Former photographer phra ajahn ekaggata (formally known as terry milligan), was born in San Francisco and lived in various locations in the USA and Australia before discovering the small town of Braidwood, near Canberra. He ran the general store and gallery at nearby Mongarlowe from 1994 to 1999. An exhibition of the artist's photographs of Braidwood and district personalities, Remembering the Present, was held at the Canberra Art Gallery and Museum in 2000, and later showed at the New South Wales Legislative Assembly buildings and the Grafton Regional Gallery. Photography critic Robert McFarlane found it ‘impossible not to be moved by [the photographs’] priceless nature’. The photographs, many of which are held by the National Library, are collected in the book Remembering the Present: a Braidwood portrait (2000). The artist became a Buddhist monk in Western Australia in 2002. He now divides his time between monasteries in Australia and northern Thailand. Although he has abandoned most encumbrances he still takes photographs, recently compiling a book of portraits of people he sees on his rounds.
