John Austin was born and developed his skills as a photographer in England. He migrated to Australia in 1981, and taught and worked in Hobart and Adelaide before settling in Western Australia. Through the 1980s and 1990s he specialised in photographing fine arts, performance and architecture, exhibiting in solo and group shows in Adelaide, Perth and Fremantle. In 1994, soon after a major show at the Lawrence Wilson Gallery of the University of Western Australia, he moved to Quinninup, in the (former) Main Karri Forest Belt in the south west. Since then, he has been primarily engaged as an environmental photographer and photojournalist, documenting the destruction and defence of the last remnants of the karri and jarrah forests. Austin's work is held by the Art Gallery of WA, Curtin University of Technology and the Perth Festival Fringe.
