Beginning in 2013, Adam Ferguson travelled through Australia’s interior to challenge the romantic and outdated myths often associated with the “Outback,” a region deeply tied to the country’s national identity. Over the course of ten years, his photographic project documented the changing realities of life across these remote territories.

The work captures disappearing traditions, declining rural towns, Indigenous relationships to Country, and the social and environmental pressures reshaping the region, including globalisation and climate change. Rather than presenting a simplified or nostalgic vision, the project reveals the complexity and diversity of contemporary life in Australia’s vast interior.

Although the Outback covers most of the Australian continent, only a small percentage of the population lives there. Despite this, it has occupied a powerful place in the country’s cultural imagination through literature, music and cinema.

Initially inspired by Richard Avedon’s In the American West, Ferguson first approached the project through portraiture. Over time, however, he realised that portraits alone could not fully convey the layered stories of the people and landscapes he encountered, leading the work to expand beyond the traditional documentary portrait format.