It may have been 50 years ago, but documentary photographer Andrew Chapman remembers the first time he stepped inside a shearing shed as though it was yesterday.
Photos Andrew Chapman
It was 1976 and the then young student was invited to a farm at Pyalong, Vic. “It was dark and dingy, and the light was moody, with little apertures of light casting on to the lanolin-soaked boards,” he says. “I got a couple of good shots and I’ve been in hundreds of sheds chasing the perfect shot ever since.”
In the intervening years, Andrew has photographed everyone from farmers and politicians to organ donor recipients on the operating table and heroin addicts. From a career start in Melbourne newspapers, he’s shot covers for The Bulletin and Time magazines and published 11 photography books, some inspired by shearing and farm life, others by political and social changes. His latest book Fill the Frame provides an expansive overview of an extraordinary career – one marked by his constant determination to provide a fly-on-the-wall insight into the people and places that shape this country. “Honesty is important to me,” he says. “I’m not a fan of setting things up and I want my work to tell the truth at all times and leave a visual record that people can rely on.”
Good luck and timing have a role but so, too, does what he calls “synchronicity … when the flow across the frame works and everybody’s in the right position”. The 1983 shot of Mount Hesse shearing shed framed by the sails of a windmill is a case in point. “It was foggy all the way there and I thought I’d get nothing. But as we arrived, the fog lifted and I climbed the windmill, hung on with my right hand and took the shot with my left holding the camera. I’m not sure how I managed it, but the shot just fell into my lap.”
In spite of numerous health challenges, he says there’s always another book on the horizon, perhaps another shearing shed book and one focusing on the political turning points of the 1970s and ’80s.
“I’m 71 and a half years old,” he says. “But I’ve still got the enthusiasm of a kid. I’m always thinking about what I could have done better and what I might have missed. History begins the minute you take a photo and I’m going to keep recording it as long as I can.”
Fill the Frame is published by Ten Bag Press, $185.
This story excerpt is from issue #165
Outback Magazine: Feb/Mar 2026
