John Elliott (b. 1951), photographer, country music devotee, broadcaster and writer, grew up in Blackall in central western Queensland. Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to amass a collection of portraits of people of rural Australia, he spent much of 2004 travelling across the country photographing people he met and collecting their stories. Combining photographs from his road trips with many in his archive, he was able to select more than 80 images of drovers, stockmen, rodeo riders, fencers, singers and artists that were exhibited as Thousand Mile Stare at the NPG in 2005. Since then, Elliott has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship to the USA, published the book Where Country Is (2006), exhibited works in Sydney and engaged in film and radio projects. His next film, exhibition and book, Duchess Road, will revisit a group of Aboriginal people he photographed as children in Mt Isa in 1988.
