Unknown Southern Land

As far back as the time of Aristotle, there was a hypothesized land; a large vast continent that was meant to mirror the great land masses of the northern hemisphere; the term used was Terra Australis Incognita: Unknown Southern Land.

This ongoing series is about my own personal discovery and documentation of Australia as an immigrant to this country. There are no conclusions; just questions and observations in a series of intertwined images that illustrate the tension between what I imagined the country to be beforehand, and what I experienced during my time here.

The title for this series is a play on words and history because this land was always known; just not to Europeans. Aboriginal Australians have inhabited the land for over 60,000 years and have had a history, culture, and presence throughout this time. Since I arrived, I witnessed a country that has not fully reconciled its founding and is situated in a tension of a Western Anglo nation within the Asia-Pacific . Despite these tensions and confluences there is something that makes this country it’s own which I have sought to document.