Andrew Quilty

Maxwelton Races. Central Queensland, Australia 2007

Andrew Quilty (b. 1981, Sydney, Australia) completed studies in photography at TAFE in Sydney in 2004. He worked as a staff photographer for The Australian Financial Review from 2004 – 2006 until he was given the position of staff photographer for The AFR Magazine where he remained until 2010 when he left Fairfax to pursue a freelance career. It was his personal work that resulted in his invitation to join Australia’s photographic collective, Oculi in 2007 and accolades including a World Press Photo Award and the inaugural Walkely Young Australian Photojournalist of the Year Award. His work has been published in The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde and The Guardian Weekend Magazine. He currently lives in New York.

About the Photograph:

“Everyone remembers where they were at the moment they heard of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11 2001. For me, it was in a town of one street, one pub, a roadhouse and 11 residents called McKinlay in central Queensland, Australia. McKinlay was most well known for hosting a couple of the pubs scenes in The Crocodile Dundee movies and provided my two friends and I the reason for stopping in on our way around Australia that year. Since then I’d always wanted to return to that strange little place. In the winter of 2007 I drove the 2000+ km to McKinlay and went about photographing the people and the atmosphere of the tired little town whose numbers were dwindling as the elderly passed and the young moved away to greater prosperity.”

“On a Saturday I followed the Fegan family to the nearby (160km) and even smaller town of Maxwelton (pop. 2) for the annual Maxwelton Races. This photograph was taken as the horses ran the final straight on the last race of the day. The children had tired themselves out during the day and sat peacefully on hay bales as the small crowd of adults cheered on from the finish line and then thought about the long road home to wherever it was from where they’d come. This photograph was awarded 1st prize in the Sports Feature Single category in the 2008 World Press photo Awards.”