In 2025, an exploration of being on, and connection to, Country marked Australian photography's debut exhibition at the Rencontres d'Arles festival, widely regarded as the artistic medium's most prestigious stage.
Featuring work from First Nations creatives like Tony Albert, mother-daughter pair Sonja and Elisa Jane Carmichael and the Huxleys, Will and Garrett, and Maree Clarke, the collection, On Country: Photography from Australia, returns from France to Naarm from October.
The exhibition was co-produced by Rencontres d'Arles and will now premiere at the Immigration Museum from October 16.
Featuring captured expression and explorations of Country from 17 artists and collectives, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, it's described as photographic truth-telling.
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Yorta Yorta woman Dr Kimberley Moulton, Museums Victoria Curator Emeritus - First Peoples, is one of five curators of the collection.
"The land we know as Australia is made of hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, with complex relationships to waterways, the cosmos, land, the subterranean and embodied knowledge that sits in a relational space of past, present and future, this is what we call Country," she said ahead of On Country's exhibition in France.
"Today we share Country with many guests that also make it their home and through this exhibition we profile the multiplicity of connections and relationships within this, from our Ancestral pasts to our political and social present."
The Immigration Museum said On Country: Photography from Australia "will see artists from a variety of cultural backgrounds collaborate with Country to redefine contemporary photographic practice and shift who controls the story".
Artists featured include:
Maree Clarke (Yorta Yorta/Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung), Michael Cook (Bidjara), Brenda L Croft (Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra Nations), Robert Fielding (Yankunytjatjara/Western Arrernte), Ricky Maynard (Pakana), Tace Stevens (Noongar), James Tylor (Kaurna) - Collectives - Tony Albert (Kuku Yalanji) and David Charles Collins, Elisa Jane and Sonja Carmichael (Ngugi/ Quandamooka), The Huxleys: Will and Garrett (Gumbaynggirr/Yorta Yorta) - and - Ying Ang, Atong Atem, J Davies, Liss Fenwick, Adam Ferguson, Lisa Sorgini, wani toaishara.
Immigration Museum chief executive and director Lynley Crosswell said Museums Victoria is "proud to present the Australian premiere of On Country: Photography from Australia at Immigration Museum, an exhibition that brings together extraordinary artists whose work deepens our understanding of what it means to be connected to Country".
"Through photography, these artists share layered stories of place, memory, community and identity, encouraging visitors to consider Country not simply as landscape, but as a living presence that holds history, knowledge and belonging," she said.
"Immigration Museum is a fitting home for this important exhibition, as a place where stories of culture, movement and identity are explored and shared. We look forward to welcoming visitors to engage with this remarkable gallery of work and the conversations it opens."
On Country: Photography from Australia was originally developed and produced by PHOTO Australia and co-produced by the Rencontres d'Arles.
Brendan McCleary; Pippa Milne and Elias Redstone are curators alongside Dr Moulton.
