Robyn Davidson (near Uluru)

Robyn Davidson (b. 1950), writer, made a 2700 km journey through central Australia that she described in Tracks, a book that became an international bestseller. Davidson had been expected to study music after leaving school in Brisbane, but instead enjoyed a freespirited period in Sydney before heading to Alice Springs in the mid-1970s. Having learned to handle camels, in 1977 she set off for the coast of Western Australia with four of the beasts and her dog, Diggity. On the way, she encountered many personal and physical challenges, including Diggity’s traumatic death. Rick Smolan, a photographer for National Geographic magazine, turned up intermittently on her way. Davidson submitted an article to National Geographic before leaving for London. There, she boarded in Doris Lessing’s flat while expanding her text into the book-length Tracks, which has been in continuous print since its publication in 1980. Her other books include Ancestors (1989); the collected essays Travelling Light (1993); and Desert Places (1996), an account of the Rabari, nomadic pastoralists of northwest India. Davidson now lives in Australia and speaks and writes about travel, nomadic cultures and sustainability. She has written for the Monthly magazine, Granta, the Bulletin and Griffith Review and wrote the Quarterly Essay for 2006, No Fixed Address: Nomads and the state of the planet. Mia Wasikowska played Davidson in the 2013 film adaptation of Tracks.

Smolan’s photograph of Davidson and Diggity was taken early on their journey in 1977.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2014