the description, the people.
Thanks, Adam Ferguson and NYT.
Thanks, Adam Ferguson and NYT.
1
Beautiful article - as much so as the accompanying photos.
1
I liked the article well enough, up until the last paragraph. When Adam Ferguson writes "I'm just as Australian as he is," something rings hollow. It's like a person of Dutch ancestry telling an indigenous South African that they're just as African as they are. I'm not saying all the white Europeans should pack their bags and leave Australia, that's an obvious impossibility. But the comment reeks of "white privilege."
Obviously white colonizers aren't leaving Australia anymore than they're leaving the United States or Canada. And while this is a fine article on the Australian outback and both the indigenous and those of European descent who live there, the NYT is long overdue on having a similar series on the struggles facing the indigenous native Americans. The pictures are no less beautiful, whether in Alaska, Arizona, or any of the fifty states. Their stories are, since most readers are Americans, at least as compelling.
Obviously white colonizers aren't leaving Australia anymore than they're leaving the United States or Canada. And while this is a fine article on the Australian outback and both the indigenous and those of European descent who live there, the NYT is long overdue on having a similar series on the struggles facing the indigenous native Americans. The pictures are no less beautiful, whether in Alaska, Arizona, or any of the fifty states. Their stories are, since most readers are Americans, at least as compelling.
6
Marvelous photojournalism. Thank you, New York Times.
1
I just love this series, it's done so well. Thank you for the great work!
I have visited WA. The quality of the light is stunning, and unlike anything I have ever seen anyplace else. It can't be described, so must be seen.
2
I feel like I just spent a month in the Outback! Hot, dusty, thirsty, and exhausted! What an incredible journey the author and photographer has taken us on! This is such impressive photo journalism! Heartfelt thanks to Adam Ferguson!
1
I can smell the bush
& feel the red sand
shivering across your
stunning images, Adam.
Ozzie captured at it fullest.
! ! Congratulations. Bonza yakka ! !
& feel the red sand
shivering across your
stunning images, Adam.
Ozzie captured at it fullest.
! ! Congratulations. Bonza yakka ! !
2
I have a great friend from outside of Sidney somewhere. Nevil Shute in what is called either the Legacy or a Town Called Alice informed much of what I knew of Australia. There must be something of the nomad that is infused into the Australian character, as if they were born for walkabouts. I've met Australians everywhere. There are Aboriginal myths my friend wrote of in his first book Herakles-A Fable. I've a theory that where the sky goes on the mind expands with it.
A really fantastic piece. Worth commenting on. My compliments.
1
This is just Great! Thank you. I've been twice to Australia in like twenty or so years. Always to visit family New Castle NSW. The first time my mom's cousin insisted on me going to see Ayers Rock. Alice Springs was the closest airport and the drive/trip to Ayers Rock was revealing in the smallest of ways but with huge impact regarding the outback. People had told me that Australians were like American's in the 1950's. I don't think so. We have some similarities to Americans both good and bad but they are Australians. I'd love to spend more time there (and I wish I was a lot younger to do that),
Absolutely stunning photographs.
1
Spent most of 1984 in urban Australia, got out whenever I could, a taste, a feeling, ...now captured so well in Fergusons beautiful, resonating photographs and fine text. Thank you, my life found something missing that is found here. I'm still chicken before the heat and flies, but all the rest is there. And a thanks to all the fine folks we met on the edge of the outback, to the galahs flying pinkbreasted through thunderstorms above winter wheat as we returned one night, and the common understanding that this place was different. Next day, we pulled over in a deserted park made of an old billabong on the edge of urban Victoria, and as the kangaroos, and emus, and eagles went about their life irrespective of us, we tasted bitter melons, knowing it and we might never meet these feelings again. But we just did. Thank you.
It could have been told better - somehow I did not want to hear that he ran over a kangaroo and saw a pink mist - There is a deliberate meanness to this story telling - it must be hard out there but this story could be told better.
1
Mesmerizing. Thank you. I grew up in Australia but have lived overseas for nearly 10 years. I have regretted not exploring more of that land while I had the chance. I hope to remedy this.
1
Somehow I could just tell that those were organically raised cattle even before I read the caption that finally caught up. They look so healthy thrashing about in all the dust of their pen.
I lived in Australia for one year and the comment by Virgean Wilson, the social worker interviewed in this piece, typifies many of the White Australians I met while I was there. Her use of the archaic racist term "Negro" and her claim that the local Aboriginal teenagers are "strangling our culture" are typical. No, Ms. Wilson, they're not strangling your culture; you and your ancestors strangled theirs.
8
I think you misunderstood her comment–she was saying that imported American culture was strangling Indigenous Australian culture...
1
Yes, she is Aboriginal Australian, not a white woman. From the Barkindji people of Wilcania. She is also a respected activist for environmental protection of the Murray-Darling River system. The Australian hip hop artist, Adam Briggs (Yorta Yorta from Victoria) brings an uniquely Aboriginal sensibility to his work. So the fusion of cultures and musical styles can add to, not strangle, cultural expression. But I understand where she is coming from, even though her choice of words was regrettable.
3
You make the unsubstantiated assumption that Ms. Wilson is white. Her race is not mentioned in the piece. What is mentioned is that her town of Wilcannia is "60 percent Aboriginal." That statistic, plus her comment about American hip-hop culture "strangling [her] culture," implies that she is, in fact, Aboriginal and the culture she is seeking to preserve is the Aboriginal culture. The boys on bikes she references are Aboriginals as well, lending further support to my conclusion.
It's amusing to scroll through the comments section here and see just how fast the guilty white pseudo-liberals pounce on anything to support their simplistic and tired whining about white colonialism.
Thank God for the British Empire and the Anglo-Saxon values of freedom it disseminated to the world.
It's amusing to scroll through the comments section here and see just how fast the guilty white pseudo-liberals pounce on anything to support their simplistic and tired whining about white colonialism.
Thank God for the British Empire and the Anglo-Saxon values of freedom it disseminated to the world.
One of the best things I've read in my entire life. Journalism's other purpose besides gasses executives and politicians -- connecting us humans, storytelling of beautiful and interesting worlds unseen. I am human and this article has reminded me that I am too focused on my own life, I need to focus on and learn about others, it's blissful. Thank you.
17
Wonderful story and pictures. I really enjoyed it.
5
Loved this piece! Thank you.
3
Fabulous article and beautiful pictures. Thank you!
3
This is, by far, the most evocative and enthralling piece I've seen online in many weeks. I read a few other reviews that complained about not going deeply enough into Aboriginal life. Yes, that would make for fascinating reading that I would certainly relish. This piece is just exactly fine as it is. Another trip for this author / photographer to delve more deeply into this disappearing culture would be welcomed by me. *AND* I applaud the work he has done here ... a fascinating view into another world. If we all lifted our eyes past our own culture, perhaps we'd have more peace on this planet.
14
I fell in love with this article just a few sentences in. I'm not sure what about it struck me, but I could reread it all day. I have always had a certain curious attitude towards Australia and this, I feel, has shown me a new perspective on it.
Thanks
Thanks
7
As an Australian know living as a resident in my third country I appreciate the warmth Americans have towards Australia. This article touches perfunctorily in a white privilege-acceptable manner on the plight of Australian Aboriginals but not the causes or the institutionalized and ingrained racism that continues to persist in the fabric of the nation 230 years after white invasion. The list of crimes past and present is long and right up there with the worst cases of colonialism/imperialism. The systematic coast to coast genocide, which is what it truly was, to rid the continent of its "black savages" and the convenient racist legal fiction of "terra nullius" are the same kinds of atrocities that a hypocritical Australian government is happy to attack Indonesia, China, Thailand and Myanmar for. Do as we say not as we do, should be our national motto. The U.S. has its racial problems, absolutely but at least the language of equality is inalienable from your identity. You own it. Australia lacks the courage and honesty to truly reveal how it treated the continent's original inhabitants (their continuous presence and culture is not at 40,000 years but 60,000 and counting). Consequently white Australian culture is shallow, divided, and prisoner to that it dares not discuss. A good place to understand Australian history without the romanticism and white washing is a documentary called "First Australians", produced by Blackfella Films. No reconciliation until revelation.
10
'You own it'. Do you really think so? As an Australian who has also lived in the US, do you really see the US dealing with its treatment of native Americans? Even on the NYT, I read many more stories about the status and conditions of Aboriginal Australians than of native Americans.
1
I've traveled quite a bit in Australia, but never to the outback. Great piece! I wish it were longer.
2
A dozen years ago, I traveled back to Central Australia to return to its source an old Aboriginal ceremonial object taken away by my father 40 years before. During a century of British colonial occupation religious objects like my father’s, which once bound together countless generations of desert-dwelling Aboriginals, were stolen, sold to collectors, or forfeited to missionaries. With this engraved stone in hand, I was drawn into a still-turbulent world of two cultures in conflict, the Aboriginal and the whitefella Australian. My journey to return the object, as told in Sacred Errand in Aboriginal Australia, showed me the consequences of massive cultural loss, a loss my father had innocently participated in. A people’s ancient lifestyle has been blown apart by rapacious white exploitation. There is, however, an effort of some young Aboriginals to regain a connection to the spiritual, the old time law with its sacred ceremonies, and there are men and women who are their teachers. Speaking of the role my sacred object once performed, a rising Aboriginal elder counseled me, “A lot of the old people say that’s it, that’s the main one that started everything, the ceremonies. Without em, you wouldn’t have the law. But if you got that there, you hold on to it, you got the law with you. You can keep the law strong.” Objects of the kind that I returned, like displaced cultural objects worldwide, are one key to regaining heritage and stability in a new world.
11
Wonderful story. Fascinating to learn, so quickly, of the stark desert beauty and the peculiar existence of the folk that inhabit it.
1
Living in Colorado where you appreciate big skies, the skies in these photos are phenomenal. Australia is such a different place from anything we are used to. Tough lifestyle for sure. But what an incredible rugged country.
3
I've been reading the Times for 50 years and don't remember seeing anything like this before. These pictures are lush and shot in the perfect light, and compel me to rush out and take photos here in my own country. The writing is poignant and easily flows. Another great piece of photojournalism from the Times.
11
With a camera and an particular point of view, the truth is always a combination of what the point of view captures and what it misses. Culture is what is written, seen and documented. What is captured here is beautiful, evocative, sad, and hopeful all at the same time. But this slice of culture misses so much.
If you are lucky, travel to Australia and Tasmania, bring your own camera, pack a few history and contemporary arts books and search out what is missing here. A very different and yet compelling point of view in part pointing to the future.
If you are lucky, travel to Australia and Tasmania, bring your own camera, pack a few history and contemporary arts books and search out what is missing here. A very different and yet compelling point of view in part pointing to the future.
I lost count and interest after 5 photos of skinned, hanging, bloated or otherwise dead animals. I think the skeletonizing dog photos were the worst. I had planned to share this otherwise great piece of writing and photojournalism with friends who love learning all they can about Australia, a fascinating country, but the photos are too disturbing. The story can be told in so many ways that are interesting. The rotting carcasses are gratuitous.
3
As soon as I saw those images, I knew someone would be upset. If someone can't handle the image/idea that ranchers have to stave off threats, and that kangaroos aren't just marketing items, they may not really want to learn all they can about the country.
2
I disagree. I appreciate the author not sanitizing the article. He was trying to convey to the reader a way of life for those in the Australian outback. It is a tough living, and there are a number of unpleasant realities. Pretending they don't exist does not make them any less real.
6
The author/photographer is documenting what he sees. It's not orchestrated.
1
Looks like a good place to avoid.
1
Most enjoyable, and enlightening. Thank you!
1
Excellent article and photos. Until you see this article at least for me you don't realize the vastness of this continent.
1
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Some hard living. I can barely imagine.
2
Fabulous photographs and fine story. But please do not confuse a region that is sparsely populated by humans with a region that is empty. There is plenty of life in the Outback.
2
This is magic.
Photographs float in and off the screen, settling a mood in your mind ahead of the text - spare and lean as the landscape. A shocking place for those of us used to the relative safety and comfort provided by the modern urban world.
I relate to all those who left this place for an easier life in town. I grew up on a farm in northern Canada. Minus forty. The wells froze. Chopped holes in the ice on the lake for water. In the sweltering summer stacked hay in clouds of mosquitoes. They were not the good old days despite the beauty.
We tend to romanticize the life of the hard bitten people who inhabit the harshest places in the world. This piece by Adam Ferguson does not do that. He simply shows us in his photos and his text what it is and lets us make up our mind. It took me back.
Great work. Thank you.
Photographs float in and off the screen, settling a mood in your mind ahead of the text - spare and lean as the landscape. A shocking place for those of us used to the relative safety and comfort provided by the modern urban world.
I relate to all those who left this place for an easier life in town. I grew up on a farm in northern Canada. Minus forty. The wells froze. Chopped holes in the ice on the lake for water. In the sweltering summer stacked hay in clouds of mosquitoes. They were not the good old days despite the beauty.
We tend to romanticize the life of the hard bitten people who inhabit the harshest places in the world. This piece by Adam Ferguson does not do that. He simply shows us in his photos and his text what it is and lets us make up our mind. It took me back.
Great work. Thank you.
20
Dear Adam,
The photography is great but the themes are very retrograde and portray a white colonial perspective that better belongs in the 1950s. Bush life is tough and Europeans do live there. But it is the least interesting part of the Australian story.
Whilst you comment on social degradation in relation to indigenous Australians it seems you have not taken the time or have not been invited into the rich cultural life of our First Nations.
If you have the privilege to walk with an old person who will tell you their intricate totemic or songline stories and see them paint the symbolic pictures that bring these to life, that's a visit to the Australian outback.
If you walk with an indigenous Australian under a rock ledge and see ancient art that is as fresh to your hosts as if it were painted yesterday, that's a visit to the Australian outback.
If you take the time to move beyond what seem like signs of despair in Bourke, you'll learn about the Desert Pea project, giving young indigenous people a new voice with which to tell old stories.
Or you might go to Arnhem Land and find young indigenous Australians learning computer code.
I admire your journey Adam. It's dusty, hot and riddled with flies. But the real story has been left behind and what remains is, unfortunately for your readers, a colonial pastiche.
See you in Bourke or beyond some time.
Helen McInerney
The photography is great but the themes are very retrograde and portray a white colonial perspective that better belongs in the 1950s. Bush life is tough and Europeans do live there. But it is the least interesting part of the Australian story.
Whilst you comment on social degradation in relation to indigenous Australians it seems you have not taken the time or have not been invited into the rich cultural life of our First Nations.
If you have the privilege to walk with an old person who will tell you their intricate totemic or songline stories and see them paint the symbolic pictures that bring these to life, that's a visit to the Australian outback.
If you walk with an indigenous Australian under a rock ledge and see ancient art that is as fresh to your hosts as if it were painted yesterday, that's a visit to the Australian outback.
If you take the time to move beyond what seem like signs of despair in Bourke, you'll learn about the Desert Pea project, giving young indigenous people a new voice with which to tell old stories.
Or you might go to Arnhem Land and find young indigenous Australians learning computer code.
I admire your journey Adam. It's dusty, hot and riddled with flies. But the real story has been left behind and what remains is, unfortunately for your readers, a colonial pastiche.
See you in Bourke or beyond some time.
Helen McInerney
24
Thanks, Helen.
Some remarkable photos, but not ones that allow us to appreciate the rich and complex culture of Australia's indigenous people.
Some remarkable photos, but not ones that allow us to appreciate the rich and complex culture of Australia's indigenous people.
There is not one 'real story', there are several stories to be told. What's in this article is the story of the reporter who came from the USA to see the Outback from his own point of view. I would recommend the NYT to give people a voice who normally only get cited by the established journalists. That would mean people of the First Nation had room to present their point of view without the 'censorship' of the reporter - a revolutionary but not a new concept.
1
Sorry, the Photographer is from Australia - I got this wrong.
Some amazing photo work. The sense of isolation in some of them was frighteningly conveyed. An excellent work.
Great story! I learned a lot and enjoyed seeing a part of the world unknown to me.
Strikingly good! Very much enjoyed this read. Great pictures and text weaving together a world few know. You feel part of the trip and opens up appreciation of other parts of the world. I really wish more journalist, reporters, writers, would submit pieces like this. I am so tired of the tweets, sensationalist news flashes,... our world has sped of so much that we should pause for a few minutes and read pieces like this. Thank you for the few minutes of real life.
9
Imagery is haunting and lovely..
This is the best series of photographs that I've seen in years. Reminds me of Bill Allard's early work. Really brilliant. Well done, Adam Ferguson!
1
Beautiful photography.
1
I went perhaps 2 pages down and stopped as I'm at work and looking forward to reading and absorbing this at home :-)
Australia, I've always been fascinated by this place. I've travelled extensively and always encountered an Australian and I've always liked them!!!
Australia, I've always been fascinated by this place. I've travelled extensively and always encountered an Australian and I've always liked them!!!
1
Really nice work, well done!
1
A master work.
5
You will feel like you are there when you see/read this.
1