Growing up in a small fishing village on the north-east coast of Scotland, Jenny Anderson was almost as far from Marree, SA, as you can be on the globe. But when the 20-year-old photographer recently took jobs there waitressing, housekeeping and bartending, she fell in love with the small town at the junction of the Birdsville and Oodnadatta tracks, and decided to capture its character in a series of beautiful images focused on the people.
Photos Jenny Anderson
“The minute I arrived in this small and remote outback village I was fascinated by them and their welcoming personalities,” she says. “For my whole life I lived in a busy seaside town and commuted to my studies in the oil capital of Europe, where people barely glance up from their phones. It was refreshing and exciting seeing a town of 60 or so people live a completely different lifestyle. The people of Marree became my friends – some almost like family. Their stories and wisdom inspire me. I wanted to capture that within my work.”
Jenny’s love for travel stems from her childhood when her family would take their caravan around Europe. She left school at age 16 to study photography for three years at North East Scotland College in Aberdeen, before starting a long backpacking trip in Asia with her boyfriend.
“I have met the most amazing people and found myself at home in Australia,” Jenny says. “I never intended to explore the outback and, like many backpackers, had never heard of Marree. It wasn’t until we started working that we truly realised how much of Australia we’d be missing without the outback. I now think the outback is the real Australia.”
This story excerpt is from Issue #116
Outback Magazine: December/January 2018
